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Explanation and Analysis:
Ceremony is a postcolonial novel, as well as an important classic within the genre of Indian American literature. Postcolonial literature critically examines the effects of colonial projects, mostly European and American in origin. As such, many postcolonial narratives are also trauma narratives, contending with the psychological, physical, and cultural damage done to colonized peoples. While Ceremony is a postcolonial narrative insomuch as it contends with the aforementioned topics, make no mistake—the "post" in postcolonial does not indicate that the colonial project has concluded. On the contrary, Indian Americans still suffer oppression at the hands of the US government.
In Ceremony, Silko fixates specifically on deconstructing the colonial mindset. Tayo learns, over the course of the novel, to resist the values instilled in him by American residential school propaganda. He works to complete the ceremony, rejecting a self-forward, individualistic mentality so antithetical to the Laguna Pueblo conception of interconnectedness. In the same vein, Tayo learns to recognize the effects of colonized thinking on his fellow Indian Americans, including Auntie and Emo. Auntie has had her mind poisoned by Christianity, leading her to adhere to a false god that cares naught for their community or people. Emo, too, has been waylaid by western ego and individualism, letting it guide him in his cruelty and quest for revenge-fueled dominance over White people (and, as it turns out, anyone—including Harley and Tayo himself).
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