Analysis Of 'Ceremony' By Leslie Marmon Silko

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Introduction is a decisive part in a novel since it may introduce important key facts about the work to the reader. “Ceremony”, by Leslie Marmon Silko, opens with a compilation of poems, some larger than others, but all equally important for the novel. Poetry is found throughout the whole novel, however the introducing poems are the most powerful ones because they foreshadow what the novel is going to be about. They prepare the reader for what is coming next and introduce the major themes of the novel. This essay will analyze the first three poems and explain their importance in the novel’s foreshadowing. The very first poem that appears in the novel talks about Thought-Woman, the storyteller. This poem is full of indigenous names such as Ts’its’tsi’nako, Nau’ts’ity’I and I’tcts’ity’i. The use of this kind of names brings a foreign feeling to the poem. It announces to the reader that the novel will have this type of Native influenced content. “She thought of her sisters/ (…) and together they created the Universe/this world/and the four worlds below,” (Silko, 1). In these verses Silko wants to say everyone creates their own world and life. Other lines that prove this point are: “Thought-Woman, the spider,/ named things and/ as she names them/ they appeared,” (1). Once Thought-Woman experiences it, it becomes real for her. She creates her own truth. This factor continues throughout the novel with Tayo’s situation. His past: the war, his heritage and all the people he spent