Male and Female -- Both a Part of Leslie Marmon Silko's book Ceremony Indian society defines what is positive about the male essence to be what is active in the world. However, the male protagonist Tayo of Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony, feels as if he has been denied his ability to demonstrate his manhood to the world, as an Indian brave ought to. Because of his perceived failure fighting in a white-driven war, Tayo experiences a sense of alienation from his current society, although he has finally returned to Indian life. He feels cast out of the white world for his inability to kill Japanese people, and feels cast out of the Indian world because of his sense...

One of the reader's first images of Tayo is as he sites by the window at his Auntie's house. Recently released from a mental hospital after his mental breakdown during the war, he states that when he was fighting he felt "trapped in a language he couldn't understand" in the white world. (6) He saw his friend Rocky die in a Japanese jungle. He remembers praying against the rain, feeling as if he could do nothing. And now Tayo feels responsible for his society's current drought. He feels as if he is being punished for those prayers, and feels unable to understand his own, native language which before he could understand perfectly.
In Indian…