Formal Analysis #1: Some early thoughts on 'Ceremony'

I am only one-third into Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony so any analysis I provide is based on early interpretations of the story. Despite this, I already find myself mesmerized by the author’s style of writing. There is poetry to her prose that Silko not only uses to garners sympathy for her characters but to present her readers with the daily monotony of life on a reservation and the horrors of jungle warfare.
The vivid imagery found in Silko’s writing can be seen early on in the story. I first realized this when I read the description of the incessant, suffocating rain that fell in the pacific jungle during Tayo’s time at war. This nightmare is recounted when the author writes:

"Jungle rain had no beginning or no end; it grew like foliage from the sky, branching and arching to the earth, sometimes in solid thickets entangling the islands, and, other times, in tendrils of blue mist curling out of coastal clouds. The jungle breathed an eternal green that fevered men until they dripped sweat the way rubbery jungle leaves dripped the monsoon rain." (p.10)

The author’s evocative language penetrated me so that I could feel and smell the sweltering humidity and discomfort caused by the endless rain. The jungle is depicted as a pitiless creature who breathes “an eternal green” that drives men to madness and death. There is no relief, no escape from this hell and Tayo is eventually forced to watch helplessly as Rocky is killed in front of him, a fate he blames on the environment more than anything else: “Tayo hated this unending rain as if it were the jungle green rain and not the miles of marching or the Japanese grenade that was killing Rocky.” (p.10). Here it is the infinite precipitation and plant life that is the enemy, not the Japanese who are mere soldiers just like him and Rocky. This is a unique and insightful way of empathizing with a character, not to mention a beautiful mode of description.
So far it seems that Silko’s power as a writer can be found in her spellbinding descriptions of just about everything and every one of her characters. When she refers to Tayo’s state of numbness during his hospital stint as a period of time in which he was “white smoke” I was surprised by how spot-on this description of someone who was blindly functioning through life was. This personification exquisitely conjures up images of somebody who is unaware of his own existence and simply floats through the days as a result of this.
My favorite description of the author’s so far comes when a native shaman-like figure is summoned to help heal Tayo of his illness (which is likely brought on by severe post-traumatic stress). Here the wise old man tells him that “the world is fragile” and the author elaborates:

"The word he chose to express “fragile” was filled with the intricacies of a continuing process, and with strength inherent in spider webs woven across paths through sand hills where early in the morning the sun becomes entangled in each filament of web." (p.32)

The analogy of the spider web masterfully illustrates the essence of the word “fragile” as used here. The author’s description captures a simultaneous degree of power and delicacy. The intricacies present in an insect’s web are symbolic of the wonder multifaceted nature of the world while the frailty of a web is representative of how easily life and creation can be undone.