Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8C7fP9tago

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony

This week students are asked to write on one aspect of “Old Betonie.” He’s a crucial character that (though he is vaguely referenced earlier), we don’t actually meet until Tayo stays with him until around page 153 old edition/142 new edition. He is very significant, but he is too complex and important a character to really handle in full in a single forum post, even if you end up writing far more than 500 words.

So choose one of the following three aspects of this character to focus on and analyze, as closely, as precisely, as originally, as possible:
1) Betonie’s Ancestry and Ethnicity (what his grandparents represent, what his relationships are with other Native Americans, etc. I invite you here to analyze the inset story of his grandfather Old Descheeny, and his grandmother, the unnamed Mexican Girl, though there are other ways to answer this question).
2) Betonie’s House (its location, description, what do the objects in it represent, etc. Work closely with the language here, and try to say something more specific than just the meeting of “old/new” or “white/indian”–what exactly helps us unlock the specific meanings of that cross-cultural meeting ground? A post that goes into depth about one detail here will usually be more successful than a Post that tries to cover everything, but there are multiple ways to do well)
3) Betonie’s Ceremony (including where he takes Tayo, how he treats him, what he tells him, etc. What new contribution can you make to our understanding of his sand painting, or of his helper, or some other specific, original idea?).
Construct an argument that offers an interpretation of one of those three aspects, or something even more specific within one of those three aspects, and be sure that your interpretation furthers our understanding of the symbolic work of the novel. Clearly title your post to reflect which option you chose. As always–use your imagination