73 pages 2 hours read

Leslie Marmon Silko

Ceremony

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1977

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Essay Topics

1.

Helen Jean and Night Swan are the only point-of-view characters in Ceremony besides Tayo. What do their perspectives lend to the narrative?

2.

The color yellow appears often in the novel, in reference to everything from bulls to sand. Why does yellow have such prominence, and what do you think the significance of the color might be?

3.

How does the novel define witchery? How does Tayo’s experience of witchery relate to the witchery Betonie’s stories describe? How does witchery relate to European colonization of the Americas?