The Preservation of Identity in Ceremony The concepts of change and identity are problematic for the characters in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony. Tayo's hybridity represents everything the people of Laguna fear. The advent of change and the intertwining of cultures has brought an imminent threat of ruin to Native American traditions. Although they reject him for his mixed heritage, Tayo's journey is not his own but a continuation of the narrative tradition that embodies Native American culture. Through tradition he learns to use his white and Mexican heritage to identify himself without abandoning his Native American practices. Tayo's journey begins with his visit to Night Swan. Unbeknownst to Tayo, she embodies the spirit of the Ts'eh mountain, and when Tayo sleeps with her, his life becomes a retelling of an older story. Tayo takes refuge with Night Swan and confides in her his feelings about being estranged from his family and the people of Laguna. Opening up to others is something he struggles with throughout the rest of the novel. “I've always wanted to have dark eyes like other people. When they look at me they remember things that happened. My mother” (Silko 99). Tayo's mixed heritage brings with it the notion of change, and Native Americans fear that the change will cause them to lose their culture. “They think that if their children have the same skin color, the same eye color, nothing will change” (Silko 100). The Native Americans think that keeping everything the same and not mixing cultures will preserve theirs, but Night Swan recognizes that this would only lead to ruin. Things that don't change simply don't grow. Without changing the old traditions, the culture will not be able to survive in this new world. They...... middle of paper ...... actors of mixed heritage opened Tayo's eyes to reveal knowledge of both worlds, a point of view that people without mixed heritage had difficulty understanding. Change is a threat to the Native American people; the emergence of white society changed their world and brought ruin. They try to preserve their culture by rejecting white society but instead have made themselves stationary and unable to grow. Tayo's hybridity, although rejected by many, revives ancient traditions of storytelling and ceremony. The identity of the Native American people is different now that it has become intertwined with white society. They survived a war with themselves. “It feels like I've heard these stories before… only thing is, the names sound different” (Silko 260). Works Cited Silko, Leslia Marmon. Ceremony. New York: The Viking Press, 1977.