Zeshan Panjwani
10/27/09
Paper 1
The Spider web effect.
A spiral of web created from silk connects thread by thread along different points of the orb. There is neither beginning nor end, just collectiveness. What affects one thread affects the entire web. A ripple effect like that of rain drops falling into a body of water. This web is a symbol of a community and its surroundings. More specifically, Tayo in Ceremony represents the thread that is the very essence of the web. His actions and his journey through completing the ceremony lead to a series of events that affected the web as a whole, most notably, his personal struggle with evil, race, PTSD and the loss of his closest friends and family. With the aid of key individuals and a greater understanding of the world, Tayo was able to overcome his tribulations through a collective effort between him and the people who had his best interest at heart.
The green eyed Native American is ridiculed and reminded by his friends and auntie about his mixed race and distorted view of his culture. It would be easy to resort to alcohol abuse like that of his friends from war. However, Tayo does not cope with his situation in the same manner. His symptoms are somewhat more intense and eerie as he is consumed in the middle of the night by his mind wandering back to the Philippines during the time ofwar. His dreams, ironically, stop him from sleeping. He is constantly tormented by his flashbacks of Rocky’s death and combat. His pain is far from a cry; intense emotions make him vomit as he is constantly reminded of how Josiah and Rocky are among the dead. The veteran’s Hospital was his abode of recovery for quite sometime. Tayo’s approach to solving his problems, his coping mechanism, came from the advice of his grandmother, a Ceremony that would relieve him of his “evil”. This evil that lurked in the mind of Tayo came into fruition in a number of occasions with Emo. Emo was a direct manifestation of this evil as...