Ceremony

Setting: Ceremony is set in and around the Laguna reservation, though flashbacks/regressions may take use elsewhere, namely to the Philippines. The reservation is in the midst of a severe drought  leaving the land desolate and reflecting the mindset of its inhabitants.

Plot: Tayo, a veteran of WWII, comes home poisoned by the witchery of the white world. Violently sick and made more so by continued association with other veterans, Tayo spends the course of the novel on a path to healing, reconciliation of self, and purity, helped along by memories of Josiah and Rocky, medicine men Ku'oosh and Betonie, and spirits like Night Swan, T'seh, and the mountain lion.

Theme: the power of transformation and tradition. Through the novel, Tayo is transformed, and transforms others around him, as he both recognizes and purges the witchery from himself, embracing tradition in order to find home for himself once again.

Quotes: He cries because they are dead and everything is dying. This is said by Tayo as he recuperates in a Veterans' Hospital. In a literal sense, "they" are the army veterans who died in the world. Tayo appears still to be stuck in the war world, unable to do anything but cry. But on another level Tayo's words appeal to the entire novel. Everything is dying: indeed, on the inside, Tayo and many other characters die as they feel the effects of witchery and its poison. This is reflected in the setting, which has gone dry and dead (Tayo believes it's his fault).
Cattle are like any living thing. If you separate them from the land for too long...they lose something. This is said by Josiah. Though he speaks of cattle, he speaks also of humans and especially of the Laguna people. After all, the cattle are like the sacred deer that help to guide Tayo to spiritual healing. The people, too, must be healed and reconnected to the land. People are not meant to be controlled, corralled, and manipulated by witchery. Look at the white people, soft and susceptible to the poison.
Witchery works to scare people, to make them fear growth. This by Betonie. He explains to Tayo that ceremonies need to change, to transform, because people themselves are always growing. Without transformation no ceremony could stand up to witchery. Though the theme of the novel is both the power of transformation and tradition, tradition itself must transform in the novel in order to provide a restorative power to Tayo.


Imagery/Symbolism: The symbols of deer and bear/lion-people are prominent throughout the play. All three animals are guides to Tayo on his path to complete the ceremony. They appear throughout the story and in Tayo's life in various forms: the deer as Josiah's cattle and T'seh, the bear as Shush and Betonie, and the lion as the hunter and also as itself.