A parallel story tells of a time when the Pueblo nation was threatened by a drought as punishment for listening to a practitioner of "witchery"; in order to redeem the people, Hummingbird and Green Bottle Fly must journey to the Fourth World to find Reed Woman.
His fellow veterans Harley, Leroy, Pinkie, and Emo drink with him, discussing their disappointment from fighting in a white man's war and having nothing to show for it.
Tayo goes back home to the pueblo and tells the elders he has completed the ceremony by recovering the cattle, abstaining from violence, and meeting a spirit woman in the form of Ts'eh.
Emo is banned from the reservation after killing Pinkie, and Tayo lives a content life tending to his herd of cattle.
[11] She focuses on the importance of blending the cultures, showing how Tayo can only regain health when he chooses how to identify, and by creating his own world that bridges the gap.
Tayo is described as “half-breed” because, in contrast to his mother, who is a Native American woman, his father is white and does not belong to the Laguna community.
[15] The Native Americans who lived in the city of Gallup and felt related to the land were pushed back to a specific zoning place under the bridge to divide them from the white civilization (265).
The physical effect of Tayo's traumatic experiences manifests itself as intense nausea and vomiting, which native literary critic Jude Todd sees as directly related to Pueblo mythology that stories are held in the belly, thus by vomiting, Tayo is purging himself of the oppressive lies told to him over the course of his life.
As he comes to terms with tragic events he faced during the war, he must also navigate his assimilation back into society as a Native American man.
After serving in the tropical wet Philippine Islands during the war, Tayo returns home to find the Pueblo people in a drought.
[28] Night Swan is another significant female character in Ceremony, who represents both sexual agency and maternal teachings as a part of Tayo's journey to healing.
[26] Another clear example in Ceremony of this matriarchal culture or hierarchy is when Tayo's uncle, Josiah, saves money of his own for 25 years to buy his herd of cattle, at Night Swan's urging.
[26] Traditionally, in the Laguna culture, the men are the agriculturists and feed their family and communities, and the women own the land and houses and pass them down to their daughters.
To give some background, most Indigenous peoples have mythical figures that take the form of humanoid animals, including characters like Coyote .
[34] Her presence in Tayo's personal healing process is instrumental, as he is a male deeply affected by an imbalanced state of masculinity due to the pressure of returning as the “Macho war hero” archetype when he is in fact struggling to fathom what the fundamentals of heroism even are.
[37] In a collection of essays titled American Indian Fiction, Charles Larson argued that the cattle represent the future of Tayo's people.
[38] "Animals and Human Development in the Contemporary American Indian Novel," a critical study by Peter G. Beidler concluded that the cattle represented a guide for Tayo.
[39] Susan Blumenthal discusses both of these interpretations, as well as her own in "Spotted Cattle and Deer: Spirit Guides and Symbols of Endurance and Healing in "Ceremony.
Silko began early work on Ceremony while living in Ketchikan, Alaska, in 1973 after moving there with her children, Robert and Kazimir, from Chinle, Arizona.
Having no interest in creating a novel, Silko began work on a short story set in the American Southwest revolving around the character Harley and the comical exploits of his alcoholism.
[41] In February 1974, Silko took a break from writing Ceremony to assume the role of a visiting writer at a middle school in Bethel, Alaska.
[43] It was during this time Silko penned the early work on her witchery poetry featured in Ceremony, wherein she asserts that all things European were created by the words of an anonymous Tribal witch.
[46] Poet Simon J. Ortiz has lauded Ceremony as a "special and most complete example of affirmation and what it means in terms of Indian resistance.
[49] Published in 1977, Silko's Ceremony was influential in providing a historical perspective of the Laguna Pueblo and the consequences of World War II on indigenous people who served in the United States military.
"[51] Tayo's return to reservation life is fraught with his struggles with post-traumatic-stress-disorder, as well as his experiences and observations on the modern horrors of poverty and alcoholism that have affected his friends and family.
Ceremony was published in 1977, by Viking Press, as a hardcover first edition, the dust jacket featuring a photograph by Lee H. Marmon (the author's father) of a pueblo village along a cliff edge.
Ceremony was published as a mass market paperback in 1978 by New American Library under its Signet imprint with striking cover art of the protagonist Tayo in the foreground, an eagle rising behind him.
The College Board's Advanced Placement English program soon included Ceremony in its list of recommended works for high school AP literature classes, keeping the novel in demand.
In 2006, Penguin re-released Ceremony in a deluxe 30th anniversary edition with a glorious blue cover, a single silver feather floating in the center.
This edition also featured a new introduction by Larry McMurtry, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and Academy Award-winning screenwriter, as well as a new preface by the author.