In Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel, Ceremony, she uses descriptive imagery to explain Tayo’s struggles with a lack of Guidance.
Growing up, Tayo was raised by his auntie, and he continues to stay and rely on her after his return from the second World War. Auntie took him in when he was young in order to hide the shame of his mother. She was ridiculed for having a child with a man who was not included in their Laguna Pueblo tribe, and to make matters worse, he was white. Neither having his father nor his mother in the picture, he finds a similar sense of family growing up alongside his aunt, uncle Josiah, and cousin Rocky. He looks up to his uncle Josiah and he thinks of Rocky as more of a brother than a cousin. They try their best to support Tayo, but he tends to feel like an outsider. He feels different from these people because he is both white and native American.
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He looks up to his grandmother, a very old fashioned Laguna Pueblo woman, who teaches him about the importance of sticking to his roots. She explains the power and significance of performing rituals and ceremonies for help and healing. His grandmother tells him ways to get back normal and rid him of his feeling of loss after the war. She advises him to seek the medicine man. His name is old Betonie, and he guides Tayo to a better mindset. Tayo respects this man because, contrary to popular belief among the tribe, he does not believe that white people are the source of all their problems. He says, “They want us to believe that all evil resides with white people. Then we will look no further to see what is really happening. They want us to be ignorant and helpless as we watch our own destruction.” (132). The medicine man is very accepting of others and changes Tayo’s perspective on his life and his losses. Both his grandmother and the medicine use ancient Native American folklore to teach him how life and the universe