Research Paper on:
Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony Tayo's Process of Healing

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of them. Kuoosh, the traditional medicine man is unable to help Tayo in his traditional healing ceremony and finds that since the entry of the white man into their world  he has a difficult time combating all the elements of witchery. Tayo has already been told by the white doctors in the VA hospital that they were unable to help  him in his state of post-traumatic shock from World War II. Tayo continues to search for a cure however and he encounters a woman, Montano, who shows him the traditional  ceremonies of ritual offering and the healing power of the natural elements around them. Tayo does not succeed in the healing process however until he meets the modern day medicine  man of Betonie who, like Tayo, is a half breed. Betonie shows Tayo that a mixture of the traditional ways and modern elements can be the strongest in the modern  healing ceremony and it is the acceptance that the fusion of the two cultures is the strongest which leads Tayo ultimately to the acceptance of his own self-identity and self-healing.  Leslie Marmon Silkos novel "Ceremony" tells of the state of the Laguna reservation after World War II. The land has been damaged by the infiltration of a nearby uranium mine  and a generation of the Pueblo men have been damaged by their participation in the war (Austgen). While Tayo and his two friends, Rocky and Emo, decide that they can  participate in the white mans world, all three meet with devasting results. Rocky is killed during the fighting with the Japanese, Emo becomes an alcoholic and Tayo returns with post-traumatic  stress syndrome and despite his stay in a VA hospital has not been able to be cured. During his heavy sedation of the white medicines, he returns to live with