Interpretive Richness of Leslie Marmon Silkos Ceremony Essay -- Silko

The interpretative richness of Silko’s Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony is the extraordinary tale of Tayo, a mixed-blood Native American in his long quest to cure the suffering that afflicts him and his people. The novel is complex enough that it can be interpreted in the context of starkly different paradigms, each highlighting important facets of the story. For instance, in the article â€Å"Feminine perspectives at Laguna Pueblo: Silko’s Ceremony,† Edith Swan offers a (symbolic) analysis of the plethora of important female characters in the novel that is based on a deliberately unicultural, Laguna worldview on the grounds that â€Å"[...] western presumptions must be set aside so that they do not adversely bias or manipulate tribal structures of meaning. Native premises must be allowed to stand on their own terms† (309). On the other hand, Dennis Cutchins, in his article â€Å"‘So that the nations may become genuine Indian’: Nativism and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony† advocates a politico-historical interpretation of the novel as a reaction against the overwhelming influence of Western civilization on Native American culture. This reaction, Cutchins argues, takes the form of a â€Å"revision† of history for the purpose of removing the Western influence and adapting ancient traditions to better serve the needs of the present, thus resolving the conflict between the two cultures. Cutchins’ interpretation therefore, is multicultural, focussing on the historical relationship between Western and Native American cultures and providing a paradigm (namely, nativism) that helps put it all in perspective. By utilizing divergent paradigms in interpreting Ceremony, Swan and Cutchins both succeed in highlighting the many fascinating... ...nse in the context of the outside world and the history of the Native American people. The differing theses however, do not contradict each other. Rather, they complement each other by providing a more complete picture through the simultaneous consideration of socio-cultural as well as politico-historical perspectives of the novel. 7 Works Cited Cutchins, Dennis. â€Å"‘So that the nations may become genuine Indian’: Nativism and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony.† Journal of American Culture 22.4 (1 Dec. 1999): not paginated. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin, 1977. Swan, Edith. â€Å"Feminine Perspectives at Laguna Pueblo: Silko’s Ceremony.† Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 11.2 (Autumn, 1992): 309-328. Work cited from within Swan, Edith: Allen, Paula Gunn. â€Å"The Psychological Landscape of Ceremony.† American Indian Quarterly. 5.1 (1979): 12. 8