.
Before long, however, Tayo and Rocky's lives became quite analogous. They decided to enlist in the war, as brothers, so that they would be stationed together. But when Tayo remembered his promise to Josiah, he became hesitant. If he left, who would stay and help out with the garden, the sheep camp, and the cattle? But Rocky assured him that Josiah and Robert could get along themselves. "We can do real good, Tayo. Go all over the world. See different places and different people" (72). .
The night before the boys left for World War II, Tayo noticed the weary look on Auntie's face, and promised her, "I'll bring [Rocky] back safe. You don't have to worry" (73). He knew that Auntie expected something to happen, but that she secretly hoped that it would happen to Tayo, and not to her real son. Far beyond his control, however, Tayo's promise to Auntie was broken when Rocky was killed in the war. When the Japanese took Tayo prisoner of war, he experienced many horrors of captivity and almost lost his will to live. When he finally returned home because of battle fatigue, life grew even worse. Tayo learned that Josiah had died while he was away; his feelings of estrangement only increased. .
The other returning soldiers on the reservation found comfort in alcohol and violence: The alcohol numbed the pain of war memories, and the violence was merely a senseless way of venting built up hostility. But for Tayo, the drunkenness and fury did not solve problems, and he began to look for another type of resolution. .
With the help of a medicine man, Old Betonie, Tayo began a quest that turns into a healing ceremony. His trip lead him back to his Indian past, to beliefs about evil and witchcraft, to traditions, and to ancient stories about his people. In the end, it is the search itself that became a cure that Tayo used to overcome his despair. .
***Through this novel, we can see the world, at least America, through another glasses we are accustomed to.
