Ceremony reflection

Tayo's expedition to unearth his true self through the Ceremony and his pilgrimage  across the land - measures from the war to the plains where the cattle were found. Tayo's journey is introduced to the reader as he awakens from a terrible nightmare of the war mixed with the melody of the song 'Y volvere' - a remembrance of his mother. The novel leads the readers through Tayo's life - seen from his point of view, with memories blurring and melding together with the present time. Constantly Tayo's memories are in upheaval as he struggles with both comforting and disquieting thoughts that seem to blend and cause a disarray in Tayo's mind, further condemning him to look back in a reflection of his life in a sort of equilibrium between his memories. As he returns from the war - after having lost his cousin Rocky, he is treated with contempt from the people whose respect vanished with the absence of his uniform, to his own family - the ones who took him in after his mother left him.  From then on even after leaving the hospital people around him insist that he see a healer - while not quite discounting the amount of respect in the community it will cost them. After meeting with the medicine man, Tayo gains some help for his plight, but is not healed of the destruction that rages in him. In a further search to heal the recurring past that invades his thoughts - Tayo looks for the cattle - and in doing so he becomes at peace with Josiah - his death, and the flashbacks to the war that centered around his uncle. From the cattle Tayo finds Ts'eh - who resembles the figure of earth much like Night Swan does with Spring. Both symbolize Tayo's concern for getting in touch with nature - a part of his healing and acceptance. Soon to follow in the steps of the destroyers plans - Emo and his crowd of friends convince others already bred by hate that Tayo is dangerous and is a threat to the peace of the town / reservation. They try to lure him into completing the dark ways of the destroyers through use of witchery but Tayo resists and the plan is disassembled. The account of the destroyers finishes and the old tales are merged with the new. "Whirling darkness started its journey with its witchery and its witchery has returned upon it... it is dead for now" (Silko 242-243). The darkness recedes and makes way for a time of change. As the story of the destroyers comes to an end, so in turn does Tayo's, and he finally comes into completion of the ceremony in the search for the cure that will bring him back to his true self.