The Significance of Myth in the Novel Ceremony

Many hatful in our tillage misunderstand the function of myth. We usu each(prenominal)y assume that there ar two kinds of narrative, completely different from unmatched some other a journalistic compilation of f make believes, exclusively liter aloney authentic and verifi satisfactory, or stories spun by a fiction writer for the character of diversion only. Myth, we assume, dribs resoundingly into the latter group. While p shoreitive and superstitious great deal may have erstwhile believed that the sun was pulled across the sky by a chariot, we in our infinite scientific wisdom know that is non the reason that the sun appears to move in the sky when viewed from earth.Therefore, the myth is pen off purely as a naturalise of fiction and fantasy. autochthonous spates throughout the world, however, look at their myths and folktales in quite another way. They issue in them an explanation, not for the way somatic science works or hi report card occurred, but for the w ay their destination feels about itself. For Native Ameri thr hotshots, these stories upkeep the universe and the unearthly domain. They atomic number 18 didactic because they teach the hi romance of the people, how to live, and how to survive. jibe to Paula Gunn Allen, myth is a story of vision a vehicle of transmitting of sharing and renewal. It connects the past with the present. Myths show us that it is possible to relate ourselves to the honey oil and mysterious universe that surrounds and informs our macrocosmsThe mythological heals, it makes us whole (Allen, 116-17). Myths explain by analogy concepts that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to explain literally. They do so in a way that bypasses the conscious, analytical mind and heads straight for the heart (technically, the unconscious).Folklorist sing Mitchell explains that Silkos use of the Laguna creation myth at the origination of Ceremony, it recreates the power and the epoch of creation. The cosmic c reation is the exemplary model of all life, and hopes that it will restore the patient, Tayo (Mitchell, 34). Mitchell also believes that the use of this myth is a spiritual call posts by which the figmentist is inspired in her creative work (Mitchell 28). The stories are thus emotionally and psychologically satisfying, and can have a very(prenominal) therapeutic effect when an individuals spirit is sick. Ceremonies are the retelling of the myths by a tribal healer or shaman.Then there are rituals which are the physical enactments of what is told in the myths. The purpose of the ritual is to transform some thing (or someone) from one state to another (Allen, 103). In the novel is a meliorate ritual which changes Tayo from a sickly, neutered state, one which is of isolation and despair, to a state of health and wholeness with his people. This is the game in Leslie Marmon Silkos novel, Ceremony. Her narrative plot follows a cyclical of time, like that lay d suffer in Native Ame rican myths and legends, instead of a western one-dimensional sense of time (Bell, 53).It is open to irrational spiritual experiences instead of hold itself to scientific logic and reason. In addition, Silkos main focus is much on the whole biotic community and Tayos relationship to that community than it is on Tayos individuality. More importantly, she constructs the novel itself as a sacred ritual. continuously throughout the novel, Silko flip flops between the main plot and various upcountry poems of Native American origin. One such poem involves a being named Thought-Woman. When Thought-Woman hypothecates, whatever she thinks about appears. Im telling the story she is thinking, says Silko at the start.The myth is public, and the novel leads the ratifier into that unity between myth and legitimateity. macrocosm is a story, Silko explains. The material presented in poetic form paces the reality, tip us to the denouement of the novel, and it also portrays the action of the story and gives structure. When we see the reality of the novel in terms of the mythic poem, is when we see this order in the story. The loss of power and vision, or, as Tayo says, how the world had come undone, the fight to establish the world to its proper ays, the ultimate end to the crisis, and the identicalness and harmony created by this successful conclusion of the story are all predicted, ordered, and directed by the myth or poem. The mythic poem expresses the poems subject matter. It creates that meaning. It is not fair(a) a metaphor or a piece of local sentiment. The extended drought, the Whites, the fall of tribal identity and meaning, the war, and even nuclear experiments are given meaning through the poetry, or you could say through the alliance and intertwining of myth and reality.Robert Bennett, in his critical analysis of Silkos Ceremony, states, these interspersed poems create a second mythic narrative that runs parallel to the realistic narrative about Tay o. Even though these mythic poems take up less space than the realistic narrative, they are equally, if not more, important than the realistic narrative (Bennett, 2). The poems mark important slub stones in the story for Tayo. They are placed in the beginning of the novel and at the end. These mythic poems trace Tayos recovery throughout the novel.Gregory Saylor describes the spring of Ceremony as with keeping with Silkos vision of better because it is pen in the verse of Thought-Woman, who is the giver of all life. He claims that from these opening pages we meet about the energy of stories, their ability to cure, and their capacity to counter the witchery of dying (Saylor, 00). This connection of stories as healing entities and the warriors of witchery gives an intriguing perspective to the purpose of Tayos journey. Tayo has suffered what we would consider a nervous breakdown as a result of traumas suffered in the war.The trauma actually occurred because he encounters enemy soldiers, who come along to bear the faces of his family. He is first sent to a Veterans hospital upon his comer back to the states, where he is diagnosed to suffering from battle fatigue and released without being cured completely. He then withdraws to his home on the reservation, where his symptoms get worse. Tayo has been told by the childly doctor at the VA clinic that he really should rid himself from all his Indian heritage as much as possible, because that is what is making him sick, and that the worst thing for him is Indian medicine (Silko, 3).By Indian medicine, the VA doctor does not mean herbs and weeds. What he truly means is Tayos spiritual condition and the return into the culture and heritage of his people. The Indian culture is of deep spirituality, and it is difficult for an Indian to think of having a mental disorder that is not a sign of a spiritual disintegration. The fact that Tayo feels his connection to his spirit and to the spirit of his people fading is why he perceives himself as white smoke.He feels this generally because he is no monthlong completely an Indian, and the smoke is white because Tayo has accepted too much of white culture that differs from his heritage as an Indian. Tayos aunt calls a local healer to treat his problem, Tayos spiritual distress, which shows his loss of identity with the values and heritage of his people. Betonie, the healer called to help Tayo, makes the surprising claim that Tayo is not to blame white people We can deal with white people, with their machines and their beliefs. We can because we invented white people it was Indian witchery that made white people in the first place (Silko, 132).What he means is that Native Americans, by doubting the strength and the rightness of their culture, have allowed the white man to sidestep them the triumph of white culture, he asserts, is a result of the surrender of the Indian people as a whole. Although Betonie appears to be a classical shaman, with a ll the usual potions and paraphernalia, he heals through stories intended to put Tayo back in touch with his natural heritage. One of the stories told in Ceremony is that of the magician Pacayanyi and his provoke of the Indian people with promises of magic.The Indians worshipped the lemon Mother by working their fields and helping the Mother grow big amounts of corn. In return the Corn Mother bright the peoples land. Pacayanyi spoke to the people and told them that they should not work so hard in the fields, it was completely wasting their time and energy. He told them that he could see to it that their fields could continue to be productive just by him using his magic for them. The people stopped working and The Corn Mother became angry with her people, and left them on their own. As a result, a terrible drought came the corn wilted, and the animals left.The people realized for the first time that what they had with the Corn Mother was a two-way relationship and that it took wo rk to bring forth the relationship. For many years they had worked hard to serve her, and as they had worshipped her, she had blessed them. No amount of magic or witchery could replace what they had once had. Tayo had a natural relationship with the earth based on his heritage, as well as with his Indian spirituality. But he had been seduced by the witchery of the white man into believing that he did not need to blueprint his ethnic heritage.By leaving the Indian world for the white one, he turned his back on his culture and replaced it with a set of ethnic beliefs that seemed more modern and a lot less work. However, in doing this, he lost sight of himself and his spiritual connection to the earth. Betonie proves that what Tayo is, inside and out, is an Indian. To retain an ethnically different heritage in a white world, and to keep that heritage vi fitting and meaningful, is hard work. But the cost to the individual of allowing that relationship to communicate is tremendous. T ayo momentarily paid the price of his neglect with his sanity.Now he is suitable to go forward and recapture his cultural inheritance, and by doing so, reclaim himself. Tayos return to individual and cultural identity and health through ceremony integration with a unified story, or reality, is central to the novel. Tayos act of cursing the rain parallels the loss of rain in the mystic story. His private breakdown reflects the breakdown of Laguna cultural integrity. His personal dryness of emotion, spirit, and community identity find physical manifestations in the drought suffered by the people of Laguna.Betonies ceremony is Tayos path to reintegration back to identity on the personal, cultural, and mythic level. But it is also the Lagunas path back to reintegration. Tayo begins to heal when he is able to leave himself open and vulnerable to the forces of myth. Bettina Havens Letcher maintains in her dissertation, In the Belly of This Story, that the Native American notion of myth is one that counteracts the negativity of witchery. When Tayo begins to live the stories of his youth, he opens his soul to the possibility of healing. He takes his culture and allows it to take over his personality. By losing himself he is able to become whole.During this journey, Tayo and Tseh, in their connection with each other, opens Tayo to the vulnerability that begins his healing. During their union, He was afraid of being lost, so he repeated trail marks to himself. He eased himself deeper within her and felt the warmth close around him like river sand. But he did not get lost (Silko 181). Instead he gathers strength from his connection with the land through his physical and emotional connection to Tseh. Tayo is healed because he is able to allow himself to join the mythical battle. The importance of Tseh in the story is derived from her role in Tayos recovery.Tseh lives on her own in the rim rock and is in touch with her land. Being out o f touch with his heritage and ca ught between the white world and his own peoples world, leaves Tayo smack invisible and hollow inside. Through the power and strength of nature, Tseh helps Tayo become in touch with his Indian side. She instructs him on how to use certain plants, flowers, and ceremonies and how they are encouraging to Native Americans. When Tayo falls in love with her is when Tayo begins to feel alive again. He restores his connection with his culture and no longer feels invisible anyone.Tseh takes away all Tayos nightmares and replaces them with pleasant dreams, like when one night he awoke daydream of her arms around him strong and he was overwhelmed by the love he felt for her (Silko). Nevertheless, Tayo has completed his healing journey and feels whole again. Tayo no longer feels like a walking shadow, but at long last a real person with feelings and emotions, other than anger and guilt. It is with the help of Betonie and Tseh that he discovers himself and is ultimately able to overcome the trauma inflicted upon him by his birth mother and Aunt. He is able to accept his mixed ancestry in a changing world.Therefore, when Tseh finally leaves him, Tayo is able to go on living and remembering all that she has taught him. Overall, Tayos healing process was long and arduous. However, it was successful. With the guidance and support of Betonie and Tseh, Tayo was able to complete his healing journey on his own. In essence, he was able to recover his own life and find a desire to live. In understanding that the real world and the mythic world is one in the same, Tayo is healed and the reader is shown how the combination of the two leads to the success of not only Tayo, but to the story as a whole.