War and its role in American culture based on the book `Ceremony` by Leslie marmon silko

br American soldier as they proudly show their medals and speak of their acceptance into the beds of white America , or talk of the esteem bestowed upon them , The first day in Oakland [ .] an old white woman rolled down the window and said 'God bless you , God bless you ' but it was the uniform , not them , she blessed (41 . The war gave them all a new identity as soldiers but stripped them of their native identity and the feeling of and respect for humanity . Harley , though jovial and for all appearances

unchanged , is as broken as Tayo and permanently severed from his own humanity , there was something in Harley 's laugh he had never heard before . Somehow Harley didn 't seem to feel anything at all and he masked it with smart talk and laughter (23 . Though Harley and Leroy do not bask in the violence the way Emo does with his leather bag full of a Japanese colonel 's teeth , they are theless changed by the brutality . They accept Emo 's stories without recourse , knowing the actions of Emo on the battlefield were not so different from their own at the firing end of a gun

For Harley and Leroy , this path leads to more death namely their own Unable to release themselves of their delusions , they drink because it is easier to reminisce than to remember , They never saw that it was the white people who gave them that feeling and it was the white people who took it away again when the war was over (43 . In the mechanics of war there is no room for individuality , as soldiers they became absorbed by the machine and no longer useful were spit out to drink themselves to oblivion and death on the meager checks which are all...