Course Material Response #6

So far, our lit class has been having a in depth discussion about Leslie Silko's novel Ceremony. I would like to say that my class has yet again taken the longest time to analyze this novel since we've just started the second section that Holmes assigned us. Which is great. But... in a sense it's not as bad as it seems since we are really able to get way down to the source of what we believe Silko is trying to show to us through his words and that's what really matters. After completing our analysis on the first section (which was roughly the first twenty pages of the novel), my class has proposed several crucial points that helped me have a greater understanding of the novel. First of all, we discussed about the importance of the colors that Silko likes to bring up numerous times throughout her writing. She also has a tendency to focus on the color of yellow, which we determined was the color that symbolizes fertility and a new beginning. Which makes sense since it's what we see is the color of pollen and that is what Tayo sprinkles on the dead deer's nose, showing that the deer has started a new spiritual life through its death. This then relates to the other idea that Holmes brought up during our discussion about the repeating theme of cycles or the symbolic circular motions that tend to occur throughout the novel. Another strange... yet true fact that kept coming up in our conversation had to do with male pregnancy. Not in a literal sense, of course. But it definitely was one of the top things that were frequently brought up. We decided that since Tayo was always throwing up or trying to contain his nausea down, this was a sign of "morning sickness" to make room for the child, or the renewed form of his spirit and self discovery that was later found in the story. All in all, there was a lot of connections to this pregnancy idea and we definitely tended to drift towards that subject. A lot. But that's about it. Those were probably the three most important ideas that we happened to dwell upon for this week.