Fog and Forgiving

The use of figurative language in Leslie Silko's novel, Ceremony, helps to describe the effects of PTS(D) on war veterans. In the book the narrator continually talks of a white smoke that he feels. "For a long time he had been white smoke. He did not realize that until he left the hospital, because white smoke had no conscious of itself" (Silko 13). This symbolizes how far a soldier can drift once back from war. The medicine used in the hospitals strongly contrasted the medicine used by the Laguna people. The drugs they were accustomed to were developed to force the patient to sit down and think about their problems while this white fog prohibited that and forced the patient further and further until they were unaware of their problems. "It was too late to ask for help, and he waited to die the way smoke dies, drifting away in currents of air, twisting in thin swirls, fading until it exists no more" (Silko 15)  This concept of white smoke or fog can also be found in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This novel is about a mental institution where the patients are forced to take the same type of medication as in Ceremony, in both novels the medicine makes the patients drift into a sort of comatose. In both novels the characters talk about surrendering to the smoke but both also end up pulling out of the fog and defeating their challenges. The way both authors describe the fog helps create a stronger meaning for the reader.

While the Native Americans were treated terribly by every other culture, they do not hold a grudge. Silko makes a point of this in her novel. Even in the awful conditions of the Bataan Death March, Tayo finds a way to point his anger away from the Japanese Military. "Tayo hated the this unending rain as if it were the jungle green rain and not the miles of marching or the Japanese grenade that was killing Rocky" (Silko 10). If he was able to point his anger at the rain, Tayo could keep his mind off of the disturbing situation he was put in. During the war the Native American soldiers were treated as if they were part of the country for the first time; people were actually treating them with respect. After the war however, the treatment went back to normal and even after tasting the good life, Tayo blamed no one but himself when it went away. "Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war. They blamed themselves for losing the new feeling; they never talked about it, but they blamed themselves just like they blamed themselves for losing the land the white people took" (Silko 39). When they were treated poorly they always reverted to blaming themselves for the change even though it was not their fault. "They never thought to blame white people for any of it; they wanted the white people for their friends" (Silko 39). When there is blatant racism it is interesting to see that the victims were so innocent and manages to stay so forgiving.