Ending of Ceremony

Although at first I was unsure of the ending, where Silko wanted us to go with Tayo, as I finished the novel, I realized that we could go wherever we wanted to with him. It did not come to anything overtly complex in his 'coming of age' but as I have suggested all along, 'coming of age' is much more a process than one single instantaneous occurance that changes ones life. For Tayo, his entire journey was his coming age. And while it ranged from the intense grief process- to drinking and throwing up, to dreaming and having a relationship with a woman, to witnessing a gruesome torturing- he still came out of it a free man. His process, his whatever he went through, was exactly what was needed- his own version of ceremony if you will, that enabled him to ultimately move on with his life and return to the reservation. Perhaps that is the cure to letting go and 'coming of age' or really, coming to any profound realization: find what your heart, what your mind, what your soul needs to find in order to be okay. Because it would not have been any form of 'okay' for Tayo if he did not, in the end, let himself go.