In Ceremony, Leslie Silko makes a connection in the novel between the spotted cattle and Tayo, and then obscures them until it is difficult to decide where one ends and the other begins. Some of these lines are vague, for example, the use of flies, deer, grasshoppers, and frogs that work in and around larger concepts and set the stage, preparing the reader for more complex metaphors. Other lines are bold and powerful.
The passage between Tayo and the cattle is possibly the boldest of all. Like a hoop encircling the story, Silko uses the spotted cattle as a metaphor for Tayo's transition, and of Tayo's struggle to find himself and to finish the story. Through Tayo's relationship with the spotted cattle, we can follow Tayo's progression. First, with Tayo's experiences away from home and then with his experiences while at home. The spotted cattle are everywhere in Ceremony, but they are nowhere by accident. Like Tayo, they are part of the pattern and there are two particular places in the book where Silko uses them to point to an evident link to Tayo.
The link that Tayo has with the spotted cattle first begins when Josiah and he go to buy the cattle from Ulibarri and they are separating the good cattle from the bad when Tayo notices some distinct features, "memorizing each cow the shape of the long curved horns, the patterns of the brown spots on the ivory hides, their size and weight" (Silko 74). Here Silko makes the connection with Tayo and the spotted cattle, by their appearance. As we know Tayo is a half breed (white and Laguna Indian) not the "ideal" Laguna man, nor is he the "ideal" white man, soldier, or nephew. In fact, he seems to fit nobody's ideal, least of all his own. Like the spotted cattle, Tayo carries two brands; his light colored eyes and his brown skin simultaneously mark him as belonging (or not belonging) in two different worlds.
Silko, again makes a link with Tayo and the spotted cattle by explaining what happens when you take the cattle away from the land, "Cattle are like any living thing.