Ceremony 140-163

Tayo is beginning to depict the healing process and is starting to have a different outlook on the world in general. As he is spending more time with Betonie he is trying to find healing through ceremony. "He was thinking about the ceremony the medicine man had performed over him, testing it against the old feeling, the sick hallow in his belly formed by the memories of Rocky and Josiah, and all the years of Auntie's eyes and her teeth set hard on edge. He could feel the ceremony like the rawhide thongs of the medicine pouch, staining to hold back the voices, the dreams, faces in the jungle in the L.A. depot, the smoky silence of solid white walls"(Silko 141). Tayo is looking back at things in his past that have hurt him in one way or another. Wether it is missing them or the pain they had caused him. He says he can feel the ceremony when he thinks about these things and its helping block out the pain. He says that the voices and dreams are being held back. Tayo tells Betonie that he wants to thank him for the ceremony he just did on him and Betonie tells him that this ceremony has been going on for longer then he knows."Old Betonie shook his head 'This has been going on for a long long time now. It's up to you. Don't let them stop you. Don't let them finish off this world' "(Silko 141).  Betonie is telling Tayo that he has been healing for some time now and to not let the corruption in the world stop his healing process. Tayo can see the world however he chooses to and Betonie is trying to teach him to see the beauty in it. 

As Tayo is traveling he sees and experiences the stereotypes of Indians. Tayo stops at a gas station and the man who owns the store gave off the impression that Tayo was up to no good. "He looked at Tayo suspiciously as if he thought Tayo might be drunk, or in there to steal something. In his anger Tsyo imagined movie image of himself turning the pockets of his jeans inside out, unbuttoning his shirt to prove he had stolen nothing"(Silko 143). Tayo walks in this station and the man looks at him as just another drunk indian. He assumes Tayo is there to steal something just because he is Native American. Instead of Tayo getting angry he laughs at the ignorance of this man. " He had never seen a white person so clearly before. He had to turn away. All those things old Betonie said had told him were swirling inside his head, doing strange things; he wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh at the station man who did not even know that his existence of all white people had been conceived by witchery"(Silko143). Betonie taught Tayo that witchery is what corrupted society and had made people think that not everyone is equal when everyone is just human. This shows how much Tayo is growing and it shows that he is healing.