Key Facts
full title · Ceremony
author · Leslie Marmon Silko
type of work · Novel, but incorporates poetry
genre · Native American story; postmodern
language · English (with inclusion of Laguna Pueblo words)
time and place written · Mid-1970s,
New Mexico.
date of first publication · 1977
publisher · Penguin
narrator · Third person narrator limited to Tayo's perspective,
in addition to third person limited and omniscient and first person
narrators in the poems
climax · The night at the abandoned mine.
protagonist · Tayo
antagonist · whites; and Emo
setting (time) · The main present of the text is set just after World
War II, but the text ranges in time from a mythical past through
the 1920s and World
War II up until that present.
setting (place) · The majority of the novel is set on and around the
Laguna Reservation, in the Southwest of the United States, although portions
are also set in a mythical land, and in the Philippines.
point of view · Primarily third person limited
falling action · World War II
tense · Past
foreshadowing · As time in the novel runs in a circular fashion, all
events are at once foreshadowed and remembered.
tone · Somber but hopeful
themes · Storytelling; contact between Native American and
white cultures; tradition; water and drought
motifs · Non-linear narrative structure; combination of poetry
and prose
symbols · The Gallup Ceremonial
