Silko begins Ceremony with a poem about the power of stories:
Don't be fooled.
They are all we have, you see,
all we have to fight off illness and death. (2)
Similarly, in a war flashback, describing the long march to prison camp, Tayo tells "a story for all of them, a story to give them strength. The words of the story poured out of his mouth as if they had substance, pebbles and stone extending to keep the corporal up, to keep his knees from buckling..." (12).
Yet Tayo seems to have nearly stopped telling stories--at least out loud--when he returns home after the war. What is the status of stories as the novel begins? What are some examples of "healing" stories--or stories that "wound"? In particular, what is the connection between storytelling and place? Silko describes Tayo's story as having physical "substance;" the act of telling a story is like an act of building. Can we say that stories create place, and how so?
10 comments:
Tayo does not have any need to tell the stories out loud. They are always there haunting him. Many veterans come home and suffer from insomnia and hallucinations. Tayo is no exception. We see in the beginning that he was having terrible nightmares about what happened 'over there.' He heard the Japanese voices until by the end of the nightmare his dream "broke into a language he could not understand...drowned by music, loud, loud music. To answer the first question, the status of his dreams were through the very hallucinations, like the one he had at the train station and dreams and day dreams like the one he has in the opening pages of the novel. An example of a wounding story would be on page 7 when he thinks he sees his uncle Josiah fall to the ground dead. Rocky, his childhood friend was trying to tell him that the body was a Jap, but Tayo knew that it was his uncle as he looked at him and saw "the eyes shrinking back into the skull" (7). An example of a heal story would be when he first enlisted to be a Marine and he was no longer seen in society as an American Indian, but as a hero and an American soldier. The uniform let society accept him and white women accepted him as well. He was not shunned away from bars, but welcomed as a hero. He loved this life, but it was a temporary time of acceptance because when he came back and the war was over, he no longer was accepted. He was back to being an outcast. This part could very well be described as a wounding story; feeling like you have everything to realizing you had nothing at all. Tayo's story telling takes us to the setting or place of the story. The reader feels like he really is in the jungle with him. We are admist the lush vegitation. We are right there when Tayo sees Josiah fall to the ground. The author, Larry McMurty does a good job at transporting the reader to the scene of the 'story.' The only difficult thing is to discern where you are going from section to section because the flashbacks are so random. It does not follow a rigid structure, but functions as flashbacks function; which is very random and unpredictable. As we see with Tayo anything can set them off. There is no way to know exactly when he might 'lose it.' The stories do build on one another and gives a good sense of what the character of Tayo and his best friend since grade school Rocky are like from the time in 8th grade when the stole a bottle of wine and got drunk to the day they decided, "what the heck, lets join the army."
I think the main function of story telling so far in Ceremony the passing on of information and importance. Stories help transform a space into a place. For Tayo and his family, the Philippines are now not just distant islands far away, as the medicine man would believe, but instead a terrible place that robbed them of family members. Tayo's stories impart emotions and memory to the places he has been, and that gives them a certain identity. Whether good, like the rattlesnake cave Tayo and Rocky visited, or bad, like the desolate farm Tayo attempts to care for in the beginning, the places Tayo visits are important in that they give him an idea of where he has been and what is to come. While he struggles to balance his mixed heritage, the stories that haunt him, as Eric said, give him a place to start from when trying to figure out life. "Tayo felt like a little kid again; he felt eight again, and Josiah was boosting him onto the back of Siow's pinto" (23) tells not only the reader, but reminds Tayo of the importance of his family.
This question reminded me of something we discussed in religion class: the idea of myths being created to help humans make sense of things. I used that idea to form my answer, but I was also wondering if anyone else agreed with that, that we create stories or myths to help us digest, or accept things around us that seem to be too much?
I started the assigned reading and discovered that Silko creates such a realistic set of characters and setting that I was engulfed in the story. . .
I love how Anthony said that "stories help transform a space into a place." Silko was able to take Tayo's "story" and bring it to a level that is "real" for the reader by having Tayo tell his story, despite the fact that he mainly tells it within his mind. Tayo's storytelling transforms the spaces that he occupies into places that the reader can form in his/her mind. I agree with Eric when he stated that the flashbacks and storytelling are "very random and unpredictable," but they only add to the realistic nature of the story and continue to bring the reader in.
Tayo is part Native American and it is well known that Native Americans, as well as other cultures, relied heavily upon oral storytelling to pass down traditions and stories from generation to generation. The fact that Tayo is continuing the Native American tradition of storytelling reinforces his heritage, but Tayo is lacking one important part – the oral tradition of the storytelling. Perhaps later in the novel Tayo will begin to oral retell his stories, which may become helpful to future generations?
This act of speaking within one’s mind is present at other times with Tayo, like when Tayo states, “He could feel it inside his skull – the tension of little threads being pulled and how it was with tangled things, things tied together, and as he tried to pull them apart and rewind them into their places, they snagged and tangled even more.” (6) Tayo often references what is occurring within his brain as though he can physically see what is happening. Perhaps this almost third person narrative is done in an ability to connect Tayo’s storytelling within his head to impact that the war had on his mind?
Great comments so far, everyone. I just had to pipe in to invite you to think more about Anthony's question, "that we create stories or myths to help us digest, or accept things around us that seem to be too much," especially in light of our conversation on Faulkner. We might well compare Ike and Tayo as young men telling themselves stories and creating myths in order to deal with the traumas of the past.
Also: for those of you who post early, try to take a minute tomorrow morning to read through the posts that come in later, so we can all be part of the continuing conversation.
I agree with Eric that Tayo does not need to tell his stories aloud because of the painful memories they involve. There is a strong connection between place and storytelling in the novel. The war stories told by fellow veterans really seem to bring Tayo back to the jungles of the Pacific. These stories conjure up wartime sounds and images in Tayo’s head. For example, after hearing Emo’s story of how he took teeth from Japanese soldiers, Tayo starts to hear Japanese voices. Storytelling clearly has a very strong effect on Tayo.
I also agree with the fact that the stories Tayo thinks of allow the reader to clearly imagine what Tayo went through. It is almost like actually being there. These stories create place. According to Keith Basso in the article Wisdom Sits in Places, place-making is a common phenomenon. Basso was able to do create place after hearing Charles tell stories of the Indian towns they visited. Similarly, from the descriptive wartime stories in Ceremony readers are able to use their imaginations to create place. We imagine ourselves alongside Tayo on one of the Pacific islands during the war.
I think that we do create myths in order to help us cope with certain things. Maybe constantly thinking of wartime stories is Tayo’s way of dealing with his traumatic past and trying to put it behind him.
I would agree that in this particular novel, the main function of Tayo’s storytelling is to help him cope with his troublesome past. In the beginning he states that “he was tired of fighting off the dreams and the voices; he was tired of guarding himself against places and things which evoked memories”(24). Through storytelling Tayo is able to truly face his past. By guarding himself against these things he is only making it worse. There are certainly some stories which hurt more than they may heal, for example when he thinks about “what the Japs did to Rocky”(39). A healing story, as Eric mentioned, is when Tayo describes how he enlisted in the army. For once, he felt like a truly belonged because “he was the best; he was one of them. The best. United States Army”(57). These are stories that bring Tayo pride, and make him see the positive aspects of his enlisting in the army.
Tayo embraces the art of telling stories, even though he is fully aware of others thoughts on it. As he describes his science teacher holding up the textbook to illustrate “the true source of explanations”(87). However, Tayo still believes in the great power of storytelling, and even though it is these stories that often bring him pain, he seems to recognize that with that pain brings understanding and acceptance. Stories can definitely create place, especially in the case of this novel. Tayo’s stories are what help the reader familiarize his/her self with his past and what he faced during his time in the army. Without these stories, his past would be much harder understand and sympathize with. As Tara stated storytelling has a very strong affect on Tayo, because it has the ability to conjure up such painful memories. The act of telling a story is definitely like the act of building in Tayo’s case. It is hard to understand his present without understanding his full past.
I agree with Anthony, for stories do help transform spaces into places. When a story is directed towards a physical entity, it certainly does give it definition and therefore it alters how we view it. To one who is new to the Indian Reservation, a cave might just be a cave, but to someone like Tayo who has personal experiences that are directly linked to it, it's the cave where all the rattlesnakes go to find shade. But not all stories are about things we can touch. They can be about an experience, a bond with the past. They can have both positive and, as Tayo proves, negative connotations. While Tayo was in the war, he tells stories for motivation, to instill strength into his fellow soldiers. But when he finally returns home, it's the stories of the war that drive him to the edges of death.
Memories have a debilitating effect on Tayo, for the mind constitutes what we see as reality. The horrors of his past are strong enough to paralyze and render him immobile. At one part, he is reminded of his dead Uncle and, "he was suddenly hollow; his fingers loosened and fell from the reins, slippery with sweat. The force of gravity seemed to surge up at him and pull him down" (26). For Tayo, stories force him to relive his past experiences from the war. They compel his mind to travel back in time to a certain place, so in some ways they do create place.
For Tayo I think that stories and place have an extremely strong connection. Anyone that has to endure a hardship for an extended period of time always has their "saving grace". Prisoner's stories are similar to those of soldiers. That thing that kept them sane or kept their mind occupied is usually a story or distraction from reality. Tayo's escape from the reality of war are the stories that he tells. To keep Rocky moving during a prison march he tells him a story. However I think this story is as beneficial to Tayo as it is for Rocky. By occupying rocky's mind Tayo is taking his own mind to another place. Stories can remove the mind from the pain and burden it is encountering. while the stories remove the mind at teh moment, for Tayo these same stories remind him of the place where he was when he told them.
To recount the stories after he has arived home would only bring Tayo back to that place. Just as a smell, a sound, a feeling can remind a person of a certain place, so can a story. Rather than reminding him of the physical characterisitcs of the prison camp, it reminds him of his mental state and the emotional instabilities that he went through. I think that he would want to forget that place and not let it define his mental health.
This aspect of recounting stories reminds me of the current political campaign. John Mccain has voluntarily retold some of the stories of his years of inmprisonment. For most veterans this is a very hard thing to do. I find it interesting that he has chosen to make this aspect of his life a staple in his campaign. While it does convey a sense of heroics on his part, and admiration from some voters, it must be painful for him not only recount his stories but to allow certain unspoken memories to enter his head.
In response to Anthony’s question, I definitely believe Tayo’s storytelling serves as a healing process for him, allowing him to come to terms with what happened overseas. The more he recounts his war tales, the more the pieces of the story seem to come together to create the full picture. He explains various scenes of the war with many sensory details, noting the smells, sights, and feelings in particular, however the full story is never told altogether. When he first recalls a part of the story, Tayo skips the part where Rocky is wounded and immediately jumps to the description of jungle rain and carrying the hurt Rocky through the wet surroundings. Could the stories be a way for him to recount and finally see exactly what happened when Rocky died? Or does he remember the full story all along and just can’t come to terms with it as a whole yet?
As the novel continues, Silko allows Tayo to create place with his descriptions and stories. Although the stories are disjointed and not told in their entirety in one section, a sense of place is still formed. The reader is able to picture exactly what is happening at that specific moment, and upon reading more of the novel, can put together various fragments of stories to create an even stronger sense of place. As Keith Basso wrote in “Wisdom Sits in Places” and Tara P. recounted, a person can establish a sense of place through story-telling. This concept, called place-making, supports Silko’s idea of Tayo’s story having physical substance. The descriptions of his surroundings and the attention to detail in Tayo’s stories allow him to establish place. As we defined in class, place is the same as defined space. Tayo’s stories help transform a space (overseas) into a specific place (where Rocky died, for example).
Though common in his culture, I think the oral tradition of telling stories is insignificant in regards to Tayo’s situation. I believe that he must first recount the stories in his own mind in order to build up the strength to tell them out loud someday. As part of the healing process, I think he needs to first get the stories clear in his own mind before he can retell them to other people.
I agree with Anthony’s question involving , "that we create stories or myths to help us digest, or accept things around us that seem to be too much” because it refers to a form of escapism. Tayo uses this technique in order to get away for a while from his traumatic experiences from the war and imprisonment. Tayo’s stories seem to develop a sense of place as he continues to tell his stories. In the beginning of the novel the stories Tayo tells seem to be like reflections on what he is experiencing at the moment. This references Silko’s connection between storytelling and place. He gains inspirations from the simplest observances in order to make his everyday seem interesting. He creates these images and characters along with his own world which he can flee to when the upsetting memories return to his mind. It’s almost as a way to keep his sanity. Tayo makes it seem as if this is his only comfort zone. That these imaginative elements he has created have the ability to replace the reoccurring and unpleasant memories that keep lurking through his thoughts.
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