outcasts live there (265). As Tayo states: “I saw Navajos in torn jackets, standing outside the bar. There were Zunis and Hopis there, too, even a few Lagunas.” (98). Military service and trauma Serving in the war as an American soldier also enhances Tayo's identity struggle. When he was in the war, he represented the United States, but by returning to his hometown he feels invisible as an American and drifts in time and space (132). By laying down the uniform of an American soldier, Tayo, and also the other Native American veterans, are not recognized as Americans anymore. This is underlined by the funeral of Tayo's friends Harley and Leroy. Tayo and his friends struggle to shape their identity between two different sorts of signifying realms, one the "official" American identity (signified by the flag) and the other, that of the erased Native American (signified by the corpse) ( 490). Furthermore, he has a trauma from war and feels responsible for the death of his cousin Rocky. This trauma often keep him from sleeping long, if at all, with memories from his time in the war and time spent with Rocky coming to haunt him. The physical effect of Tayo's traumatic experiences manifests itself as intense nausea and vomiting, which native literary critic Jude Todd sees as directly related to Pueblo mythology that stories are held in the belly, thus by vomiting, Tayo is purging himself of the oppressive lies told to him over the course of his life. While it is only through the completion of native healing ceremony laid out by Old Betonie, as pointed out by critic Susan Blumenthal, that Tayo is able to overcome both the trauma of war and the trauma of colonization. Tayo's personal trauma accrued in the war has been identified by several literary critics as being analogous to the collective trauma suffered by indigenous people affected by internalized colonialism. Literary critic Joanne Freed suggests that the use of traumatic experience is central to the power of the narrative as it allows non-native readers to better identify with the native protagonist by effectively sharing Tayo's war trauma, thereby opening up the reader to the experienced by Tayo as an indigenous person. Throughout the book, Tayo deals with various forms of trauma caused by his military service. Used as a literary device, this trauma allows readers to have a closer look at the