Formal Analysis #2: Some final thoughts on Ceremony

One thing that distinguishes Ceremony from most novels I have read in the past is the fact that Silko chooses to use nonlinear storytelling. Without any explanation we are taken from the jungle, to the reservation, to Tayo’s childhood, and various other scenes of past events. In the beginning it was equal parts interesting and confusing but once I had a better understanding of what was happening I came to really appreciate the author’s approach. By playing around with the chronology of the story and shifting back and forth between past and contemporary settings Silko gives the reader a very vivid idea of the horrors Tayo experienced at war and why he is so unstable when he returns.
Silko takes us back into the Tayo’s childhood, where we can clearly see where his insecurities regarding his mixed heritage stem from. The character of Auntie is always there to remind Tayo that he is different; lesser. This distinction is reinforced daily because “she wanted him close enough to feel excluded, to be aware of the distance between them.” (62) These feelings of otherness echo throughout his life and are partially responsible for his crippling depression.
Early in the story the past tense narrative takes us into the sweltering humidity of a Philippine jungle where Tayo is ordered to kill a row of Japanese soldiers. For a reason that is never entirely explained Tayo is unable to bring himself to pull the trigger because within the row he sees his beloved uncle Josiah. After the men are shot down Tayo cannot reconcile the fact that Josiah was not one of them.

He felt the shivering then; it began at the tips of his fingers and pulsed into his arms. He shivered because all the facts, all the reasons made no difference any more; he could hear Rocky’s words, and he could follow the logic of what Rocky said, but he could not feel anything except a swelling in his belly, a great swollen grief that was pushing into his throat. (8)

Though he knows it is a physical impossibility the sensation of watching his uncle die before his eyes sends Tayo into a frantic collapse. Here we see the emotional toll that violence is taking on him and get our first glimpse of the kind of paranormal, mystical aspects of Ceremony. The fact that Silko chooses to share this experience early on in the story is indicative of the fact that the author wants the reader to understand Tayo’s sense of loss early on. The fact that we know virtually nothing about his uncle at this point is incidental because we can see how deeply Tayo is affected by witnessing Josiah’s death, even when he knows (at least from a logical standpoint) that it did not happen.
Aside from this approach to storytelling being compelling I think Silko employed this style to mimic the concept of the past being something that continues to play out in our present lives, becoming an essential part of who we are and shaping our future. Tayo’s story would be nothing if not put into context for the reader, we must know about his past to understand his struggles. There is also the sense that the author believes in history repeating itself and therefore something we can learn a great deal from. Ceremony ends up tying together Tayo’s individual story with the story of all humanity. This kind of disjointed storytelling is not always well executed but Silko does it in such a way that I can’t imagine the story being told successfully in any other way.