Open Prompt revision 4/21

1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot

                The perception of time through a work of literature changes how the audience views and understands the material.  Many authors use time normally by arranging events chronologically and not having any emphasis on the passage of time.  However, other authors make shifts in time noticeable and use it as a part of their work.  Arthur Miller uses time as an important element in his play Death of a Salesman in portraying the main character, Willy Loman and showing the condition of life in America. 

                The passage of time helps the portrayal of Willy Loman.  He is a troubled character who seems to slowly loose his mind as the play progresses.   At the beginning of the play, Willy notices that while he is driving, he is slowly drifting off into memories and forgetting to watch the road.  This worries him because he can’t seem to understand why his mind keeps on wandering.  These memories become more real to him until at the end of the play, Willy slips into events from his past, talking and acting out the memories as if he were really there.  This makes the audience think that Willy is going crazy.  This passing/changing of time against his will shows his state of mind and how powerless he is to the world.

                This shifting of time contributes to the work because one of the main conflicts in this play is Willy struggling to understand everything that is going on in his life.  The changes in time not only help to show how fragmented Willy’s mind is, but also how bewildered he is in a world of unknown.  After Willy’s “flashbacks,” he returns to the real world and is confused at what has happened.  People judge him because they think he is scatterbrained and as a result, don’t want to deal with him.  Willy doesn’t understand what he has done to get disapproval.  The flashbacks also remind him of events in his life that cause him to question things in his life now.  He remembers all the promise Biff had with football and wonders why Biff has not been successful ever since.  He remembers all the promises of a life as a salesman and wonders why his life hasn’t turned out the way he wanted it to.  The events from his past keep creating more and more questions for Willy and contribute to his bewilderment.

                Willy’s confusion at life and society helps the effectiveness of the play because it shows how industrial America destroys dreams and nothing can stop it.  Time is an uncontrollable force and nothing Willy or any of the other characters do can stop it.  Willy falls victim to these changes in time and the only thing he can do is to float along hopelessly.  In the commercialism of America, all Willy wants is money and glory, yet no amount of success can prevent Willy from destroying himself.  In Death of a Salesman, time is used to portray the character of Willy Loman and helps to show the futility of life in industrial America.  

Ceremony Summary and Analysis

Author: Leslie Marmon Silko-is of white/Mexican/Laguna Pueblo descent.  She grew up on a reservation and then went to a government sponsored school for Native American Children.  She bases her novels/writing on her experiences and Native American Culture.  Ceremony is the first book published in the United States by a Native American Woman.

Setting: Pueblo Laguna reservation, Vietnam during WWII, various towns/places around the reservation.

Plot-Tayo comes home from a veteran's Hospital after fighting in WWII in Vietnam.  Tayo recalls memories from the war-seeing Josiah in a crowd of Japanese soldiers he is told to shoot, watching Rocky die and cursing the rain in Vietnam.  In the hospital, he is like smoke, lifeless and only existing.  The doctors make him well enough to go home to Grandmother, Auntie and Robert.  He feels the guilt of surviving when Rocky was the promising son.  He was born half white, half Laguna Pueblo after his mother went off with white men and left him in the care of Auntie.  He spends his time with his friends, Emo, Leroy, Pinkie and Harley who also are affected because of the war.  They drink and talk about their “happy times” in the war and their frustrations with the troubles Native Americans encounter with White people.  Grandmother gets the medicine man, Ku’oosh, to perform an ancient ceremony on Tayo that was done for warriors.  This helps him, but it doesn’t completely heal him.  Tayo talks about his life.  Rocky and Tayo were friends even though Auntie tried to keep them apart.  Rocky got him to enlist in the military with him and so they went to Vietnam.  Tayo had been helping Josiah take care of some mixed-breed cattle that he bought because they were supposed to be able to last the drought.  Tayo then goes to see Betonie, another medicine man.  He believes that ceremonies must adjust to modern times, so he gives Tayo a new ceremony and tells him how to complete it.  He discovers Ts’eh’s house and spends the night with her.  Then, he discovers the cattle and breaks through the fences to release them.  He gets caught by white patrolmen but is saved by the mountain lion.  After escaping, Tayo meets a hunter and goes with him to his house where he meets Ts’eh again.  All the cattle are there and Tayo returns home.  Tayo is pretty much healed but the ceremony isn’t done yet.  He spends time taking care of the cattle but then he finds out that Emo is spreading rumors of how he has gone crazy.  Tayo runs away and escapes from the police, but he encounters Harley and Leroy so he hides in an old uranium mine.  He stays for the night and completes the ceremony.  The drought ends and he returns home with everything well again.

Significant Characters:

·         Tayo-main character.  The novel is told from his point of view.  He is half white and half Laguna Pueblo so he always feels alienated from society.  After the war, he has PTSD from witnessing Rocky’s death.  He throws up a lot and can’t get his life together.  He goes on a journey to bring rain back to the land after cursing the rain while he was in Vietnam.  He begins to understand the world more and become more at peace with himself as he goes through this journey/ceremony and is able to restore himself and the land.

·         Auntie-Rocky’s mother/Tayo’s aunt.  She is a Christian who doesn’t really believe in the old ways anymore.  She didn’t love Tayo because she feels he was forced on her.  She took care of him because she believed it would be good for her soul.  She is very proud and takes care of the family.

·         Josiah-Tayo’s father figure.  He spent a lot of time with Tayo and teaches Tayo about the native culture.  He starts dating Night Swan and buys the mixed breed cattle at her suggestion. 

·         Rocky-Tayo’s cousin, Auntie’s son.  He was the “promising one” but was killed in the war.  He takes on the white culture and begins to disregard the native customs, instead accepting what the whites taught him in the government school.  He plays football and was going to go to college.

·         Harley-Tayo’s friend who also went to war.  He is an alcoholic and will do anything to get a drink.

·         Ku’oosh-Laguna medicine man who tries to help Tayo.  He helps but doesn’t heal Tayo and sends him to Betonie.

·         Betonie-a strange medicine man who is feared for his strange ways.  He takes the traditional ways and reinvents them to fit the modern times.  He gives Tayo a ceremony to complete and this heals him. 

Voice: This novel is very fragmented and many details are unclear to the reader.  This creates a feeling of confusion, just like how it is in Tayo’s mind.  At the beginning, Tayo is confused and everything is clouded.  As the novel goes on, the details and events become clearer as Tayo’s mind is healed and his life becomes more in his control.  However, the narrator is an unknown character.      

Style: This novel is written in a style similar to the Native American Oral tradition.  There are no chapter breaks, or any breaks at all, like a story would be if it is being told.  The only breaks are the poems that provide the backbone of the whole novel.  The poems tell a story that is parallel to the story of Tayo. 

POV: This is told as a 3rd person narrative that mostly focuses on Tayo and the events of Tayo's life.  As a result, this narration isn't really biased towards anyone, but we only see Tayo's side of the story.  We can only make conclusions based on what we know of Tayo's life.

Imagery: This novel is full of imagery.  Much of the Native American culture relies on nature and the world around us.  There are vivid descriptions of the land, of specific landmarks, and of the sun/ stars/ wind.  Rather than using specific place names and times, the passing of time is shown through the changing of the land.

Symbolism-There are many symbols in this novel as well.  Circles are a huge part of the novel, from the cycles of the seasons to the sun/ceremonies/sex.  Rain is also a symbol of life and rejuvenation.  Tayo must bring back the rain to bring back the life to the Laguna people.  Directions are also important.  They are mentioned a lot throughout the novel and they represent different traits. 

Quotes: “It seems like I already heard these stories before…only thing is, the names sound different.” This quote shows how events in life are changed by the circumstances but the core of the story is the same every time. 

“He could feel it inside his skull-the tension of little threads being pulled and how it was with tangled things, things tied together, and as he tried to pull them apart and rewind them into their places, they snagged and tangled even more.”  This quote shows how Tayo had to accept the facts of life in order to move on.  After the war, he tried to straighten everything out and have everything make sense, but everything was too connected.  He just had to accept his connection to everything and learn how to move on and make the most of what he had.

Theme: In order to survive as time passes, one must make adjustments and accept the changes in life.

Explanation: Tayo needed to find a way to accept everything that happened in his life to help him heal himself.  He also was healed by a ceremony that had made accommodations for the modern world.  The traditions of their culture was still important and it was important to follow the customs, but in order for everything to be successful, it had to accommodate for the changes in the world.

Course Response 4/14

So we haven’t done a whole lot this month because spring break took up a large part of it, but nonetheless, we have still covered some important material.  We went through and annotated ceremony and learned a bit more about the novel.  Annotating was quite long and tedious and even though we had all of spring break to do it, I still found myself struggling to finish the night before.  Because it wasn’t a play, there was a lot less white space so it took longer to annotate.  Also, there wasn’t very much dialog so most of the novel was just huge blocks of text.  I felt like we didn’t really discuss Ceremony a whole lot.  We talked about some aspects of the novel such as the death avoidance and how only the unnatural deaths were described while the natural deaths are just referred to and not played out.  We also read an article and talked a little bit about the role of animals as guides for Tayo throughout the novel and their different forms. 

We are now starting Fifth Business and we learned about the philosophy of Jung.  This was interesting and I am excited to see how these things will come into play in the novel.  I am also very happy that we don’t have to annotate this novel. 

Anyways, the AP test is coming up and I am starting to get a little nervous.  I need to start studying!