Indraneel Tambe

English R1B 3rd essay: 1st draft

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The Power of Language and Storytelling in Ceremony
Leslie Marmon Silkos Ceremony is a powerful piece of literature that explores, among
other themes, the social and psychological power of languages and stories. The novel reveals
how these lingual elements of culture are not merely tools for conveying ideas, but are in fact
dynamic agents in influencing thoughts and actions. Silkos Ceremony demonstrates how
languages can gain agency in that through indigenous storytelling traditions, they can influence
peoples views of the world and even their mental states. One way in which the traditional stories
with which Tayo has lived much of his lifeas he continues to do soinfluences his view of the
world is that they shape his memories and his view of time to the point that his memories and
perception of reality lose their linear structure. However, language is also shown to have agency
in the sense that stories not only cause Tayos undulating view of time but also act as a cure for
his psychological afflictions.
One example in which Tayos perception of time is shown to be skewed is when Tayo
encounters a Japanese family at the train station and suffers from a traumatizing flashback. Silko
writes,
He could still see the face of the little boy, looking back at him, smiling, and he tried to
vomit that image from his head because it was Rockys smiling face from a long time
before, when they were little kids together he cried at how the world had come undone
Years and months had become weak, and people could push against them and wander
back and forth in time. Maybe it had always been this way and he was only seeing it for
the first time. (Silko 17)
The author conveys explicitly that time is coming undone when she writes that people are
push[ing] against the divisions of time. The concept is not only stated but also conveyed
through imagery in the form of Tayos memories of his recent memories of the boy from
moments before the scene mixing with his years-old memories of Rocky. The language Silko
employs here is very definite: she writes that the image of the little boy was Rockys face,

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without any further clarifying remarks about the truth of this statement. Her language is devoid
of any qualifiers suggesting uncertainty or hinting at the fact that times coming undone is all in
Tayos head, instead using a matter-of-fact tone that describes what is happening to Tayos
perception of time and memories as if they are reflecting actual events, as if the delusions
produced by Tayos mental illness are spilling into the real world. This use of unequivocal,
matter-of-fact language serves to augment Silkos depiction of Tayos perception of time, and it
demonstrates that the undulation of time is not merely a delusion for Tayo but is rather a
representation of his reality and his view of what he perceives to be the world as it is. Indeed,
Silko then writes that, in Tayos thoughts, Maybe it had always been this way and he was only
seeing it for the first time. This further suggests that Tayos entire conception of reality is
undergoing a total upheaval. Here Tayo is not assuming, as would be expected, that his
perception of time and the mixing of his own memories is at least unique if not completely
flawed; instead, Tayo accepts the possibility that time coming undone is not specific to him and
is in fact a universal and inevitable fact of reality. The evidence provided by Silko thus
establishes that Tayo is not merely suffering from delusions but in fact has incorporated his
hallucination-produced perceptions of reality into his actual mental conception of how the world
actually is. The nonlinearity of time, the fluidity of events, and the mixing of memories have
therefore become part of Tayos own reality; they are not to be interpreted as just a mental
illness or a trick of the brain.
Silko also provides evidence demonstrating that it is indeed the mythological tales of
indigenous storytelling traditions that is causing Tayos perception of time and his memories to
become skewed. After Tayos realization of the completion of the ceremony in the mine shaft,
Silko narrates, He cried the relief he felt at finally seeing the pattern, the way all the stories fit

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English R1B 3rd essay: 1st draft
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togetherthe old stories, the war stories, their storiesto become the story that was still being
told. He was not crazy; he had never been crazy. He had only seen and heard the world as it
always was: no boundaries, only transitions through all distances and time (229). Tayos
epiphany about the witchery supposedly being the source of divisions of time being broken down
implies that it is indeed indigenous storytelling traditions that are causing the mixing of Tayos
memories and his perception of time becoming nonlinear. It is significant that Tayo says that his
perception of time in the world is in fact how it always was, as it suggests that not only are the
stories of Tayos native culture causing his perception of time to become skewed, but also they
have been a consistent and constant force shaping Tayos view of his environment. Therefore, it
cannot be said that the storytelling is something that Tayo is simply invoking at the last minute to
explain his hallucinations. Furthermore, Silko has given evidence throughout the novel clearly
implying that Tayo has grown up with the stories and they have been a continuous presence in
his life; for example, this is demonstrated multiple times in Tayos recollections of his
experiences with his schoolteachers, as Tayo continues to believe in the validity of the stories he
has been taught while his teachers try to disabuse him of these notions. Indeed, Tayos enduring
belief in the indigenous traditional stories further demonstrates that it is the storytelling tradition
that has skewed Tayos perception of time. Therefore, Silkos novel demonstrates how language,
in the form of indigenous storytelling traditions, can shape Tayos worldview, specifically his
perception of time and his mental representation of his own memories. In this way, Ceremony
uses Tayos perceptions of time in order to demonstrate the power of language and reveal its
agency and influence.
It might seem at first glance that the mixing between memories and his nonlinear
perception of time could be taken as purely caused by psychological conditions resulting from

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English R1B 3rd essay: 1st draft
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war. However, as Silko demonstrates, the mixing between Tayos memories and perceptions of
time begins in the midst of war itself, not afterwards. Silko writes, That had become the worst
thing for Tayo: [Japanese soldiers] looked too familiar even when they were alive (7), thus
foreshadowing the unfolding of time in Tayos perception. Indeed, Silko then narrates an
experience in which Tayo looks at a Japanese soldier and sees Josiah standing there even
after Rocky started shaking him by the shoulders and telling him to stop crying, it was still
Josiah (7). If Tayos hallucinations are the result of battle fatigue, it is not likely that they
should develop suddenly and unforeseeably in the midst of combat. Furthermore, Silko provides
evidence elsewhere, in the aftermath of the war, suggesting that Tayos nonlinear perceptions of
time is not due to battle fatigue. When Tayo stays at the Veterans hospital, he expresses a sense
of nonexistence, of being white smoke (13). Although he is eventually able to leave from the
hospital after being cured of his feelings of nonexistence, the event described previously: that is,
Tayo sees Rockys face in the face of the little boy at the train station. Battle fatigue may be the
cause of Tayos emotional anguish or his earlier feelings of nonexistence, but these are
independent from Tayos nonlinear perceptions of time. Indeed, the fact that this instance of
Tayos perception of time coming undone follows so promptly after Tayos release from the
hospital suggests that his mixing of memories and his sense of time coming undone is to be
considered as an affliction falling outside the sphere of the doctors, and therefore it is not to be
interpreted as merely the result of a psychological condition.
Not only does language shape Tayos memories and perceptions of time; in Silkos
Ceremony, languagethrough the storytelling traditioneven serves as a cure for Tayos
mental anguish and general psychological illness. The idea that storytelling can serve as a
method for healing is not unique to Silkos Ceremony. Scholars have noted the common motif of

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English R1B 3rd essay: 1st draft
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Native American cultures using storytelling as an essential part of healing ceremonies.
Anthropologist Edith Turner explains in Life, Death, Humor: Approaches to Storytelling in
Native America that the usage of storytelling traditions as tools for healing ceremonies is in fact
a widespread phenomenon, found in cultures ranging from the Inuit to those of the American
Southwest (Turner 24). Indeed, the healing power of storytelling is even documented outside of
these cultures and is considered a general fact; Turner notes, The healing power of narrative
derives from its triggering the narrative of others (26). Using this concept of the narrative
evoking emotions in the hearers, the process that causes Tayo to be healed through the agency of
language in the form of storytelling can be understood in a broader context. Just as Turners
research shows that narratives can heal through their ability to bring out the narratives contained
within the listener, the stories Tayo hears can act as triggers for his emotions. The cathartic effect
created by Tayos ceremony and the stories that power it are thus understood to be a reflection of
this concept of simultaneous narratives in the speaker and listener.
In this way, it becomes apparent that the stories of Tayos ceremony are not simply static
background elements of the novel. Through the process outlined by Edith Turner, the stories of
Tayos ceremony bring out the narrative within him. Throughout the novel, the stories act as
catalysts for the narrative of Tayo himself, thus fueling his progression through the stages of the
ceremony. This power that is bestowed upon the stories transforms them from mere ornaments
surrounding the primary narrative to active participants in the plot, engaging with Tayos own
struggle and pushing along the ceremony that will become his healer. Through this empowering
of the indigenous storytelling tradition, Silko gives agency to language by making of it an active
healing tool in the novel.