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The last lines in the prose section of Ceremony, Old Grandma's words, refer most directly to the information that Emo killed Pinkie, but the FBI called it an accident and simply asked Emo to leave town. However, symbolically, her statement is meant to be applied to the entire book. It affirms the cyclic nature of Laguna cosmology. Although the world is seen to change, it does not progress in a straight line, but rather constantly curves back on itself, so that the new repeats and connects with the old to the point where even the terms past and present are only somewhat applicable. Throughout the novel, the poems and the prose sections share plot lines, so that they are also the same stories with different names. In this way, Silko shows that her book is also part of the cycle. Having Grandma comment explicitly on the phenomenon also underscores the Native American's self-awareness. Old Grandma's words are not the result of the confusion of old age, but of an understanding of the way the world works.

The last lines in the prose section of Ceremony, Old Grandma's words, refer most directly to the information that Emo killed Pinkie, but the FBI called it an accident and simply asked Emo to leave town. However, symbolically, her statement is meant to be applied to the entire book. It affirms the cyclic nature of Laguna cosmology. Although the world is seen to change, it does not progress in a straight line, but rather constantly curves back on itself, so that the new repeats and connects with the old to the point where even the terms past and present are only somewhat applicable. Throughout the novel, the poems and the prose sections share plot lines, so that they are also the same stories with different names. In this way, Silko shows that her book is also part of the cycle. Having Grandma comment explicitly on the phenomenon also underscores the Native American's self-awareness. Old Grandma's words are not the result of the confusion of old age, but of an understanding of the way the world works.

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