Assignment task: Answer the following questions based on pages 98-147 from the book Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko.
Problem 1: Explain the symbolism of Tayo "trying to vomit out everything-all the past, all his life." (156)
Problem 2: In this section of the novel, the narrative is punctuated by poems that tell the story of Hummingbird and Green Fly who take on the job of trying to help the people find their mother Nau'ts'ity'I (Mother Earth), who has left them hungry and thirsty. You can track the pieces of the Hummingbird and Fly story through the poems on the following pages: 42-45, 49-50, 65-66, 76, 77, 140, and 167.
A. Make a timeline of these poems, ordered by their page numbers and label each entry. With a one sentence summary of what's going on in the poem and what's going on in the narrative of the story at that time.
B. Then for similarities between the roles of the characters in the Hummingbird/Fly story and those of the novel. See if you can drew parallels between each of the main characters of the poems and each of the following characters from Ceremony: Tayo, Betonie, the woman at the foot of Mt. Taylor, the Hunter.
Problem 3: "But he had known the answer all along, even while the white doctors were telling him he could get well and he was trying to believe them: medicine didn't work that way, because the world didn't work that way. His sickness was only part of something larger, and his cure would be found only in something great and inclusive of everything." (p116) How does this quote relate to the essence (theme) of the past 50 page of the novel, and to the novel as a whole to now?
Problem 4: What is the significance of the story Betonie tells about his grandfather Descheeny. What about the significance of the "captive girl"? What does this have to doe with Tayo. Make a connection with one of the stories or poems in this section and Tayo's own 'story'