Ceremony: Section 1 Summary & Analysis

The novel begins with three poems. The first introduces Ts’its’tsi’nako, the Thought-Woman, who is thinking up this entire story. The second poem, titled Ceremony, explains that stories are the only thing humans have to fight off illness and death, and stand up to evil. Stories grow in man’s belly and offer life, rituals, and ceremonies to humankind. Ceremonies are the only cure. The third poem is a blank page that says only, “sunrise.”

The narrative of the story begins with Tayo, as he sleeps fitfully in his sparse bedroom. Tayo dreams in a mix of English and Spanish, as well as Japanese and Laguna. He has nightmares of being in the humid, Philippine jungle during World War II and all the dead men he saw during the war. Tayo tries to calm himself by thinking of a deer, but he is distracted by a memory of seeing his Uncle Josiah among Japanese soldiers who have been executed. Tayo’s cousin Rocky tried to reason with Tayo that Uncle Josiah couldn’t possibly be in the Philippines, but Tayo is unable to ignore his emotions through logic.

Tayo wakes up and goes outside. He sees the ranch animals, a cat and goats, peacefully going about their morning. Tayo tries to make breakfast, but is distracted by memories of his Uncle Josiah living in this house. The ranch is experiencing another drought, and the land is dryer than Tayo has ever seen it. Tayo has heard that it has been dry and windy for the past six years while he was at war, and he watches anxiously for storm clouds coming from the southwest.

Tayo remembers the jungle, where he could never escape rain. He blamed the rain for Rocky’s infected injuries, though he knows that Rocky was really hurt by a Japanese grenade. While Tayo and the army corporal carry Rocky on a blanket, Tayo prays for the rain to stop. When the corporal slips in the mud and drops Rocky, Tayo urgently damns the rain with a song.

Tayo’s song describes two sisters: Reed Woman and Corn Woman. Corn Woman does all the work in the fields while Reed Woman takes baths all day. Corn Woman gets angry and scolds Reed Woman, until Reed Woman goes back to their original world and takes the rain with her, causing a massive drought.

Tayo blames his song in the Philippines for causing the drought at the ranch in New Mexico. He looks mournfully at the yellow grass and his gray mule looking desperately for food. The mule’s white snout reminds Tayo of when he was “white smoke” in the veteran’s hospital in Los Angeles after the war.

Tayo felt invisible in the veteran’s hospital, and unable to interact with people through the fog that constantly surrounded him. He is unable to eat without throwing up and the entire world seems white to him. The doctors tell Tayo they are sending him home so that Tayo can return to his old life. Tayo cries.

Tayo takes his luggage to the LA train station, trying to get used to life outside of the fog. Tayo is wary of a Japanese family that waits for a train beside him, and faints on the concrete. The Japanese family calls one of the train attendants to help Tayo. Tayo tells the train attendant that he does not need to go back to the Veteran’s Hospital, then asks why the Japanese people are not locked up. The train attendant says that the Japanese have been released now that the war is over, then walks away. Tayo, thinking of the smiling face of the Japanese boy from the family and of Rocky’s smile, throws up into a trash can.

Returning to Tayo’s present in the ranch house, Tayo sits on his bed watching the sunlight crawl across the walls. He thinks about the time he and Rocky climbed Bone Mesa, and how he used to believe that humans could touch the sky – indeed transcend any barriers – if they knew the right stories. After Indian school and Uncle Josiah’s death in the Philippines, Tayo no longer believes in the power of the stories.

Tayo goes outside and sits under an elm tree. Tayo’s friend Harley rides up on a black burro, making slow progress as the burro resists Harley’s direction. Harley jokes with Tayo about the burro’s disobedience, as Harley always finds the humor in every situation. Harley asks if Tayo has any beer. Tayo replies that he does not, remembering the first time he, Rocky, and Harley tried beer. Harley used to think beer tasted like poison, but now Harley pursues beer non-stop.

Tayo is content to sit with Harley in silence, but Harley is restless. Harley jokes about how they have it easy now that they are “war heroes” and don’t have to help with the sheep herding. Tayo laughs, but remembers how Harley was so distracted by chasing his next beer that he recently let 30 sheep be killed by wild animals.

Since the incident with the sheep, Harley’s family tries to keep him away from bars and beer. Yet Harley always finds a way to get his next drink. Harley convinces Tayo to go with him and ride the burro “up the line,” that is to the string of bars along route 66. Tayo puts a gunny sack on the gray mule as a saddle and ties the mule’s lead rope to the burro’s reins. Tayo mounts the mule, feeling like a little kid again and remembering how Uncle Josiah taught him to ride a horse.

Tayo and Harley set off for the closest bar, as the wind blows constantly. The burro tries to drift off to the side of the road to graze, stubbornly resisting Harley’s half-hearted attempts to keep it on course. The burro reminds Tayo of his grandmother. Old Grandma stubbornly holds on to Rocky’s memory, telling everyone how Rocky promised to buy her a kerosene stove with his army pay. After Rocky died, Auntie bought Grandmother a stove with some of Rocky’s insurance money.

Auntie and Old Grandma still talk about Rocky and his plans to go to college and play football, so much so that Tayo feels as if Rocky is still alive and Tayo himself was the one who died in the war. Thinking of Rocky makes Tayo start to cry and he falls off the gray mule. Harley helps Tayo up and pretends that Tayo is just suffering from sunstroke. Tayo blames his fall on the wind, then turns to the side and vomits.