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A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range

of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning,

or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay

analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or

themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.


In Leslie Marmon Silko' Ceremony the "belly" is the location for the birth of stories, both good and evil and so the belly is treasured by characters like Betonie and Tayo who represent good. This idea of a location for all stories help to pass on ideas and important morals the community has to all generations. Upon hearing a story it is Laguna tradition to be part of that story and know all the details to the story so that it is never told wrong.
Characters who posses good Laguna values treasure the idea that the belly is the house, and the life bringer of stories. Betonie is the first to bring reference to this as he rubs his belly when describing where the stories come from but throughout the book Tayo often references the belly. Tayo uses his belly to help understand what is right and wrong, this implies that he uses the stories kept there to help make judgments and continue on the path of the good. Both men treasure this area a sacred area and believe that stories are important to keep the balance between good and evil.
Silko is able to show evil characters with the lack of respect for the belly and the stories that are in it. Emo is Laguna tribe member who tells lies and pretends they are stories, he has no respect for the traditions of the Laguna tribe and so does not believe that stories are kept in the belly. Tayo notices this once while drunk and stabs Emo in the stomach to get the fake stories out of Emo's belly. But because the stories are only in the belly metaphorically Emo continues to spread his fake stories spreading evil throughout the community.
This ability to spot good and evil characters in the book by their stories in their bellies push the idea that there must be a balance between good and evil in the world. Tayo keeps the stories pure and good while Emo tints his stories with evil thus spreading his evil at the same time Tayo spreads goodness. It must always be this way with neither side getting the edge on the other.
Leslie Marmon Silko keeps the symbol of the belly from the beginning to the end, making it obvious which characters are good, and which are evil in Ceremony. From knowing the characters and seeing the balance it is shown that there must be a balance between these two forces. 

Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko

• Born in 1948
• Laguna Pueblo tribe member who is part Mexican
• Not accepted fully into the Pueblo tribe
• faced with many harsh critics from her and other tribes as she revealed their secrets

Setting

• Japan during World War II
• A hospital in Los Angeles after the war
• Laguna Reservation before and after the war

Characters

• Thought - Woman
• creates the story/ ceremony that Tayo lives
• creates all stories and life events

• Betonie
• the narrator of the story described when the narrator touches his belly which is a direct reference to something Betonie later says in the book
• starts Tayo on his ceremony, and helps to cleanse the evil and the fake stories from Tayo
• Healer who is part Mexican part Laguna, he is looked down upon by most tribe members as he adapts his ceremonies to the present time and lives in a White city
• Tayo
• Mexican Pueblo Mixed boy whose mother was a whore and gave him to her sister (Tayo’s aunt) after being homeless for several years.
• Lives with his Auntie, Old Grandmother, Rocky (his cousin), Uncle Josiah, and Uncle Robert for the majority of his life. Both Old Grandmother and Uncle Josiah show him the ways of the Laguna people and inspire him to keep the Laguna ways.
• Doubles as the Sun Father who saves the clouds from the gamblers
• Rocky
• Tayo’s cousin, who is full Laguna yet strives to be White
• Rejects the Laguna ways and is more into science than the Laguna stories
• Dies in the War that he volunteered himself and Tayo for
• Uncle Josiah
• Upheld the traditional Laguna values except in one sense, he loved a Mexican woman, Night Swan
• Treated Tayo as a son and spent his life dedicated to Mexican Cows
• Died during the war but at home in the ranch following his cows
• .Auntie
• Rocky’s mother who spoils Rocky and gives him the best of everything, pushing him into the White community while shoving Tayo away. She always found a way to show to Tayo that Rocky was superior to him.
• Christian woman who made it a point to go to church every Sunday and grab the attention by having a “hard” life taking care of Tayo and putting up with Josiah sleeping with a Mexican
• Uncle Robert
• married to Auntie but is the complete opposite, he is soft spoken and when he talks to Tayo he treats him nicely. Although he often stays quiet and is compliant with everything his wife says.
• Old Grandmother
• Voice of reasoning, although age makes her weak and cold she keeps her Laguna traditions strong.
• Loves and favors Tayo but notes that his story/ceremony is repeated and that it was the same story earlier just now, “the names sound different” (242)
• Emo
• A witch who was first set as an outcast when his parents named him Geronimo, the name of the Apache general  who was at war with the Laguna’s many times.
• Jealous of Tayo as he is White and so Emo believes that Tayo should be out enjoying the White benefits.
• Loved war and doubled as the Gambler in the ancient story that was told during Tayo’s journey
• Murderer of many Japanese, Pinkie (Emo’s close follower) and Harley (Tayo’s “friend”)
• Night Swan
• Josiah’s Mexican lover
• Tayo’s first lover
• Mexican up the tree that many Laguna people were frightened of
• Mother of Betonie
• Ts’eh
• Represents the yellow mountains
• Tayo’s true lover who helps him stick with the Laguna traditions and shares stories with him.
• Is married to the hunter and collects Tayo’s cows for him when Tayo chases them down the mountain

Plot

• The thought woman creates the story, and Betonie tells it, it is a mix between Tayo’s journey and a few Laguna traditional stories including one of the Gambler and the Sun Father. Both stories coincide and unravel at the same pace although more emphasis is on Tayo’s
• Tayo’s journey begins when he is dreaming of what happened in Japan, the war, the people, Rocky’s death, the alleged killing of Josiah, and the foggy hospital, this all happens on the ranch and makes it appear as if Tayo is insane.
• Tayo keeps flashing back to memories of how he and Rocky used to live together,  his relationship with Josiah, the animals they used to have, the rainy weather in Japan, and the cows Josiah bought.
• Harley takes Tayo out drinking and Tayo remembers when he stabbed Emo in the stomach (where Emo’s fake stories are kept) because Emo was recalling a glorified version of the war and and the women he slept with. Tayo believes there is no good in war and is upset that Emo enjoyed the killing of men.
• Tayo then remembers being at Auntie’s laying on the bed and having a medicine man try to fix him, but this medicine man does little except ease the pain.
• Tayo remembers Josiah and the time Tayo slept with Josiah’s woman but this is viewed differently in this culture so it was not as big of a deal as it would be in the White culture
• Tayo remembers a life of homelessness with his mother when Tayo is brought to Betonie in hopes of finally clearing his mind
• Tayo goes on his ceremony which first happens in Betonie’s room and then continues as he sleeps with Ts’eh and then follows the stars to save Josiah’s Mexican cattle from the Whites
• Tayo has a moment with the mountain lion who shows him where the cattle are and then once Tayo saves the cattle and is captured by White rangers the mountain lion’s tracks lead the rangers to give Tayo up in hopes of catching the lion. Which doesn’t happen as it snows shortly after they leave.
• Tayo makes his way back to Ts’eh with the Hunter who is the wife of Ts’eh. At their home Tayo learns they captured the cattle and they promise to keep them until his return. When Tayo leaves and then returns with Robert, Ts’eh and the hunter are gone but the cattle are healthy and well feed.
• The next spring Tayo volunteers to take care of the cattle full time to Uncle Robert and Auntie’s obvious relief.
• Tayo watches the cattle in the mountain and meets Ts’eh again, the two enjoy their time together but then Uncle Robert comes and warns Tayo that Emo is spreading lies about Tayo saying that Tayo is crazy so their happy time comes to an end.
• Ts’eh then leaves Tayo and Tayo goes further in the mountain to avoid the Whites who are coming after him and Emo. Sadly Tayo sees Harley and believes Harley and Pinkie have his best interest at heart so he gets into their truck. Tayo soon realizes there is an underlying tension in the truck so when Harley and Pinkie leave him alone, drunk and passed out he takes his chance and runs.
• Tayo finds water and while hiding in the rocks watches as Pinkie and Emo mutilate and kill Harley. This is hard for Tayo to watch and although he contemplates killing Emo he stays hidden keeping the balance between good and evil, as killing Emo would have been exactly as the witches wanted. In staying hidden Tayo completes his ceremony and returns home to Auntie.
• Emo and Pinkie appear to not be caught but then Emo drunkenly kills Pinkie and so the tribe kicks Emo out of the area.
• The book ends with Old Grandmother saying that this has happened before and is not a unique story, except for the names.

Quotes:

    “‘It seems like I already heard these stories before… only thing is, the names sound different.’” (242) This shows that this is not a unique story and that the balance between good and evil is alway an issue somebody must always step up to represent good and there is always a Gambler acting in evil ways.

    “But as long as you remember what you have seen, then nothing is gone. As long as you remember, it is part of this story we have together.” (215) keeping the story is just as important as taking part in it because that is how the morals and goodness is kept.

Theme

    In Ceremony  Silko suggests good and evil exist in everything and are therefore meaningless classifications, understanding this allows one to achieve personal and commercial balance.

Response to Course Material

This feels like the first substantial response since before winter break. We have accomplished quite a bit in this last month not only in lit but in all of my classes.
 In this class we started off with Ms. Holmes pulling each of us aside to review our Century Quilt essays while working on multiple choice questions. Both activities helped me better understand what the AP graders are looking for. I now know that I need to practice shouting out my ideas in my essays and I need to practice my vocabulary. My lack of vocab was apparent when I was trying the multiple choice questions, I understood what the questions were asking but many times I gave the wrong answer because I did not know what the answers meant.
After a week of working through questions and essays we discussed Ros and Guil. This is my favorite play we have read so far, there is so much to it that even now I still want to talk about it. I felt slighted because we only had four days to discuss such an in depth book but I know that we are crunched for time, I have noticed this in many of my classes, in bio Ms. Palmer gave us so much homework after the long weekend break to catch us back up. To slow our progress even more (at least for my 6th hour class) was the band festival, apparently more than half our class is in band or just absent on the same day. This day was meant for a closed prompt Eleven but instead we created the worst t-shirt idea ever to make the skippers feel guilty. This was a great plan and we had so much fun devising a hideous shirt, and I mean hideous, so it was so funny when the band kids came back and some even liked the shirts! Ms. Holmes had to turn away to compose herself because of how ridiculous the shirts were and the only person who stood against the shirt was Max who was shut down by us plotters.
6th hour then started to catch up to the other hours, we read the same essay and watched the same power point until we were back in the classroom where we could work on Eleven. I thought this story was interesting and I loved how the world's issues were exposed through an eleven year old girl. 
After we caught up with the class we started Ceremony, read and discussed the stiffs of Defending Walt Whitman. These are both about Indians although they are from different tribes. It is interesting to hear the differences between the tribes and Ms. Holmes is always willing to share her knowledge so it was a bit like a history class when we started these works. 
Now we are working on critical lenses and the circle that encompasses all stories. I find this perplexing and have thought about fitting all shows and books into this in my spare time. It is entertaining when you have nothing to do. 

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2006. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For

example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance.

Choose a novel or play in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in

which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole.

    Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman portrays the country as a location of hope and freedom. Both Willy and Biff long for the country even though Willy does not admit it. Through Willy’s memories, his happiness is shown in the country and Biff tells everybody about his freedom in the country as opposed to the strained feeling the city brings.

The country in Willy’s memories is always full of sunshine, hope, and admiration. His boys love him and respect him when he lived in the country.  Life is perfect for him, he has a wife who loves him, boys who help him around the house, and a beautiful, large yard but all of this changes when he goes to the city. In Willy’s memories Biff is great at football and Happy does whatever Biff wants playing the adoring younger brother.Willy could not be any happier but one step into the city starts his downfall.

 Miller shows the city as a dirty place, it is always gloomy in the city and people act out of the ordinary when surrounded by this gloom and dirt. Willy is no different, in the country he is a family man, and in the city he is a business sleaze. Fallen under the corrupt spell of the city Willy finds himself a mistress and hides it from his family until his son Biff finds them together. Biff from then on is destroyed and runs to the country to get back the values it brought.

Biff goes South to find a job, one where he can work in the fresh air and support a family. Although Biff had good intentions he was unable to stick to one job and found himself in jail. Once he was set free he came back to his family in the city. Here he finds the city depressed his father to the point of suicidal thoughts and corrupted his little brother, turning him into a ladies man. Biff who still holds the country values tries to convince Happy that one girl is enough and that physical labor is better than talking your way up. But Biff is the only one who keeps these values and so when his father dies he goes back to the country to  be free and start his own family.

Arthur Miller’s play shows that all family values come from the country where life is simple and peaceful. He does this by contrasting the country values with the values of the city which leads many good men astray.

Summary and Analysis of Ros and Guil are Dead

Tom Stoppard:

• Born in 1937 and is still alive and well
• Married with four kids
• Wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1967
• Directed the movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead  in 1990

Setting:

There is a strong chance that the whole play takes place in the Players’ caravan and is timeless as it occurs every time we read or view the play but within the caravan the setting is as follows:

• “A place without any visible character.” (pg 11)
• During the Elizabethan era   
• In a forest
• Elsinore
• On a boat
• Maybe in England

Characters

• Rosencrantz (Ros) - the innocently blissful man who is lost within the play
• Guildenstern (Guil) - Ros’ companion through the play who tries to make a logical conclusion from the non logical and from doing so is often angry
• The Player- the only person who seems to know what is going on, he has a band of players
• The crew from Shakespeare’s Hamlet - these characters, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, and Hamlet, all act as they do in Shakespeare’s play with minute differences

Plot

Act I

• Ros and Guil toss coins to pass time, Guil becomes frustrated and worried as each coin lands on heads
• Go to the forest and run into the players
• argue with the players about their profession and then are sucked into the wagon and thrown into Elsinore where they see Hamlet and Ophelia half dressed
• Greeted by Claudius and Gertrude who  mistake Ros and Guil for each other  
• Get directions to find out why Hamlet is acting so strange
• In a hallway by themselves, Ros and Guil, discuss everything and nothing including how to greet Hamlet, what they think they remember, the question game, and the frustrating situation they are in
• See Polonius and Hamlet finishing a part of Hamlet
• Greet Hamlet

Act II

• Finish the discussion with Hamlet from Hamlet act II scene ii
• Talk about the players with Hamlet and Hamlet claims he is not mad
• Ros and Guil discuss their conversation with Hamlet and Ros believes they lost the game
• Ros and Guil cannot figure out the time or direction
• Player, Hamlet, and Polonius discuss the play for tomorrow and Hamlet welcomes Ros and Guil again
• Ros and Guil talk to the Player, who is salty about being left to perform to no audience in the forest
• Continue to talk to the Player who informs them he can come and go as he pleases unlike them and the three of them gossip about Hamlet
• Player leaves Ros and Guil discuss chaotically again
• Gertrude and Claudius  talks to them about Hamlet and they inform them about the play
• Ros and Guil discuss leaving but do not because Hamlet and Ophelia enter followed by the players
• Players perform The Murder of Gonzago (Hamlet)
• Hamlet interrupts by yelling at Ophelia and they are followed by Claudius and Polonius
• Play starts back up and the player talks about death in a play
• Play in front of Hamlet and family ends and Ros and Guil go back to discussing directions and time
• Claudius tells Ros and Guil about Hamlet and Polonius’ death
• Ros and Guil talk about finding Hamlet but instead wait and Hamlet comes in dragging Polonius’ body
• Hamlet comes back in and they ask to escort him to the king
• Claudius comes in Hamlet leaves but then Hamlet is escorted back in with an escort
• They are then at the harbor about to board and Hamlet talks to the passing soldiers
• Ros and Guil discuss never knowing where they are

Act III

• On the boat Ros and Guil believe they are dead
• Ros and Guil talk about how dark it is
• Ros finds Hamlet sleeping
• Play a money game where Ros cheats the by having coins in both hands then none
• Ros and Guil discuss their plans and the letter
• R and G  practice meeting the key and then open the letter discovering they are signing Hamlet’s death warrant
• Brings on a new discussion on friendship and duty as characters
• Find the players hiding in a barrel
• Players are running from the King
• Go to bed and Hamlet changes the letter
• Ros, Guil and the Player continue discussion of running from the king as if they hadn’t fallen asleep
• Pirates take Hamlet’s barrel
• Discuss Hamlet’s disappearance and then Ros and Guil tell the Player about the letter which now says it is R and G who are to be hung for treason
• Guil “kills” the Player
• Ros and Guil are hung
• Ends with the last scene in Hamlet in which Horatio tells the story

Techniques:

1. The fourth wall is broken to create a tension within the audience and to draw attention to the fact that we are not characters in a play.
2. Stoppard uses repetition to add to the confusion throughout the play. This is important as the play is already confusing and the characters have no sense of what is going on.
3. The play keeps a comedic tone on a serious matter to appeal to the intellect in many ways.
4. The setting is kept vague to add an air of mystery and to create the possibility of it being a play within a play.
5. Stoppard has his characters confused except for the Player to show the distinction between us and the characters.

Quotes:

    “For some of us it is performance, for others, patronage. They are two sides of the same coin, or let us say, being as there are so many of us, the same side of two coins.” (23)

The Player is directly telling Ros and Guil that they are the same as the players with only a slight difference. But the player is also addressing the audience by referencing the number of people present and claiming that in the case that Ros and Guil are performing for us they are the “same side of two coins” which is unlike being the patronage.

    “Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It’s the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn’t make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.” (67)

Here the Player is telling not only Ros and Guil, but also the audience, that truth is whatever you would like it to be. This is Stoppard’s message to the audience that we decide what our truth is and as long as we believe it is true, it is our truth.

    “Be happy- if you’re not even happy what’s so good about surviving? (He picks himself up) We’ll be all right. I suppose we just go on.” (121)

Ros is trying to convince Guil that no matter what situation they are thrown in they must be happy. No matter what you do in life if you are not happy you will have a pointless life.

Theme:

    Stoppard suggests that as we are not characters restricted by the design of a higher power, we have the opportunity to chose our own direction and identity.

Through the use of the previously stated techniques Stoppard creates a world of chaos. In this world Ros and Guil are left to question their lives which they have no control over, unlike the audience who have control over their lives. This is stressed by Stoppard continually pointing out the characters are part of a play. At one point the Player even says that actors are the “opposite of people” (63) which shows that we can take the opposite course of the actors and characters in this play.