Why do you think that Marmon Silko mixes poetry and prose in Ceremony? What effect does this choice have on the reader/ on the reader’s conception of Native American identity?
Throughout the course of the novel, Marmon Silko appears to be attempting to educate the reader on the importance of unity-- unity between cultures, unity between mankind and nature, and unity within one's own self. She illustrates the struggle that the Native Americans face upon returning from war; they are no longer considered to be important, selfless U.S. citizens, but rather are once again looked down upon by the more dominant white race. In other words, the whites and the Native Americans are unable to unify themselves into the "One People Under God;" they are constantly at odds with each other. Likewise, she demonstrates the inability of the whites to acknowledge the power and the beauty of the natural world. Whereas the Native Americans believe that mankind should be one with the environment, caring for it as though it is a living soul, the white people are obsessed with ownership. They use fences and bombs and guns and brands to mark their property; they cannot imagine a unity between themselves and nature. In addition, Marmon Silko describes the unity that must take place within one's own self. Tayo's guilt about the past raged an inner conflict that almost resulted in his destruction; it was necessary for him to unite the memories of the past with his present in order to move forward and face his life.
Because unity is such an important theme throughout "Ceremony," it is possible that Marmon Silko decided to use both poetry and prose to tell the story. In other words, she chose to document the difficulties faced in attempting to unify different cultures, mankind and nature, and one's own self through the unification of prose and poetry. In my opinion, the prose and the poetry can be interpreted as two different ways of expressing thoughts and feelings that, in the end, tell the same story. The poetry and the prose are a symbol of the message of "Ceremony."
The poetry in Silko's work tells traditional stories from Native American culture. The poetry reminds one of the oral tradition of stories passed down through generations of Native Americans. These stories would often attempt to explain the world around them. They were often a form of reverence for Nature and the various parts of nature. A good example in the novel is the story of the witches who created white people. This section of poetry demonstrates a bit of the attitude that the Native Americans had towards the white people. They claim that they created white people. In a way, it puts the Native Americans above the white people. They are above the white people not only because they created them, but also because the white people bring destruction to their world. However, it is interesting that once the white people were created the witch who created them could not undo it. The white people became a part of nature.
By providing the poetry stories Silko is allowing the reader to witness the traditional ideas, beliefs and attitudes of the Native American culture. It is like she is exposing a special secret to us. We are able to get a sense of what is sacred to them, and then we are able to respect this.
I think Marmon Silko mixes poetry and prose because it provides a more natural feel for certain situations. One of the earliest insertions of poetry comes as we read about Tayo trying to think of stories to tell his fellow soldiers and the corporal as they’re trying to muck their way through the jungle and the horrible rain storm. As “[Tayo] could hear his own voice praying against the rain” (11) Marmon Silko chooses this moment to weave in a poem. I remember we discussed in class how a lot of the poems in Ceremony are really just prose broken up into shorter sections. You can identify a pretty clear subject and verb, and grammatically it all makes pretty good sense. For me this structure sets up a scenario where this story is perhaps Tayo can hear his voice praying. The grammar is correct, but it’s broken up like a voice probably would be that’s coming from a man incredibly tired from dragging his way through such horrific conditions. This, to me, shows a really deep cultural connection which Tayo possibly carries with him even across oceans and through war. This bit of mythology from his culture remains with him, dragging itself from his throat piece by piece as he tries to do anything to keep his focus off the horrific conditions which are all around him.
I think Marmon Silko also uses the poetry to show how important the unity is between man and nature. Tayo’s belief is so strong in his words and these traditions that he senses it’s possible that he could – just by wishing it so – cause rain to completely stop. This strong belief and this mixture between the world of prose and poetry shows a deeper connection and belief in the unity of all things. Tayo’s eyes are open enough to see that the Japanese soldiers he is killing are real people; people just like the ones he knows back home. When Tayo “cried at how the world had come undone, how thousands of miles, high ocean waves and green jungles could not hold people in their places” (17) it’s like his own personal revelation of what Marmon Silko is trying to show us with this intermingling of the two varieties of style. Even when Tayo is far away, the tradition stays within him. When he’s back at home it’s still there, following him in everything he does. The mixture of poetry and prose provides a clear break between the 'real world' of the prose and the traditional ideas making their way into the present.
In Ceremony, Silko uses poetry interspersed throughout the text to share the perspective of the Native Americans, rather than just through Tayo's point of view. She is sharing real stories that have meaning depending on the context of the situation or moment they are being told in the story. When they are trudging through the jungle, Tayo is thinking of a story to tell the men. This is because they come from people that have an oral history tradition, which is passed through stories. This is very similar to epic poetry from ancient Greece, like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, because these stories ebb and flow like poems and have a pace and rhythm to them.
Silko has added the poetry to show the communal effect of these stories, because they are so crucial to the identity of the Native American. They are the past, present and future represented by the tradition of these stories. The fact that Tayo believes he can control the rain with his personal wishes is a testament to this. He heard a story carried on from the past, he believes it now (presently) and the story will be passed on, so it represents the future as well.
I think that it is an interesting take on a novel to have Silko intertwine poetry and prose. It's interesting because each time she brings in the poetry it gives a very "Native American perspective". The poetry allows the reader get an idea of what the Native American tales and wisdom were like. It includes nature many times showing how connected Natve Americans are with earth. As Anne Marie had mentioned before I also agree that it reveals something sacred to the reader and allows us to respect it. It gives off it's own personal attitude of sincerity and peacefulness.
Silko also incorporates the poetry at the right moment. It never seems like it's forced in the chapters and flows nicely with the novel. It also works because Tayo has flashbacks and seems to flip back and forth from past to present time. Personally, I think that the poetry keeps the novel more exciting and helps to break it up, especially since there aren't any chapters within it.
the poetry also reminds me of the oral culture of the Native Americans. when the narrative breaks away into these poems, i picture the teller walking around a fire telling everyone around the story. for me it also reminds me of a movie, with these short poems acting as a break away from the main storyline, kind of a flashback cutscene of the main line. the poems seem to be the main ideas that are important to them, they provide an insight into the history of certain people, or the history of a certain idea or belief in Native American culture. without these break-aways, these main ideas would simply blend into the rest of the narrative, and not stand out for the readers.
Ceremony mentions a lot of “old ways” or traditions the Native Americans use/used, throughout the novel. Using poetry and prose is just another way of showing some of these traditions. Poetry and oral story telling is/was (probably) used a lot in “the old days.” The use of the poetry really helps the reader get a feel for the history of this group of Native Americans. Also when the characters reference an old spirit or something, many readers are very lost, to say the least, and the poetry helps them connect the references. It also helps them connect to the characters, because we can see the very personal, spiritual level of them.
Native American literautre is interesting because originally, Native American culture was showcased through oral tradition rather than a written language. As a result of the attempted assimilation of the Native Americans into "white society" and as a result of their attempted removal, written languages were set up by the Native Americans in order to protect their communities from European treaties. The prose and poetry in Silko's book serve as a defense against European scientific theories. The prose is interesting because it is heavily influenced by oral culture: the stories told through the prose are written in a simple, repetitional manner as if the story was memorized and told over and over again. Through the prose and poetry, Silko mangaes to denfend the oral tradition of her Native American identity and the nature-based pillars of the Native American community
It may be possible that the breaks in the text represent a choice by Silko not to conform to the western standards of how a novel/story should be written. Since I know virtually nothing about poetry I can’t get too in depth about their form, but the breaks do usually resemble some kind of story. Some of these stories relate directly to what’s going on in the main text or reflect certain themes in it; others have a less obvious connection but fill in details of Native American culture and spirituality. The sense that I get from the novel is that stories—and specifically the telling of stories—play a large role in Native American/Indian culture. Even if their narratives are unrelated, the stories collectively form important beliefs, traditions, and ideals for their society, and help bring the reader into Silko’s “world”. The fact that she assembles an array of stories (which happens in the main text as well) might reflect the way that storytelling/communication works in Native American culture, which Silko perhaps feels should take dominance over westernized “storytelling”.
Throughout the novel “Ceremony” Marmon Silko mixes poetry and prose. I think she does this so that the readers get a better understanding of the Native American culture. From what I know of the Native American culture most of their stories were oral. They weren’t written down on paper, rather told as a tale and passed down from generation to generation. This was of telling tales made their culture unique to them. I also believe Marmon Silko wrote the book this way in order to make it more realistic. The book wouldn’t be the same with fictional information about the Native American culture and the way it once was. Marmon Silko found a way to pull nonfiction into the story of Tayo’s life. The poems allow his ethnicity to shine through. As a reader I felt it was a little hard to follow the book when I came across the poems. I guess I’m so use to reading a novel straight through, that I didn’t enjoy the poems that popped up at me throughout the book. After awhile, I got use to the poems being worked into the story and got a better sense of the Native American ethnicity. I found a way to not view the poems as being inconvenient and started learning more about the culture behind them. The poems really showed the Native American identity and showed a little background on the way they were raised.
The usage of the poetry works within the novel to remind the reader that this is a work attempting to differentiate itself from the canon of old dead white men. Tayo and company are trying within the novel to deal with white culture's dominance over them; but so too is Silko dealing with this in the literary sense. Indeed the very idea of 'the novel' comes from western European roots. As we are used to it this is a tradition of free-flowing prose. Silko's addendum of the poetry within 'Ceremony' then transforms what is a traditional western art-form very much into her own. This serves to capture in some fashion the tradition of oratory storytelling within the Native American culture even as we read it in the westernized format of the novel. This is Silko's own way of dealing with her and her characters perhaps at times befuddled sense of identity. A constant reminder of the traditional stories that retain their past-history.
Ceremony reads as a kind of mestizo/mestiza text, mating poetry and prose to produce one new, hybrid form. Through this combination, Leslie Marmon Silko plays with tradition by questioning what constitutes a novel and by calling upon religious texts like the old testament which also combined poetry & prose (so it ain't that new of a concept, ya'll). In addition to making some sort of commentary on tradition, Marmon Silko’s poe-pro combo functions as a way for her to augment the novel’s thematic focus on what it means to be a “half-breed” like Tayo. When a reader looks at ceremony they're...confused, much in the same way ignorant people are confused by what i'll mockingly label as "race-mixing."
I wanna write about the purpose of the poems for a second, mainly because they’re pretty strange and important. The poems call upon Native American origin stories and, whether intentionally or not, they illustrate indoctrination’s inescapability. The poems function as reminders to the reader that Native American beliefs and traditions play an integral role in Tayo’s understanding of the natural world despite his mixed racial composition, or status as a “half-breed” by framing the novel and popping up frequently throughout its body. Like the majority of families throughout the world, Tayo’s family raised him with a certain belief suite that colors his perceptions. Even though Tayo isn’t “full-blood” , he still subscribes to these beliefs so whole-heartedly that he feels responsible for the novel’s drought. I’m wondering if Marmon Silko wanted to expose a correlation between religion and guilt? Was she trying to suggest that there are dire consequences to turning your back on your familial beliefs? I mean, what happened to Rocky, the character who tried to become super white-bread-normative? He. Died.
In Marmon Silko's novel, "Ceremony", she tends to use many different writing styles. It seems to me that she uses poetry and prose to eccentuate different aspects of the Native American life. Poetry is used to emphasize particular ways of Native American life, whereas prose is used as traditional writing depicting these similar aspects. The use of the different types of writing somewhat confused me at first, but I began to see her use of these different writing techniques as I got further into the novel. It also seemed to me that Silko used various different styles of writing to stray away from the 'normal' or 'traditional' writing of "white culture" in today's society. Overall, I think the use of prose and poetry used in Silko's novel works well to emphasize the aspects of Native American culture that she wanted to present to her audience.
My guess is that Silko infused poetry with prose in an effort to establish a meta-fictional demonstration of the marginalization of the Native American culture. In other words, the novel’s form embodies the disparity between the “white” experience and the Native American experience. If the narrative form is to be analogous to a landscape, then we can deduce that Silko is showing the reader that not only has the white man seized the natural world, but he has also hijacked the conventional narrative, insofar as he has removed the “disorder” from narrative. By infusing poetry (which, in respect to the ratio of poetry vs. prose, poetry seems to be displaced or marginalized), Silko is merging cultures through her art. In a sense, the larger text serves as a ceremony itself. My other guess is that the above is far too pragmatic and brainy. The poetic passages might simply be spontaneous—arising from Silko’s unconscious intuition.
I think Marmon Silko mixes poetry and prose for a number of reasons. By her using poetry, prose and storytelling, she is trying to make her novel unlike traditional novels. The poetry seems to me like it is Native American storytelling. Every poem is placed in the right spot, the story being told in the poem goes right along with where the novel is. Every poem incorporates nature in some way and traditions of the Native American culture. I feel as if I've learned a lot about the Native American culture and their traditions through this novel and have more respect for the culture.
While writing Ceremony I feel Marmon Silko wanted to incorporate the traditional oral Native American storytelling into her novel to present her story in an authentic light. She does this by mixing the prose and poetry into the already mixed up text of the novel, making the story feel like it must be read openly – like an oral story, rather than like a typical novel. I feel the underlying messages Marmon Silko presents here is making the novel her own, making it like the character she associates with, while also making it authentically “Native American.”
The story itself is about the mixture of cultures and races, perhaps why the text itself is presented with different styles of writing. The break-up of short poems throughout the text play a vital role in how the life and thinking of Native Americans is different from others. I feel they are a little strange but helpful because it is a small summary or introduction to what we have already read or what we are about to read. It gives the reader a deeper understanding of what these people believed in – like the relationship they shared with animals and nature – and how that functions within the rest of the novel and the characters in it.
In Marmon Silko's "Ceremony" she uses poetry to accentuate the story itself. Native American poetry is unlike traditional poetry of rhyme and verse but it is quite unique and tells a story using themes from nature and the earth itself. The Native Americans believe in being one with the earth instead of trying to control it like the white settlers had done. Their poetry conveys that belief and it is traditional from the stories told in ceremonial chants and songs found in typical Native American culture. She adds her poems to the novel in the style of Native American culture to bend the traditions of prose in poetry and novels. This is typically untraditional, but it is deeply creative and helpful in understanding what is taking place in the novel.
I feel that Marmon Silko uses poetry to engage the reader and hyave them think about poetry in the Native American culture. I think she mixes it in to allow readers to see that writing does not only have to be a story. Instead, it can be whatever you feel it should be. By writing poetry into her novel "Ceremony" readers need to analyze not only the context of the story but also that of the poems. This helps readers also understand the importance of poetry to Native Americans. We not only learn about their love for the land but also somewhat of their Native American identity.
Throughout the course of the novel, Marmon Silko appears to be attempting to educate the reader on the importance of unity-- unity between cultures, unity between mankind and nature, and unity within one's own self. She illustrates the struggle that the Native Americans face upon returning from war; they are no longer considered to be important, selfless U.S. citizens, but rather are once again looked down upon by the more dominant white race. In other words, the whites and the Native Americans are unable to unify themselves into the "One People Under God;" they are constantly at odds with each other. Likewise, she demonstrates the inability of the whites to acknowledge the power and the beauty of the natural world. Whereas the Native Americans believe that mankind should be one with the environment, caring for it as though it is a living soul, the white people are obsessed with ownership. They use fences and bombs and guns and brands to mark their property; they cannot imagine a unity between themselves and nature. In addition, Marmon Silko describes the unity that must take place within one's own self. Tayo's guilt about the past raged an inner conflict that almost resulted in his destruction; it was necessary for him to unite the memories of the past with his present in order to move forward and face his life.
ReplyDeleteBecause unity is such an important theme throughout "Ceremony," it is possible that Marmon Silko decided to use both poetry and prose to tell the story. In other words, she chose to document the difficulties faced in attempting to unify different cultures, mankind and nature, and one's own self through the unification of prose and poetry. In my opinion, the prose and the poetry can be interpreted as two different ways of expressing thoughts and feelings that, in the end, tell the same story. The poetry and the prose are a symbol of the message of "Ceremony."
The poetry in Silko's work tells traditional stories from Native American culture. The poetry reminds one of the oral tradition of stories passed down through generations of Native Americans. These stories would often attempt to explain the world around them. They were often a form of reverence for Nature and the various parts of nature. A good example in the novel is the story of the witches who created white people. This section of poetry demonstrates a bit of the attitude that the Native Americans had towards the white people. They claim that they created white people. In a way, it puts the Native Americans above the white people. They are above the white people not only because they created them, but also because the white people bring destruction to their world. However, it is interesting that once the white people were created the witch who created them could not undo it. The white people became a part of nature.
ReplyDeleteBy providing the poetry stories Silko is allowing the reader to witness the traditional ideas, beliefs and attitudes of the Native American culture. It is like she is exposing a special secret to us. We are able to get a sense of what is sacred to them, and then we are able to respect this.
-Anne Marie Cannon
I think Marmon Silko mixes poetry and prose because it provides a more natural feel for certain situations. One of the earliest insertions of poetry comes as we read about Tayo trying to think of stories to tell his fellow soldiers and the corporal as they’re trying to muck their way through the jungle and the horrible rain storm. As “[Tayo] could hear his own voice praying against the rain” (11) Marmon Silko chooses this moment to weave in a poem. I remember we discussed in class how a lot of the poems in Ceremony are really just prose broken up into shorter sections. You can identify a pretty clear subject and verb, and grammatically it all makes pretty good sense. For me this structure sets up a scenario where this story is perhaps Tayo can hear his voice praying. The grammar is correct, but it’s broken up like a voice probably would be that’s coming from a man incredibly tired from dragging his way through such horrific conditions. This, to me, shows a really deep cultural connection which Tayo possibly carries with him even across oceans and through war. This bit of mythology from his culture remains with him, dragging itself from his throat piece by piece as he tries to do anything to keep his focus off the horrific conditions which are all around him.
ReplyDeleteI think Marmon Silko also uses the poetry to show how important the unity is between man and nature. Tayo’s belief is so strong in his words and these traditions that he senses it’s possible that he could – just by wishing it so – cause rain to completely stop. This strong belief and this mixture between the world of prose and poetry shows a deeper connection and belief in the unity of all things. Tayo’s eyes are open enough to see that the Japanese soldiers he is killing are real people; people just like the ones he knows back home. When Tayo “cried at how the world had come undone, how thousands of miles, high ocean waves and green jungles could not hold people in their places” (17) it’s like his own personal revelation of what Marmon Silko is trying to show us with this intermingling of the two varieties of style. Even when Tayo is far away, the tradition stays within him. When he’s back at home it’s still there, following him in everything he does. The mixture of poetry and prose provides a clear break between the 'real world' of the prose and the traditional ideas making their way into the present.
In Ceremony, Silko uses poetry interspersed throughout the text to share the perspective of the Native Americans, rather than just through Tayo's point of view. She is sharing real stories that have meaning depending on the context of the situation or moment they are being told in the story. When they are trudging through the jungle, Tayo is thinking of a story to tell the men. This is because they come from people that have an oral history tradition, which is passed through stories. This is very similar to epic poetry from ancient Greece, like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, because these stories ebb and flow like poems and have a pace and rhythm to them.
ReplyDeleteSilko has added the poetry to show the communal effect of these stories, because they are so crucial to the identity of the Native American. They are the past, present and future represented by the tradition of these stories. The fact that Tayo believes he can control the rain with his personal wishes is a testament to this. He heard a story carried on from the past, he believes it now (presently) and the story will be passed on, so it represents the future as well.
I think that it is an interesting take on a novel to have Silko intertwine poetry and prose. It's interesting because each time she brings in the poetry it gives a very "Native American perspective". The poetry allows the reader get an idea of what the Native American tales and wisdom were like. It includes nature many times showing how connected Natve Americans are with earth. As Anne Marie had mentioned before I also agree that it reveals something sacred to the reader and allows us to respect it. It gives off it's own personal attitude of sincerity and peacefulness.
ReplyDeleteSilko also incorporates the poetry at the right moment. It never seems like it's forced in the chapters and flows nicely with the novel. It also works because Tayo has flashbacks and seems to flip back and forth from past to present time. Personally, I think that the poetry keeps the novel more exciting and helps to break it up, especially since there aren't any chapters within it.
Ashley Storch
the poetry also reminds me of the oral culture of the Native Americans. when the narrative breaks away into these poems, i picture the teller walking around a fire telling everyone around the story. for me it also reminds me of a movie, with these short poems acting as a break away from the main storyline, kind of a flashback cutscene of the main line. the poems seem to be the main ideas that are important to them, they provide an insight into the history of certain people, or the history of a certain idea or belief in Native American culture. without these break-aways, these main ideas would simply blend into the rest of the narrative, and not stand out for the readers.
ReplyDeleteCeremony mentions a lot of “old ways” or traditions the Native Americans use/used, throughout the novel. Using poetry and prose is just another way of showing some of these traditions. Poetry and oral story telling is/was (probably) used a lot in “the old days.” The use of the poetry really helps the reader get a feel for the history of this group of Native Americans. Also when the characters reference an old spirit or something, many readers are very lost, to say the least, and the poetry helps them connect the references. It also helps them connect to the characters, because we can see the very personal, spiritual level of them.
ReplyDeleteNative American literautre is interesting because originally, Native American culture was showcased through oral tradition rather than a written language. As a result of the attempted assimilation of the Native Americans into "white society" and as a result of their attempted removal, written languages were set up by the Native Americans in order to protect their communities from European treaties. The prose and poetry in Silko's book serve as a defense against European scientific theories. The prose is interesting because it is heavily influenced by oral culture: the stories told through the prose are written in a simple, repetitional manner as if the story was memorized and told over and over again. Through the prose and poetry, Silko mangaes to denfend the oral tradition of her Native American identity and the nature-based pillars of the Native American community
ReplyDeleteIt may be possible that the breaks in the text represent a choice by Silko not to conform to the western standards of how a novel/story should be written. Since I know virtually nothing about poetry I can’t get too in depth about their form, but the breaks do usually resemble some kind of story. Some of these stories relate directly to what’s going on in the main text or reflect certain themes in it; others have a less obvious connection but fill in details of Native American culture and spirituality. The sense that I get from the novel is that stories—and specifically the telling of stories—play a large role in Native American/Indian culture. Even if their narratives are unrelated, the stories collectively form important beliefs, traditions, and ideals for their society, and help bring the reader into Silko’s “world”. The fact that she assembles an array of stories (which happens in the main text as well) might reflect the way that storytelling/communication works in Native American culture, which Silko perhaps feels should take dominance over westernized “storytelling”.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel “Ceremony” Marmon Silko mixes poetry and prose. I think she does this so that the readers get a better understanding of the Native American culture. From what I know of the Native American culture most of their stories were oral. They weren’t written down on paper, rather told as a tale and passed down from generation to generation. This was of telling tales made their culture unique to them. I also believe Marmon Silko wrote the book this way in order to make it more realistic. The book wouldn’t be the same with fictional information about the Native American culture and the way it once was. Marmon Silko found a way to pull nonfiction into the story of Tayo’s life. The poems allow his ethnicity to shine through.
ReplyDeleteAs a reader I felt it was a little hard to follow the book when I came across the poems. I guess I’m so use to reading a novel straight through, that I didn’t enjoy the poems that popped up at me throughout the book. After awhile, I got use to the poems being worked into the story and got a better sense of the Native American ethnicity. I found a way to not view the poems as being inconvenient and started learning more about the culture behind them. The poems really showed the Native American identity and showed a little background on the way they were raised.
The usage of the poetry works within the novel to remind the reader that this is a work attempting to differentiate itself from the canon of old dead white men. Tayo and company are trying within the novel to deal with white culture's dominance over them; but so too is Silko dealing with this in the literary sense. Indeed the very idea of 'the novel' comes from western European roots. As we are used to it this is a tradition of free-flowing prose. Silko's addendum of the poetry within 'Ceremony' then transforms what is a traditional western art-form very much into her own. This serves to capture in some fashion the tradition of oratory storytelling within the Native American culture even as we read it in the westernized format of the novel. This is Silko's own way of dealing with her and her characters perhaps at times befuddled sense of identity. A constant reminder of the traditional stories that retain their past-history.
ReplyDeleteCeremony reads as a kind of mestizo/mestiza text, mating poetry and prose to produce one new, hybrid form. Through this combination, Leslie Marmon Silko plays with tradition by questioning what constitutes a novel and by calling upon religious texts like the old testament which also combined poetry & prose (so it ain't that new of a concept, ya'll). In addition to making some sort of commentary on tradition, Marmon Silko’s poe-pro combo functions as a way for her to augment the novel’s thematic focus on what it means to be a “half-breed” like Tayo. When a reader looks at ceremony they're...confused, much in the same way ignorant people are confused by what i'll mockingly label as "race-mixing."
ReplyDeleteI wanna write about the purpose of the poems for a second, mainly because they’re pretty strange and important. The poems call upon Native American origin stories and, whether intentionally or not, they illustrate indoctrination’s inescapability. The poems function as reminders to the reader that Native American beliefs and traditions play an integral role in Tayo’s understanding of the natural world despite his mixed racial composition, or status as a “half-breed” by framing the novel and popping up frequently throughout its body. Like the majority of families throughout the world, Tayo’s family raised him with a certain belief suite that colors his perceptions. Even though Tayo isn’t “full-blood” , he still subscribes to these beliefs so whole-heartedly that he feels responsible for the novel’s drought. I’m wondering if Marmon Silko wanted to expose a correlation between religion and guilt? Was she trying to suggest that there are dire consequences to turning your back on your familial beliefs? I mean, what happened to Rocky, the character who tried to become super white-bread-normative? He. Died.
In Marmon Silko's novel, "Ceremony", she tends to use many different writing styles. It seems to me that she uses poetry and prose to eccentuate different aspects of the Native American life. Poetry is used to emphasize particular ways of Native American life, whereas prose is used as traditional writing depicting these similar aspects. The use of the different types of writing somewhat confused me at first, but I began to see her use of these different writing techniques as I got further into the novel. It also seemed to me that Silko used various different styles of writing to stray away from the 'normal' or 'traditional' writing of "white culture" in today's society. Overall, I think the use of prose and poetry used in Silko's novel works well to emphasize the aspects of Native American culture that she wanted to present to her audience.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Silko infused poetry with prose in an effort to establish a meta-fictional demonstration of the marginalization of the Native American culture. In other words, the novel’s form embodies the disparity between the “white” experience and the Native American experience. If the narrative form is to be analogous to a landscape, then we can deduce that Silko is showing the reader that not only has the white man seized the natural world, but he has also hijacked the conventional narrative, insofar as he has removed the “disorder” from narrative. By infusing poetry (which, in respect to the ratio of poetry vs. prose, poetry seems to be displaced or marginalized), Silko is merging cultures through her art. In a sense, the larger text serves as a ceremony itself.
ReplyDeleteMy other guess is that the above is far too pragmatic and brainy. The poetic passages might simply be spontaneous—arising from Silko’s unconscious intuition.
I think Marmon Silko mixes poetry and prose for a number of reasons. By her using poetry, prose and storytelling, she is trying to make her novel unlike traditional novels. The poetry seems to me like it is Native American storytelling. Every poem is placed in the right spot, the story being told in the poem goes right along with where the novel is. Every poem incorporates nature in some way and traditions of the Native American culture. I feel as if I've learned a lot about the Native American culture and their traditions through this novel and have more respect for the culture.
ReplyDeleteWhile writing Ceremony I feel Marmon Silko wanted to incorporate the traditional oral Native American storytelling into her novel to present her story in an authentic light. She does this by mixing the prose and poetry into the already mixed up text of the novel, making the story feel like it must be read openly – like an oral story, rather than like a typical novel. I feel the underlying messages Marmon Silko presents here is making the novel her own, making it like the character she associates with, while also making it authentically “Native American.”
ReplyDeleteThe story itself is about the mixture of cultures and races, perhaps why the text itself is presented with different styles of writing. The break-up of short poems throughout the text play a vital role in how the life and thinking of Native Americans is different from others. I feel they are a little strange but helpful because it is a small summary or introduction to what we have already read or what we are about to read. It gives the reader a deeper understanding of what these people believed in – like the relationship they shared with animals and nature – and how that functions within the rest of the novel and the characters in it.
In Marmon Silko's "Ceremony" she uses poetry to accentuate the story itself. Native American poetry is unlike traditional poetry of rhyme and verse but it is quite unique and tells a story using themes from nature and the earth itself. The Native Americans believe in being one with the earth instead of trying to control it like the white settlers had done. Their poetry conveys that belief and it is traditional from the stories told in ceremonial chants and songs found in typical Native American culture.
ReplyDeleteShe adds her poems to the novel in the style of Native American culture to bend the traditions of prose in poetry and novels. This is typically untraditional, but it is deeply creative and helpful in understanding what is taking place in the novel.
I feel that Marmon Silko uses poetry to engage the reader and hyave them think about poetry in the Native American culture. I think she mixes it in to allow readers to see that writing does not only have to be a story. Instead, it can be whatever you feel it should be. By writing poetry into her novel "Ceremony" readers need to analyze not only the context of the story but also that of the poems. This helps readers also understand the importance of poetry to Native Americans. We not only learn about their love for the land but also somewhat of their Native American identity.
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