Q 01/05

Leslie Marmon Silko wrote Ceremony, a novel of the dry Southwest, in a rain-soaked town in which US state?

A) Alaska

B) Oregon

C) Washington

D) Maine

Answer · why

A) Alaska

Alaska was where Silko began the book in 1973, in the town of Ketchikan. She said the lack of sunlight there left her fighting bouts of depression.

Q 02/05

In Silko's Ceremony, Tayo comes home to the Laguna reservation traumatised by service in which conflict?

A) Korean War

B) World War II

C) Vietnam War

D) First World War

Answer · why

B) World War II

World War II took Tayo to the Pacific as a soldier. Ordered to shoot captured Japanese soldiers there, he believes he sees his uncle's face among them...

Q 03/05

In Silko's Ceremony, Tayo's cousin dies as a prisoner of the Japanese during which wartime atrocity?

A) Building the Burma Railway

B) Sandakan Death Marches

C) Bataan Death March

D) Fall of Singapore

Answer · why

C) Bataan Death March

The Bataan Death March forced more than 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners to walk to Camp O'Donnell. Tayo never forgives himself for failing to b...

Q 04/05

In Ceremony, Tayo believes that cursing the jungle rain as a soldier caused which disaster back on Laguna land?

A) A flash flood

B) A locust plague

C) A range fire

D) A drought

Answer · why

D) A drought

A drought has parched the reservation for years by the time Tayo comes home. An old story woven through the book describes the same punishment falling...

Q 05/05

In Ceremony, which Navajo medicine man keeps old telephone books and calendars among his prayer sticks and herbs?

A) Descheeny

B) Ulibarri

C) Shush

D) Betonie

Answer · why

D) Betonie

Betonie uses the clutter to build new rituals that combine symbols from several cultures. He argues that ceremonies have to keep changing if they are ...