Drugs and Alcohol
Tayo’s long ceremony is almost to
an end. A ceremony is a series of
transitions that helps one get to a better state of mind. Tayo did what old Betonie said: he found the
stars, the cattle, the mountain, and the woman.
There were many obstacles and distractions along Tayo’s journey,
including drugs, alcohol, friends, and family.
Tayo learns that western medicine is only a temporary way out from
facing life challenges. “…the thick
white skin that had enclosed him, silencing the sensations of living, the love
as well as the grief; and he had been left with only the hum of the tissues
that enclosed him. He never knew how
long he had been lost there, in that hospital in Los Angeles”(Silko 213). The medicine acted like a scapegoat from his
PTS and only made his problems larger.
Alcohol acts in the same way, by clouding Tayo’s mind from the war in
the Philippians and the deaths of Josiah and Rocky. Tayo eventually learns by watching Harley and
Leroy drink their pain away and pass out drunk, that alcohol is a
procrastination of facing fears. “The
foam was warm; it stung his tongue…He gripped the can tight, trying to squeeze
away the shaking in his hands”(Silko 222-223).
Even when Tayo drinks with his “buddies” Leroy and Harley, it leads to
him throwing up, being lost, with his buddies turned against him. “Suddenly it hit him, in the belly, and
spread to his chest in a single surge: he knew then that they were not his
friends but had turned against him, and the knowledge left him hollow and dry
inside, like a locust’s shell”(Silko 225).
Throughout Tayo’s ceremony, he is constantly fighting against family and
friends. He deals with the demeaning
stories of his mother, his unforgiving aunt, his evil cousin Emo, the deaths of
Rocky and Josiah, and his drunk, backstabbing friends. Tayo eventually comes to an understanding
that evilness is caused by witchery and that it resides in individuals, not
races or groups.
Betrayal
The
witchery manipulates people to think they are more or less superior to
others. All of the exaggerated
stereotypes of the drunken Indian and all of the transferred oppression in the
world are caused by the witchery. “It
was difficult then to call up the feeling of Ts’eh and old Betonie. It was easier to feel and to believe the
rumors. Crazy. Crazy Indian. Seeing things. Imagining things”(Silko 225). The witchery pushes Tayo to fade into his
past life of staying at the white hospital and binge drinking alcohol. As Tayo watches Emo, Leroy, and Pinkie
torture Harley to death, he feels the anger and need to lash out against
them. But, Tayo realizes that, “There
was no way the destroyers would lose: either way they had a victim and a
corpse”(Silko 233). No matter how bad
Tayo wants to consume to the witchery, he prevents himself. The witchery wanted Tayo to stab Emo, to
complete its plan. “The witchery almost
ended the story according to plan…He would have been another victim, a drunk
Indian war veteran settling an old feud”(Silko 235). Tayo is able to see past the witchery and leave
the situation. Tayo’s journey then comes
to an end and the ceremony is complete. Tayo realizes that in order to heal,
one needs community, storytelling, and nature.
“He cried the relief he felt at finally seeing the pattern, the way all
the stories fit together-the old stories, the war stories, their stories-to
become the story that was still being told.
He was not crazy; he had never been crazy. He had only seen and heard the world as it
always was: no boundaries, only transitions through all distances and time”(Silko
229). Tayo understands that as the world
changes, one must transition through it and make changes to adapt. Nature and community help one recognize his
or her self, and stories help prevent history from happening again.
Storytelling
Nature
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