In Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony, Tayo is half white and part of the Laguna people, once he returns from the war traumatized and inconsolable, he struggles to heal. He brings shame to his community obsessed with white culture and their supposed superiority, contributing to the internal destruction of their own traditions and culture. Even though all Tayo wants to do is make his Native family proud, he is not fully accepted, especially by his Christian Aunt, who treats him as a burden. In order to heal himself and his community Tayo must complete his ceremony. On his physical and spiritual journey, the arbitrariness of borders becomes increasingly apparent as he interacts with the complexities of being mixed race, traditions, and death.
Race is an irrelevant social construct but succeeds as a barrier to equality to those who are chasing its acceptance. A puzzling aspect of its existence is the different impact it has on Rocky, Emo and Tayo. Rocky and Emo desperately try to be accepted into white society by attempting to exist in this world that has already rejected them. They are very much limited by race because they strive to become part of this destructive community that is evil in and of itself. Tayo’s cousin Rocky, perfectly embodies the desires that the Laguna community has to adapt their lifestyles to live like the whites
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Because he had spoiled it for them. They spent all their checks trying to get back the good times, and a skinny light-skinned bastard ruined it” (Silko 39). The proposed equality that he got a taste of was never truly about him, but it was simply that the outside world’s perception of him changed to view him as a concept not a