The value of narrative in ceremony Story is the most powerful and compelling form of human expression in the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. Stories reside in every part of everything; they are essentially organic. The stories are embedded with the potential to express the sublime strength of humanity as well as the dark heart and hunger for self-destruction. The process of creating and interpreting stories is an ancient, ongoing, arduous, intricate, but ultimately rewarding experience. As Tayo begins to unravel his troubled history and is led and led towards this discovery, the reader is also encouraged, on a broader level, to embark on a similar interpretive journey. Every story is inextricably linked to a practically infinite narrative chain. While reaching an epiphanic moment, a moment of complete clarity, is by no means guaranteed, by presenting Tayo as an example, Silko at least suggests that there is a fundamental value in pursuing and creating stories. Silko advises that the story's potential for better or worse should not be easily underestimated or dismissed. He seems to understand all too well that human beings harbor both virtuous and vicious impulses; our stories are steeped in both the sinister and the sublime. There is a unifying, mythical, or archetypal realm that exists just beyond the reach of individual consciousness. Stories are bound and wrapped around this insubstantial place, and the power of each story is firmly rooted in this connection. The novel, presented as a series of disjointed, perhaps problematic narrative frames, attempts to draw attention to this fact. "...no word exists alone, and the reason why each word was chosen had to be explained with a story... in the middle of the paper... towards the end of the novel that "He had only heard and I saw the world as it has always been: no borders, only transitions across all distances and time" (246). Ironically, although these transitions, changes in vernacular or specific ritual may be significant from generation to generation, the underlying theme remains constant: we are inseparable from the universe. “I have heard these stories before… only thing is, the names sound different” (260). Perhaps because the story harbors the possibility of our destruction or ultimate redemption, Silko describes history, its creation, its meaning, as humanity's defining moment. Work Cited: Silko, Leslie Marmon New York: Penguin Books, 1977.