In the novel Ceremony, Tayo is often marginalized by his traditional Native American society. Tayo is not full Native American like the majority of people that live in his community. He is half Native American and half Mexican, and his lighter skin tone and his hazel eyes clearly mark Tayo as “mixed”. He is not simply a bastard, but is the bastard of a white man and a disgraced Native American woman. Tayo felt his stigma throughout his entire time growing up due to the actions of his Auntie, his mother’s sister, who raised him. Feeling shame for having to take care of her sister’s mistake, Auntie never treated Tayo fairly. Ev...
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...s the only one who sees the injustice and still identifies most wholly with Native American identity, and does not wish for a place in white society.
Having grown up with these men and serving with them in the military with them did not eliminate the differences between them because of Tayo’s mixed ethnicity. Emo, one of the men who has never liked Tayo, consistently harasses him because he is half white. At the bar, without provocation, Emo says to Tayo, “There he is. He thinks he’s something all right. Because he’s part white. Don’t you, half breed?” (Silko 52). Though Tayo has not yet don’t anything to deserve harassment from Emo, the fact that he is not full Native American does make a difference in the way certain people view him, and thus in the way he views himself. Tayo goes on to say that Emo hated him since grade school, just because he was part white.
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