Sajeda Ahmad 

October 9, 2018 
 
 
In a well-organized essay, examine the ways multiple authors approach the same 
pattern in literature. Develop a claim about the pattern, examine how those patterns are 
developed throughout the works, and propose a theory about the significance of the 
pattern in culture.  
 
Human beings have been telling stories since they first learned to speak. Over time, 
these stories have been passed down from generations to generations known as myths. 
Leslie Marmon Silko, author of the novel ​Ceremony​, demonstrates myths to connect with 
the main character, Tayo, and his cultural background. Silko applies patterns of myths and 
their significances in culture and surroundings throughout the novel by including poems, 
stories being told by Tayo’s family, and the expectations of his cultural heritage. There are 
also a few texts that I have which connect to the personal significance of myths and their 
effects on culture. 
 
Throughout ​Ceremony​, ​there were numerous poems being told. Every poem had an 
important story to it, from evil doings to rain and to war. These poems also had myths tied 
back to all of them, most of them relating to culture and history. For example, in the opening 
poem of ​Ceremony​ it states “There is life here for the people. And in the belly of this story 
the rituals and the ceremony are still growing” (page 2). The poem is displaying the myth of 
the beginning of life and people coming to be. This quote develops myth’s significance in 
culture and the belief on how this world came to be. This relates to the book, ​The Myth of 
Individualism,​ by Peter Callero because in the book, the author portrays American culture 
and society effects on an individual. For example, page 20 in the book talks about how 
different cultures around the world have different ways in raising children. In America, 
raising a child means to mind your own business and worry about your family, but in Africa, 
to raise a child there is a popular saying which is “It takes a village to raise a child.” What 
Callero is trying to imply is the myth of individualism that is taken place in American culture. 
The myth has an important impact on how people in this country act in comparison to other 
nations. This connects with Silko’s myths through the patterns of culture and how stories 
have an impact on what different cultures believe and how they act. 
 
The stories told in ​Ceremony​ had a great impact on Tayo. He was living on a 
reservation, and though through school he had been taught by the scientific theories and 
reality by his teachers, he had never forgotten the myths his grandmother had told him. Old 
Grandma states “Back in time immemorial, things were different, the animals could talk to 
human beings and many magical things still happened” (page 87). This is was what old 
Grandma had taught Tayo, it was a part of the culture that had to be shared to the younger 
generations to grow up with. Silko also states “He never lost the feeling he had in his chest 
when she spoke those words, as she did each time she told them stories; and he still felt it 
was true, despite all they had taught him in school” (page 87). This is the belief Tayo had in 
him, what was true to him were the myths of his culture and heritage being told by his 
grandmother. This connects with the tellings of “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”​, 
by Thomas C. Foster. Foster analyzes myths and defines them as “the shaping and 
sustaining power of story and symbol” (para.1 Ch.9). How Foster defines myths associated 
with what Tayo chooses to believe. Foster states “the ability of story to explain ourselves to 
ourselves in ways that physics, philosophy, mathematics, chemistry - all very highly useful 
and informative in their own right - can’t” (para.1 Ch.9). Foster is explaining how one should 
see these myths or stories and develop them the way they believe should be interpreted. 
Just how Tayo took the stories of his grandmother and interpreted them as the truth rather 
than the “stories” his teachers had taught him. Through their culture, it is the patterns of the 
stories and myths that live on. 
 
One thing ​Ceremony​ focuses on a lot, are expectations of cultural heritage. Tayo was 
a change in his culture because of his mixed background due to what is considered a 
shameful incident done by his mother, having a child with a white man. In the novel, Auntie 
stated “Right as the sun came up, she walked under that big cottonwood tree, and I could 
see her clearly; she had no clothes. Nothing” (page 65). Auntie was describing Tayo’s 
mother, she goes on afterwards talking about what a disgrace she was to the family and 
their culture. The myths in their culture were based on respect and sticking with their own 
kind, which Tayo’s mother had change, first off by breaking rules such as not being sober, 
and having a child with a man outside of their race. This relates to ​The World of Myth​, b​ y 
David Adams Leeming through the differences seen in different cultures by certain issues. 
For example, on page 47 the text states “The Hebrew story, although clearly based on the 
older Babylonian one, emphasizes the idea of humanity’s sinfulness. The Flood is a 
punishment” (Hebrew: Noah). This culture believed the myth that the flood sent by god to 
Noah and his people, was a punishment of the people’s sinful acts. However, a flood in a 
different culture can mean something different, for example “The Flood here is used to 
erase a mistake rather than to punish sins” (page 60). The Mayan (Popol-Vuh) culture myth 
of the flood was not seen as a punishment, but as a way for god to erase mistakes made by 
(him). Going back to ​Ceremony​,​ the myths told by other cultures were proven to show the 
differences and influences each myth has on culture, some are good and some are bad. In 
Indian culture, it is bad to have changes and shameful to have their people start acting like 
whites, but in other cultures, change could possibly have a myth of good rather than bad. 
Each myth has a different story to it, and that reflects on each and every culture. 
 
Myths have been around for as long as human existence. The pattern of myths and 
their effects on culture had been substantially shown throughout Leslie Marmon Silko’s 
novel, ​Ceremony​. I​ n many ways is this important because myths have an effect on belief 
and personal significances in culture. One might not notice the differences and effects spot 
on, but studying and continuously reading passages and texts relating to myths and their 
patterns on how they focus on culture, have set an explicable meaning of the differences 
one does not always come to see. Myths have shaped our world in numerous perspectives 
that have astonishing stories to tell for generations yet to come. These myths are the 
significance in what defines culture, because all cultures deal with or include myths.  
 
MLA Citations: 
 
Silko, Leslie Marmon. ​Ceremony.​ Deluxe ed., Penguin books, 1977. 
Foster, Thomas C. ​How to Read Literature like a Professor​. New York Times, 2003.  
Callero, Peter L. ​The Myth of Individualism​. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.  
Leeming, David Adams. ​The World of Myth​. Oxford UP, 1990.