Setting: post WWII, some flashbacks in pre-WWII
Plot: Tayo returns home to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation from WWII. He is to a find a way to cure himself and bring rain back to the community.
The trauma of thinking he saw Josiah's face among Japanses soldiers he was ordered to shoot, and then watching his cousin Rocky die, made Tayo mad. Spending some time in a Veteran's hospital gets him well enough to reutrn to his home. His Grandmother, Auntie, and uncle Robert raised him after his mother concieved him with a white man and left him for good at four years old. In this home, Tayo faces everyone's disappointment at the loss of Rocky and his continued grieveing over his uncle Josiah's death. He also deaths with a guilty conscience of the six year drought which he believes he caused.
Tayo realizes he is not the only one with a sickness from war. His friends Harley, Leroy, Emo, and Pinkie who also fought in war have similar post-traumatic stress, which they heal with alcohol. This company is little comfort for Tayo though. His friends spend most of their time drunk reminiscing about how great the war was and how much respect they got when in uniform. This only makes Tayo think about the tremendous discrimination the Native Americans face at the hands of the whites. Just when Tayo thinks about giving up and returning to the hospital, Grandmother calls in Ku'oosh, the medicine man. He performs a ceremony for Tayo, but fears these ancient ceremonies will not work on this new situation.
Ku'oosh's ceremony merely helpes Tayo; he still needs a cure. He is then prompted to consider his childhood. Although Auntie did her best to keep Tayo and Rocky seperate, they became close friends , and enlisted in the army together. That same summer they enlisted, Josiah fell in love with NIght Swan. She urged him to invest in Mexican cattle, which Tayo helped care for. Hearing how frequent droughts are, Tayo goes to a spring to invent a rain ceremony; the next day it rains. The rain brings help to the crops and cattle, and keeps Josiah away from Night Swan. Tayo is asked to bring her a note, and is seduced by Night Swan.
Ku'oosh sends Tayo to Gallup to see Betonie. Tayo in unsure about Betonie's ways but tells him what his problem is anyways. Betonie listens and explains they must create and complete a new ceremony. Betonie tells stories of old ceremonies as he performs the new one. Then he tells Tayo about his grandfather Descheeny and the beginning of ceremonies to destory the whites.
Betonie sends Tayo home and tells him the ceremony is far from complete. He meets Harley and Leroy and slips back into the old ways of alcohol, but soon moves on. He needs to find the cattle; he follows the stars to a woman's house, T'seh. He spends the night there and then heads up the mountains. He finds the cattle fenced up in a white man's farm. Tayo breaks in and the cattle run off, which leaves Tayo searching for them again. When dawn approaches, Tayo is ready to give up when a mountain lion comes to him. He follows its tracks to the cattle. Just as he takes the cattle out, white partrolmen find him and arrest him. Before they can take him to town, they notice the mountain lions tracks and go in search for it. As Tayo leaves, it begins to snow and knows this will hide the tracks. On the way down the mountain, Tayo meets a hunter, who lives with Ts'eh. She has Tayo's cattle.
When returning home with the cattle, Tayo feels cured. The drought still persists and he knows the ceremony is not finished. He goes to the family's ranch with the cattle, and finds Ts'eh. They spend the summer together, but as it draws to an end Robert visits and warns Tayo Emo has been spreading rumors about him. Shortly after, Ts'eh tells tayo that Emo and the white police are coming after him; she gives him advice on how to avoid the capture.
Tayo easily avoids the police. Still running away, he meets Harley and Leroy. Almost too late, Tayo realizes that Harley and Leroy have joined forces with Emo. He beings to run again and finds himself in an abandoned uranium mine. Tayo realizes this is the last station of the ceremony. All he needs to do is spend the night there and the ceremony is complete. Emo and Pinkie soon arrive, and Tayo watches Emo tortue Harley to death. He must restrain from killing Emo. With the help of the wind, Tayo survives the night; he returns home and goes back to Ku'oosh. After hearing about the ceremony, Ku'oosh pronounces that Ts'eh was in fact A'moo'ooh, who had given her blessings to Tayo and his ceremony. The drought ends and the destruction of whites is stopped. Tayo spends the night at Ku'oosh's home to finish off the ceremony.
Characters:
- Tayo
- Betonie
- Auntie
- Josiah
- Rocky
- Harley
- Emo
- Grandma
- Night Swan
- Old Ku'oosh
- Robert
- Desheeny
- Mexican girl
- Hunter
- Leroy
- Pinkie
- Laura
- Helen Jean
- T'seh
STYLE
1. Point of View Third person
2. Tone: somber
3. Imagery:
- yellow
- blue
- grey
- black
- red
- cattle
- wind
- directions
QUOTES
1. "How did you know I'd be here?" He said, still watching the cattle. She laughed and shook her head, "the way you talk!" she said. "I was here almost a week before you came. How did you know I'd be here? Tell me that first."
Importance: She confirms her role as one of his teachers and reminds him of the complexity of the world. Her words show the cyclical nature of all things. She points to the existance of designs greater than the plans or intetions of any one person.
2. Old Grandma shook her head slowly, and closed her cloudy eyes again. "I guess I must be getting old, " she said, "because these goings-on around Laguna don't get me excited any more." She sighed, and laid her head back on the chair. "It seems like I already hear these stories before- only thing is, the names sound different."
Importance: This affirms the cyclic nature of Laguna ways. Although the world is seen to change, it does not progess in a straight line. The new repeats and connects with the old to point where ven the terms and past and present are only somewhat applicable.
3. The jungle breathed an eternal green that fevered men until they dripped sweat the way rubbery jungle leaves dripped the monsoon rain. It was there that Tayo began to understand what Josiah had said. Nothing was all good or all bad either; it all depended.
Importance: Tayo only begins to understand this lesson. It takes the rest of the novel for Tayo to fully ggrasp the importance of this lesson. Not only can the rain be as bad as it is good, and also can whites, be an huge element in the ceremony that cures Tayo and his community.
Theme: The Necessity of Tradition: Tradition is essential to saving the Native American community. Both for Tayo and in the ancient stories, forgetting tradition brings drought and disaster. The medicine man is to preserve tradition, but in order for it to survive it must change with the times.
