Ceremony: 191-end

Although I have now finished the book I still feel a bit unsure of how to look at it and realize what I think I about it as a whole. I feel that I have been able to connect with the character of Tayo and understand his pain and struggle as an "outcast." His life seems extremely sad and lonely all because he is an Indian. On the bottom of page 194 on to the top of page 195, frogs are mentioned in order to show just how different the Indians are from the American people (or the white people). It says, "...people always told us not to kill frogs because the frogs would get angry and send so much rain there would be floods. The Science teacher laughed loudly..." This one quote shows that the Indians (Tayo's beliefs) are extremely different from that of the Americans only creating an even larger racial/cultural gap between them. This makes life in America for the Indian people very difficult.

As I read further, I was able to come to some conclusions and understand more of what happened to the character of Tayo while at war. At this point, felt that Tayo was really an outsider, although he was fighting for the United States. A specific quote mentions him being an Indian and stating that he is "too much trouble, and they would let him go," because he is injured. This part hurt me to read and I actually understood (or I think I did) what was going on and what time the event was taking place.

As I approached the end of the novel, things started to cheer up for Tayo and in turn made the book seem a little happier. When Tayo starts to have a relationship with Montano (also called Ts'eh) and they begin to fall in love, I felt happy for Tayo. I felt that because Tayo was able to relate to Ts'eh because she was an Indian and they genuinely seemed to care for each other. I loved when it said, "When he cried now, it was because she loved him so much." I felt that Tayo had changed because of Ts'eh and that his life was little bit brighter with her in it.

In all honestly I hated the end of the book. It was really hard to read because it seemed to cruel and I was kind of lost as to why it all was happening. The end of the book was full of death and I would have liked to have known more about where Tayo was...I got the feeling that he was a lot happier and that he was back living with his Auntie and Grandmother and Robert. I felt that Tayo had finally come to realize who he was. I thought it was interesting for the Grandmother to point out the idea of hearing a similar story with the death of Pinkie...she said she heard the story before but with different names allowing the readers to see that history seems to repeat but with different people in the Indian group. (At least this is the way that I took in all of this...I just hope I am semi-right.)

I realized I did have some questions as I read and they were: Who is the girl at the hunters? (I sort of was able to answer this later on in reading.) Is Tayo better when he says, "When he had lain in bed vomiting and crying."?