Previous
Similes
Section 1
Explanation and Analysis—Death in Wartime:
In Section 1, Silko includes several flashbacks to Tayo's time serving in the US military during WWII. The following excerpt includes an example of situational irony from one such flashback:
[Rocky] rolled the body over with his boot and said, “Look, Tayo, look at the face,” and that was when Tayo started screaming because it wasn’t a Jap, it was Josiah, eyes shrinking back into the skull and all their shining black light glazed over by death. The sergeant had called for a medic and somebody rolled up Tayo’s sleeve; they told him to sleep, and the next day they all acted as though nothing had happened. They called it battle fatigue, and they said hallucinations were common with malarial fever.
Ironically, Tayo's response to the violence and depravity of war is actually pretty normal, despite the fact that he is the one who is hallucinating. All of the other soldiers, Rocky included, are detached from killing and readily willing to dehumanize Japanese soldiers. Through the juxtaposition of Tayo's response with that of his peers, Silko critiques the detached, unempathetic perspective that modern militaries require of their soldiers. The human response to cruelty, torture, and murder should be shock, disgust, and horror—no matter the identity, ethnicity, or nationality of the victim.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Praying for Rain:
In Section 1, Tayo recalls his time serving in the Pacific theater during WWII. At the time, he had been desperate to stop the deluge of jungle rain stymieing his platoon's movements. In his distress, Tayo prayed for the rain to go away, cursing the jungle and its infinite dampness. This prayer later becomes an object of situational irony as drought sets in on the Laguna Pueblo reservation:
So [Tayo] had prayed the rain away, and for the sixth year it was dry; the grass turned yellow and it did not grow. Wherever he looked, Tayo could see the consequences of his praying; the gray mule grew gaunt, and the goat and kid had to wander farther and farther each day to find weeds or dry shrubs to eat.
Tayo, in "praying away" the oppressive rain and dampness of the jungle, only succeeds in causing a drought for his community back home—at least, this is what he believes. Tayo prays for the rain to stop so that the soldier's suffering might lessen; but his words, designed to heal, simply mete out further suffering. This ironic situation emblematizes cyclical violence, a prominent topic Silko probes in Ceremony. Regretful of his mean-spirited prayer, Tayo works hard throughout the narrative to break this cycle of violence.
Related Themes:
Section 2
Explanation and Analysis—Counting the Crosses:
In Section 2, Tayo reflects on his relationship with Auntie, Rocky's mother. Auntie takes care of Tayo in the wake of his release from the veteran's hospital. This kindness is unfortunately tinged with derision, as Tayo acknowledges the situational irony of Auntie's caretaking:
[Auntie] had always watched [Tayo] more closely than Rocky, because Rocky had been her own son and it had been her duty to raise him. Those who measured life by counting the crosses would not count her sacrifices for Rocky the way they counted her sacrifices for her dead sister’s half-breed child.
One might expect Auntie to look after her own son, Rocky, with more care than she would attend to her nephew. Ironically, Auntie "always watched [Tayo] more closely than Rocky," not because she cared more for Tayo or didn't care for Rocky, but because of the social capital she could acquire through charity by taking her "poor" nephew under her wing.
Silko's critique of Auntie in this passage extends beyond one character, serving as a general condemnation of Christian hypocrisy and misplaced righteousness. Her motivations are askew, centered on her own benefit rather than the core principle of loving one's neighbor (or nephew) as oneself. Auntie's charity is selfish, hence Tayo and Silko's critique of her "care."
Related Themes:
