“Ceremony” by Leslie Marmon Silko

Order Description

Write a response essay on the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko.

Choose ONE of the following topics, craft a thesis, and develop your thesis with reference to the text. Strive to be specific and precise.

Topics to choose from:

1. Discuss the significance of water imagery in Ceremony.

2. Discuss the hero’s quest. Here are some questions to consider. What impels the quest? What are the hero’s obstacles or trials? Who or what helps him? What is his goal? How does the quest plot relate to the complex structure of the narrative with its multiple time frames?

3. Discuss the role of the poems drawn from Laguna cosmology. What is their relationship to the prose narrative?

4. What is the relationship between the two cavities in the earth in Ceremony, and what ideas about the human relationship to the earth are represented by this aspect of the novel?

5. Discuss the importance of gender roles in the novel. Does anyone cross these roles? A speculative question: my might Leslie Marmon Silko chose to focus her novel on the experience of a man?

6. Discuss the clash of cultures in the novel. Is there a resolution, represented through either the content or the form of the novel?