Revised Summary/Application

Part One: Summary

In her essay “Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1”, Gloria Bird essentially discusses the thoughts, morals, and treatment of Native Americans and how they have changed over time in society. The author believes that there are many concerns addressed within Ceremony and discusses language, the narrative strategies done by Silko, and the general outcome of colonization. Bird believes that the language is a good way for Native Americans to remember some of their important cultural characteristics. Colonization has taught natives to be embarrassed about speaking their native language because English is the most common language that is spoken. The narrative strategy done by Silko is very interesting and without Bird’s specific examples found in Ceremony it would have been hard to identify with it. By speaking in many fragments and using different speech, you must rely on the previous sentences in the novel to understand the meaning of the story. This also goes along with the element of time and how Tayo’s life centers around the many stories he has been told throughout it. All of these examples return to the interconnectedness of all things, which Bird discusses exceptionally well throughout her essay. It is pretty apparent that Gloria Bird is disapproving of what she believes colonization has not only done to Native Americans, but to us as readers as well. She says that we must be open minded to what we take in so we can form our own opinions about what we experience in life.

Part Two: Application

Something in Bird’s essay that really stood out was her mentioning of “the hegemonic phase” which means that “natives accept a version of the colonizers entire system of values, attitudes, morality”, etc (Bird 3). We see a lot of this happening in Ceremony throughout it. Bird shows us how it has happened through language, but Silko shows us how it is adapted into their lifestyles in the novel. Tayo’s brother Rocky, at one point in the story, is talking to his Uncle Josiah about how to care for cattle. When Josiah mentions that they will raise the cattle their own way through Indian traditions not through the help books, Rocky states that “those books are written by scientists…That’s the trouble with the way people around here have always done things—they never knew what they were doing (Silko 69 - 70). Rocky’s education has taught him to move away from the Native American traditions and adapt to what he has learned in school. Even Tayo starts to believe this as well when he states that “in school the science teacher had explained what superstition was…He had studied those books, and he had no reasons to believe the stories any more. The science books explained the causes and effects” (87). It is easy to see that through the school system, both Rocky and Tayo have started to distrust their native stories and believe what they had been taught by the colonizers.

One issue that was not directly discussed in Gloria Bird’s essay but relates to stereotyping is racism. It does indeed occur throughout the novel in several different ways. In the novel, Silko tells us about the “lie” that white people believe and where the racism towards Native Americans begins: “If the white people never looked beyond the lie, to see that theirs was a nation built on stolen land, then they would never be able to understand how they had been used by the witchery; they would never know how to stir the ingredients together; white thievery and injustice boiling up the anger that would finally destroy the world: the starving against the fat, the colored against the white” (191). There are many examples of how racism is shown through Silko’s novel.

Tayo goes to find Josiah’s cattle he is stopped by a great fence built by a white man, Floyd Lee. Floyd Lee called it a “wolf-proof fence” even though there were no more wolves left in the area because of him but the “people knew what the fence was for; a thousand dollars a mile to keep Indians and Mexicans out” (174). In this story Tayo knows the reality of how white people obviously act towards Native Americans and even though it is sad, they have to deal with it. It continues in that same scene where the armed cowboys have almost found Tayo trespassing on the grounds and while he is waiting for them he hopes that they will realize that “it was a lot of trouble just for an Indian; maybe it would be too much trouble, and they would let him go (186). After reading both Ceremony and Gloria Bird’s article, it was easier for me to understand the novel and the hidden messages within it.
Bird, Gloria.

"Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony"" Wicazo Sa Review, Vol 9, No. 2 Autumn 1993. University of Minnesota Press. 04 Jan. 2009 .

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition). New York: Penguin Books, 2006.