The Rise of Tayo
Karina Ramirez
Hum 312
February 25, 2012
The Rise of Tayo
Spirituality is defined as “of relating to sacred matters”. To many people this has different meanings. In the traditional modernistic western, this can be defined as being sacred to Christianity. In the Christian approach one is believed to be spiritual if they attend church and pray to Jesus and abide by the rules set by the bible. It is a sin to go against the bible and doing so leads to a consequence of praying for forgiveness to Jesus in hope for your eternal salvation of your soul. But to many, this type of church does not exist. To native-Americans, spirituality is defined as something more powerful than the church, stories and rituals is what takes part in fighting evil. In her novel Ceremony, Leslie Silko, defines spirituality in the process of storytelling to cure the natives of famine of their own origins.
Storytelling in Ceremony does not only imply the course of telling a story, but the dignified and traditional storytelling to Native Americans. Usually, in the Native American community everything is passed on in the form of stories. In Ceremony, Thought Woman emphasizes the value of storytelling by having the community perform the rituals and ceremonies in fighting evil because without the stories they would be defenseless (2). Storytelling is usually a tribal event, while the leaders of the tribes are the official storytellers. To connect to a more spirituality feeling, stories will usually be passed on in recurring and melodious manner so the importance and purpose of it can be remembered more easily.
The stories in Ceremony are given in the form of poems. These poems or stories have the influence to cure. They contain rituals and ceremonies that can cure individuals and communities, or reasons for their difficulties. The stories describe how everything in human beings and nature is related to each other one way or another. In one story the sun is presented as talking to the
Hum 312
February 25, 2012
The Rise of Tayo
Spirituality is defined as “of relating to sacred matters”. To many people this has different meanings. In the traditional modernistic western, this can be defined as being sacred to Christianity. In the Christian approach one is believed to be spiritual if they attend church and pray to Jesus and abide by the rules set by the bible. It is a sin to go against the bible and doing so leads to a consequence of praying for forgiveness to Jesus in hope for your eternal salvation of your soul. But to many, this type of church does not exist. To native-Americans, spirituality is defined as something more powerful than the church, stories and rituals is what takes part in fighting evil. In her novel Ceremony, Leslie Silko, defines spirituality in the process of storytelling to cure the natives of famine of their own origins.
Storytelling in Ceremony does not only imply the course of telling a story, but the dignified and traditional storytelling to Native Americans. Usually, in the Native American community everything is passed on in the form of stories. In Ceremony, Thought Woman emphasizes the value of storytelling by having the community perform the rituals and ceremonies in fighting evil because without the stories they would be defenseless (2). Storytelling is usually a tribal event, while the leaders of the tribes are the official storytellers. To connect to a more spirituality feeling, stories will usually be passed on in recurring and melodious manner so the importance and purpose of it can be remembered more easily.
The stories in Ceremony are given in the form of poems. These poems or stories have the influence to cure. They contain rituals and ceremonies that can cure individuals and communities, or reasons for their difficulties. The stories describe how everything in human beings and nature is related to each other one way or another. In one story the sun is presented as talking to the