Stories are powerful devices that “are all we have, you see, to fight sickness and death” (Silko 1). In the novels Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and Haroun and the Sea of ​​Stories by Salman Rushdie, the stories serve exactly this purpose. Each protagonist, Tayo and Haroun respectively, has an obstacle to overcome. Tayo is a Native American World War II veteran who suffers from mental illness, implied to be post-traumatic stress disorder. He is told that a ceremony is the only way to cure him. The ceremony mentioned involves stories. Haroun is a young Indian boy who experienced tragedy at a young age. His mother left and his father lost his job as a storyteller. Haroun believes that both events are his fault. The stories tell how Haroun saves his sad city, his father's job and brings back his mother. Both protagonists have burdens to carry on their shoulders. The authors, although from two different cultures, use the stories in their novels in a similar way: as healing tools. This proves that stories are universal elements that can be used in the same way regardless of culture. In Ceremony and Haroun and the Sea of ​​Stories, stories are central elements that appear constantly throughout each novel. They are woven through each novel like a spider's web. The spider's web is also a metaphor that Silko uses to designate fragility. In these novels, the stories are fragile and constantly threatened. The antagonists in each book “attempt to destroy the stories” (Silko 2). In Ceremony, the destroyer of stories is forgetting. Tayo, a mixed-race individual, must remember his Native American heritage to cure himself of the illness he suffers from. Alana Brown author of "Pulling Silko's...... middle of paper......mic Search Premier. Internet. April 6, 2014.Brown, Alanna Kathleen. “Pulling Silko’s Threads Through Time: An Exploration of Storytelling.” Native American Quarterly 19.2 (1995): 171-179. Premier Academic Research. Internet. April 6, 2014. King, Thomas. The truth about stories: an indigenous narrative. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Print. “Leslie Marmon Silko.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2013. Britannica Online. Internet. April 8, 2014. Rushdie, Salman. Haroun and the sea of ​​stories. London: Penguin Books. 1990. Print. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin Books. 1977. Print. “Sir Salman Rushdie.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2013. Britannica Online. Internet. April 8, 2014. Teverson, Andrew S. “Politics of Fairy Tales: Free Speech and Multiculturalism in Haroun and the Sea of ​​Stories.” Twentieth Century Literature 47.4 (2001): 444. Academic Research Premier. Internet. April 6. 2014.