ABSTRACT
In his article, Bevis constructs his argument on the basis of six ‘canonical’ novels; namely McNickle’s The Surrounded and Wind from an Enemy Sky, Welch’s The Death of Jim Loney and Winter in the Blood – although Fool’s Crow also gets a substantial mention – Momaday’s House Made of Dawn and Silko’s Ceremony. It is noteworthy that the two latter receive the least detailed commentary, possibly because Bevis favours social realist narratives. If one extrapolates from his argument the observations that he makes specifically about Ceremony and edits his prose to apply his more general statements to Silko’s work, the resultant series of points is very clear but also revealing of the underlying premises of his argument:
● Ceremony tells of a wanderer in the white world coming home. In Ceremony, an Indian serviceman returns from Japan to the Southwest Laguna tribe, and slowly breaks from a pattern of drinking and madness to participate in a healing ceremony guided by an old medicine man, a ceremony that begins with a quest for cattle and ends with an amended story and rain for the desert land.
