Ceremony has been an interesting read so far, though rather difficult to follow. The story jumps around in time without warning and uses pronouns without antecedents, making it hard to know what exactly is going on. Often, when Silko dives into a flashback, it takes several sentences to realize there was a change. I think, so far, I've read the first forty pages a total of three times, and I still only barely understand it. Nevertheless, I'm finding Tayo very easy to relate to. Both he and I are trapped between cultures and ostracized by both cultures we belong to. Either direction we turn, we face expectations. All the white people treat Tayo like a Native American while all the Laguna people see him like a traitor who sides with the whites. Likewise, without ever talking to me, hearing me say anything in class, or knowing my grades, I'm assumed to be brilliant in math by many non-Asian students. When I come across one of my mother's friends from China, however, they always assume I don't understand a lick of Mandarin and want to know what "typical Americans" like me do on a daily basis. There was one time I was sitting with a person from each race, and they were trying to decide what race I belonged to. The Asian insisted that I couldn't possibly be Asian while the American swore I was from the continent itself. Like Tayo, the not-white side of my family expects me to live just like them, and basically consider me a disgrace. Like Auntie, they treat my mom like she had failed somehow because she didn't marry a person of their race (and/or someone from a rich family).
I'm getting increasingly worried about my essay writing every time we have a practice essay in class. I have no trouble finding things in the pieces of literature, but connecting them into some statement about meaning can take me much too long, resulting in a short essay that sounds unfinished. I hope we keep practicing and get more tips because, as it is, this doesn't bode well for the AP exam.
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