Ceremony

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A powerful tale about a young indian's search for identity - Rated
Ceremony is a beautifully written tale about Tayo; a young American Indian who has returned from the conflict of the Second World War with severe psychological trauma. He feels invisible in a modern world that expects him to conform to a sterotype; that of the alcoholic, degraded, reservation indian. Tayo encounters old friends and powerful memories as he returns to the land where he was raised. He slowly learns that only through reconnection with his cultural heritage will he be able to find inner peace. His journey into the spiritual world of his ancestors, taken through the use of the ceremony, forces Tayo to confront what he has become, and asks him how he sees his future. Ceremony is an extremly well crafted story; Silko uses incredible descriptions of the desert landscape to draw the reader into Tayo's drought plagued home. At times, the plot seems unnecessarily slow, but on the whole the book is a provoking and intelligent read.