Tayo, a Native American who served in World War II, struggles to find himself in the novel Ceremony. He finds it difficult to adjust to a society where his people must choose between what “whites” claim is the proper road and what his culture claims is the genuine path. Ceremony illustrates Tayo’s suffering by contrasting it with the other Native Americans’ struggles to forge their own paths. Tayo begins the novel by daydreaming about the conflict while lying in bed. He recalls that the Japanese shared the same skin tone as him and that Rocky had informed him, “It’s what we’re here to do.” He also recalls that he doesn’t understand why he is killing people who look like him and may even share his sentiments. He is there, though, because the “white” recruiter assured him that he could fly aeroplanes and bring honour to America.

He recalls the conflict between his path and what the white man desired. Tayo began to give the Japanese soldiers the faces of people he knew back home because he was so taken with the thought that the Japanese were just like him. Tayo was unable to understand why the soldier had killed the Japanese, and once Rocky was killed, his route split like a silk thread in a spider’s web and spread out in all ways. At that very moment, his psyche broke and entered “shell-shock”. Tayo started looking for his route fairly early on, but up to Rocky’s passing, his journey was remarkably similar to Rocky’s.

Tayo tried to maintain his heritage while still following the new ways, so his journey mirrored but was constantly a step behind. Because he loved Rocky and could not understand why Rocky wanted to break away from the established ways, Tayo walked a fine edge in trying to keep their paths close together. Tayo only wanted to believe in Native American science, like the rising cattle, while Rocky only believed in the science of the white man.

When Josiah brought home cattle he had purchased while reading books about it, he chuckled when he saw the “white man’s” definition of “ideal cattle.” When the rest of the family read it, they all laughed except for Rocky. They are well-versed in all facets of beef cattle. The problem with the way things have always been done around here is that nobody ever knew what they were doing. Rocky saw the Native Americans as an ancient, inferior race, but Tayo saw his people as the real seekers of knowledge and the “white men” as only amateurs.

The Deer is a shocking illustration of how Tayo and Rocky have different perspectives of their people. The paths in the book began to diverge at this point, realigning with the commencement of the conflict before branching again at the moment of Rocky’s passing because Tayo was upholding tradition while Rocky wanted to spit on tradition and go on.