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Auntie (Thelma)
Tayo’s mother and Auntie’s younger sister. After internalizing the discrimination towards Native Americans, Laura becomes an alcoholic and shames the Laguna community by sleeping with men of many different ethnicities. She gets pregnant with a white man, resulting in Tayo. She raises Tayo for four miserable, homeless years, then runs off, leaving Tayo with Auntie.
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Little Sister (Laura) Character Timeline in Ceremony
The timeline below shows where the character Little Sister (Laura) appears in Ceremony. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Section 2
...that she took care of him as a child to cover up the shame of Little Sister (her sister and Tayo’s mother) sleeping with a white man. Tayo knows that Auntie never...
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...Grandma sends for Ku’oosh despite Auntie’s protests that a medicine man will reignite gossip about Tayo’s mother and her wild ways. When he comes, Ku’oosh sits at Tayo’s bedside and speaks to...
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Section 3
...live with Auntie when he was 4 years old. He can remember small details about his mother , her smell, the way her hug felt. Tayo’s mother had told him that he...
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...native community. In fact, the Laguna Elders think Auntie should have been able to bring Little Sister back to proper life in the Laguna community, and helped Little Sister give up alcohol...
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Little Sister felt so much shame for the ways white people describe the savagery of Indians that...
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Section 4
Tayo remembers when he was a little boy and lived under that same bridge with his mother . Tayo finds his own food and even sleeps on his own when his mother...
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One day, police come to clear out the settlements under the bridge while Tayo’s mother is out with a man. Tayo hides in a tamaric and willow grove and watches...
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