Although this shift may seem unnatural in terms of narrative structure, it is actually an effective way to depict Tayo’s experience the latter scene almost as an explanation for the former, as Tayo’s nausea when he is with Harley is more of a result of his PTSD following a war than it is of overheating. One instance in which a time jump occurs is when Tayo is with Harley suffering from sunstroke in one moment, and then getting off the train at New Laguna in the next (Ceremony 29). This fluid analogy for time explains the point of view, setting, and time shifts that happen consistently throughout Ceremony. In an interview, Silko described the Laguna Pueblo experience of time by saying “think of time as an ocean always moving” (Silko Interview 1995). For this reason, the narrative differs greatly from that of a traditional Western novel, as the latter tends to center stories around specific moments in time. ‘Long, long ago,’ ‘a long time ago,’ ‘not too long ago,’ and ‘recently’ are usually how stories are classified in terms of time” (“Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination” 1009). This is even further explained by Silko in her article “Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination,” in which she explains that “the precise date of the incident often is less important than the place or location of the happening. Although it is not ambiguous when the story is occurring, Silko never assigns a numbered date to any scene in the story, as per Laguna Pueblo storytelling tradition.

I don’t guess you could keep up with news very well in the hospital” (Ceremony 18) in regards to the Japanese-Americans.

Later, it becomes clear that the story takes place within the year 1945 during Tayo’s interaction at the train station in which the depot man tells him “they’ve turned them all loose again. For example, it is implied that the story must take place in the years surrounding World War II, as the opening paragraph references “Japanese soldiers shouting orders” (Ceremony 6) to Tayo. The narrative does not rely on specific dates, and the timeline of the story comes together through context clues and inferences. When read through the lens of Western culture, the chronology of Ceremony is both jarring and difficult to understand.

Silko leslie marmon ceremony