Tayo finally makes this connection through seeing the connections between Los Alamos and the creation of the atomic bomb and his own experiences: "From the jungles of his dreaming he recognized why the Japanese voices had merged with Laguna voices, with Josiah's voice and Rocky's voice the lines of cultures and worlds were drawn in flat dark lines on fine light sand, converging in the middle of witchery's final ceremonial sand painting. Because we do not see this connection, we continue to destroy ourselves, our fellow humans, and the world in which we must live. Silko's novel is a beautiful reflection on the ways in which we are all interconnected-all humans and all of nature-but do not see this connection. Until he visits Betonie, that is, a medicine man who tells him about the witchery that is at play in the world, witchery that Tayo can help put an end to as he completes a ceremony that will also help him heal. He is sick, depressed, suffering from PTSD, it seems, and unable to re-integrate into his society. Ceremony itself takes part in this process, telling the story of Tayo, a young Native American come home from WWII and severely traumatized by the experience. Storytelling is a way of making the world, a way of protecting self and culture. Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony opens with a defense of storytelling.
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