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Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Praying for Rain:
In Section 1, Tayo recalls his time serving in the Pacific theater during WWII. At the time, he had been desperate to stop the deluge of jungle rain stymieing his platoon's movements. In his distress, Tayo prayed for the rain to go away, cursing the jungle and its infinite dampness. This prayer later becomes an object of situational irony as drought sets in on the Laguna Pueblo reservation:
So [Tayo] had prayed the rain away, and for the sixth year it was dry; the grass turned yellow and it did not grow. Wherever he looked, Tayo could see the consequences of his praying; the gray mule grew gaunt, and the goat and kid had to wander farther and farther each day to find weeds or dry shrubs to eat.
Tayo, in "praying away" the oppressive rain and dampness of the jungle, only succeeds in causing a drought for his community back home—at least, this is what he believes. Tayo prays for the rain to stop so that the soldier's suffering might lessen; but his words, designed to heal, simply mete out further suffering. This ironic situation emblematizes cyclical violence, a prominent topic Silko probes in Ceremony. Regretful of his mean-spirited prayer, Tayo works hard throughout the narrative to break this cycle of violence.
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