Ceremony

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is the most beautifully written novel I have read. Each line can be analyzed and have more than one meaning. It is amazing. However, I am incredibly confused. Silko's writing is not in chronological order and I have the hardest time getting around it. I always want to know what's going on, but to really enjoy and understand the novel I have to let go of that. The Laguna Pueblo timeline is not how Americans see it. When I think of time it goes in a line. I am in the middle, the present, behind me is the past, and in front of me is the future. The past has already happened and maybe I have learned my lessons from it but it is often forgotten about. I try to live in the present. The present is what is going on right in front of me. Depending on what I do, my future could change. The future is ahead of me. Sometimes I can picture what my life is going to be and somedays it is all foggy and I can't see anything. It will happen but it isn't me now.



In the Laguna Pueblo tradition, all three parts coincide. Instead of a line, time is a continuous circle or waves in the ocean. The person I am now is the person I was and the person I will be. I like this way of thinking but in writing it is really confusing. Many authors write what their character is thinking and it goes into tangents. The tangents are typically past events that make the character feel a certain way or explain why they like or dislike another character. In Ceremony  the tangents aren't separate stories. It's more of a second thought that Tayo, the main character is having. The thoughts aren't explained. It's up to the reader to draw conclusions but there often isn't enough information to complete a thought. I have to let go of the idea of knowing what's going on and accept that I am going to be confused. I wish I had already read the book so I had some frame of reference but it will all make sense in the end.