Symbolism

During this past week we have gotten very deep into the text of the novel "Ceremony", and have been focusing on deciphering the ending of this book. I have noticed that there is a very high amount of symbolism found throughout this section of the book, all of which are very important. Many of these symbols are things that have already played a huge role in this story, but I never realized what some of these things actually stood for.
One symbol that is very important throughout the whole book is the symbol of Ts'eh, but it is not until near the end of the book when she predicts what will happen to Tayo and how he can avoid being captured that it is confirmed that she is in fact a mythical creature, and in a way a symbol for the earth. Another important symbol found in this section is what the uranium mine symbolizes. Betonie told tayo that in order to cure the new illness, there had to be new ceremonies that made use of objects from the whites. Uranium is this object from the whites, and it symbolizes the relationship that the white people had with the earth , and how they felt like they could just take whatever they wanted from it. One more important symbol found in the end of this book is the symbolism that comes along with rain. Even though the rain never actually returned, it is obvious that it is going to, and this is a symbol for Tayo's troubles and problems returning even after he completed the ceremony. These are just a few of the symbols that I felt were the most important in making this story the way it was, and the ones that I felt completed this story and tied everything together.

Healing

This past week we have been focusing on analyzing the book "Ceremony" in an extremely in-depth way. The biggest topic that I felt was most important from the section that we were focusing on was the topic of healing. Specifically, the spiritual healing of Tayo. In this section of the book, Tayo is part of a ceremony that was performed as an attempt to cure him of some of the troubles in his life. After this ceremony, Tayo felt as if he had been cured, but quickly realized he might not have been correct.
Immediately after the ceremony, Tayo felt like he had been completely cured and that the ceremony worked perfectly. Even though he felt great after the ceremony, it wasn't long until he was back to drowning out the troubles in his life with things such as alcohol, instead of just dealing with them another way. Very soon after the ceremony, Tayo was pressured into going out and getting drunk with some of his friends. A big part of Tayo's problems with dealing with things in his life came from his abuse of alcohol, and more specifically how his friends are constantly pressuring him to drink, and quite frankly just don't care about Tayo and his well being. Overall, this section of the book strongly revolved around the idea of Tayo being healed, but in reality I think that Tayo is still very far from being healed.

Stress

In class this week basically what we did was focus on getting really in depth with and studying important quotes found throughout the book "Ceremony". I have noticed that many of these quotes focus on racism and how prominent it was during this time. One very significant quote found in this book that shows how much racism was really affecting Tayo's life says, "Emo had hated him since the time they had been in grade school together, and the only reason for this hate was that Tayo was part white. But Tayo was used to it by now. Since he could remember, he had known Aunite's shame for what his mother had done, and Auntie's shame for him." (Silko 57). This quote is very significant because it shows how much hate is directed toward Tayo purely because of his race, and it is actually very sad because even his own aunt is too ashamed to adopt Tayo and call him her son simply because he is part white. This is just one of the many powerful quotes that can be found in this book that portray how intense racism can be, and how severely it can affect an individual.
Another theme that was commonly found in many of the significant quotes in this book so far is related to Post Traumatic Stress and War, and how much these two things have affected Tayo's life. Throughout this book Tayo's views on war are constantly being displayed, and compared to the views of other characters in this book. One quote that perfectly displays Tayo's views is found when Tayo is talking to Emo, and the book says, "Tayo could hear it in his voice when he talked about the killing-how Emo grew from each killing. Emo fed off each man he killed, and the higher the rank of the dead man, the higher it made Emo." (Silko 61). This quote just shows the difference between Tayo and Emo, and how their views on war are basically polar opposites. Emo pretty much obsessed with war, while on the other hand it hurts Tayo to even think about it. As a result of carefully searching through this book for quotes all week, I have noticed how strongly the themes of racism and war have played into this story, and how frequently these topics are discussed, and how Tayo has received nothing but stress from the events in his life that surfaced these topics in the first place.

The Hollywood Indian

This past week we watched a film in class titled "Reel Injun". For the most part, this film focused on how media has portrayed the Native people, and how this has affected the way society looks at the individuals. It covered topics ranging from how these people dress, how they talk, what they do, and just how they live in general. It was very interesting to see some of the things that many people believe to be true about Native American's actually be nothing but myths created by the media, and it was very surprising to see how many of these things I actually believed to be true just because I was so used to the ways that the media portrayed these people.

Probably the biggest thing that this film showed me was how much the media created an Identity in a way for all Native American's through clothing. The media created this "Identity" by generalizing all Native people and tribes and creating one specific look to represent basically all tribes, regardless of how they actually dressed. One of the big identifying factors that was created for male native people was the idea that all men wore huge, feathered headdresses similar to the one pictured below. Although there were some native tribes and individuals who did wear these headdresses, the media made it seem like it was a universal trait for all native men, even though it was actually fairly uncommon. Another trait about native people that has been created by the media is the idea that all native women wear headbands similar to the one in the picture below. Hollywood used these headbands originally as a way for actresses to keep wigs from falling off of their heads, and this trait ended up sticking and becoming another one of the ways that the media generalized the native population even though it was a trait that very few native people actually possessed. Although this information may seem insignificant to some, it just goes to show how much power the media truly has on topics such as this, and how media can completely generalize a population and create an image that is completely untrue about this population but still spread this image to millions of people with ease.

                                                      

Tayo

During this past week my class and I have been reading the book Ceremony written by Leslie Marmon Silko. Although we are not very far into the book yet, it is already very interesting. The book focuses on a World War II soldier named Tayo who happens to be half Native American and half White. So far the biggest things that have stuck out to me from this book are the roles that racism and post traumatic stress play. Racism has already played a huge role in this book. This book is constantly talking about how Tayo feels rejected from both the Native American and White societies, and even rejected from his own family because of the fact he is both Native American and White. Another very prominent piece of this book that has play a huge role is post traumatic stress. As I said before, Tayo fought in World War II which lead to a huge mount of suffering in his life due to post traumatic stress. The book constantly refers to nightmares and basically hallucinations that Tayo has suffered from as a result of his service in the War. Overall, these were the two ideas that stuck out to me the most, and I believe the two things that have played the biggest roles in this book thus far. I am very interested to see if this trend continues and how these roles may change throughout the remainder of the book.

Ceremony

Navajo Tribe

    
        Treaty of 1868                                     Navajo Family

The Navajo Tribe is the largest federally federally recognized tribe of the United States of America, with over 300,000 enrolled tribe members. The Navajo tribe was established on June 1, 1868, as a result of the Treaty of 1868. The Navajo Indian Reservation is located in the Four Corners area, occupying parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, with the largest concentration of Navajo population being in the state of Arizona. The Navajo land is also the largest area of land belonging to Native American Jurisdiction in the United States, covering 27,425 square miles.
                                  
          Navajo Flag                                         Navajo Seal


       Navajo Nation Borders
Manuelito is one of the most important war chiefs from the Navajo Tribe. Manuelito lived from 1818 to 1893 and was born in Southeastern Utah. Manuelito translates to "Little Manuel" and he was known by different names in his tribe, such as "Holy Boy" and "Black Weeds". Manuelito was known for leading his nation in a rally against the oppression of the United States military.

                               Manuelito in his younger and older years

Cherokee Tribe

             
                 19th Century Cherokee Members

The Cherokee tribe is the second largest federally recognized tribe in the United States with just over 285 thousand members. The Cherokee tribe is located in the Southeast United States, primarily in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and East Tennessee. The original Cherokee Nation was founded on November 7th, 1794.
     
                        Cherokee Nation Flag                                    Cherokee Nation Seal

One of the most famous Cherokee members was a man named Sequoyah. The name Sequoyah translates into the English name "George Gist" or "George Guess". Sequoyah lived from 1770 to 1840. Sequoyah was a silversmith, but was more widely known for his creation of the Cherokee writing system that became official in the year 1825.
                    
   A painting of Sequoyah               The Cherokee Alphabet, developed by Sequoyah

Dances with Wolves

Generally, films that we watch in school are boring and slow, but so far I have been pleasantly surprised by the film, "Dances with Wolves". I was honestly just expecting this movie to be a boring, old film but I was far from correct. There was something about this film that immediately hooked me and immersed me in its story.

The first thing that interested me was the fact that this movie took place during the Civil War. I have been strongly interested in the Civil War ever since I learned about it in fifth grade, so anything related to it instantly grabs my attention. Another thing that I have found very cool about this film so far is how big of a role animals had. I really enjoyed seeing the bonds between Animals and Humans so far and how they played into the movie as a whole. One more thing that really interested me about this film was of course the Native American culture that is displayed. I have always been interested in this culture, so it was interesting to learn a little bit about the culture of these people, and it made me realize how different two cultures can really be from one another, in ways such as clothes, communication, gestures, manners, and other things along these lines. All in all, the film "Dances with Wolves" has been very enjoyable so far, and I look forward to watching and studying the rest of this movie.