Ceremony, to p.120

What struck me most about the reading so far for Ceremony is the imagery of flies. I found it especially interesting because in my culture, the fly is presented is wholly unsavory, unhygenic, and even horrifying. Personally, I feel that I have a live and let live attitude towards every creature except the fly; upon reflection, that's probably a terrible way to feel, but still.

In the Native American culture of the novel, however, the fly is presented as one of the most important and admirable of the Earth's creatures. It is the fly who went to 'the mother of the people... asking forgiveness.' This is explained by Josiah to Tayo when the latter is found swatting merrily. Tayo had thought that flies 'are bad and carry sickness' because '[his] teacher said so.' This demonstrates nicely the disjunction between Native American and White (and, in all fairness, Black and Mexican) culture that Silko seems very keen to emphasize throughout the novel.

There are, of course, many other images of flies, and most are negative. The drunks in Gallup are 'like cold flies stuck to the wall,' and Rocky's corpse is festooned with them during the war.