The Ritual by Cirilo F. Bautista

Theme

            The story's theme is mainly about going against the grain like challenging traditional beliefs and trying to replace these with new ideas and views. It shows what happens when you try to impose your own perspective through drastic measures to people whose minds are already fixed on only one way of doing things. It actually makes you question on who's the one blinded by one's beliefs, is it you or them?

Characters

1. Narrator - a very close friend of Dayleg who is a mere witness to every action that Dayleg has done and the consequences that followed. He is the person that Dayleg confides with.

2. Dayleg - a subversive character who expounded a new set of beliefs to his own people. He has a very strong personality that opposes much of the majority's personality.

3. The Village Elders - conservative people that stick to their tradition and protects it. Immensely believes in their own god and his capabilities to either give them eternal happiness or to make them suffer.

Summary

            The narrator tells us about Going Beyond and what it means for the people of the village and then it talks about his brother, Roy, who just arrived from city and visited him. The narrator receives a letter from Dayleg, a friend who goes way back. As he read the letter down to the last passage, he reminisces about the time when they hunted a sacred white boar.
            The story explains what happened during their hunt as Dayleg kills the white boar from the grove of the gods. They go back to the school and eventually, Dayleg starts teaching people about Christianity and why they should forsake their god, Lumawig. Information about this reached the village elders, including Dayleg's father, and decided as a council to condemn his actions.
            Afterwards, the sacred boar that they killed was discovered by a villager and told the elders. The elders rushed into Dayleg's location and that was where they argued and fought about Dayleg's violent actions while his father prayed for his forgiveness to Lumawig. Consequently, he was ordered to leave the village in order to no longer anger the gods.
            Months have passed and people could no longer find Dayleg. They were in desperate need of his repentance so that the gods will no longer treat them poorly. After years of waiting, Dayleg finally showes up at the narrator's place and surprised everyone at the feast by dancing and celebrating in front of everyone claiming his return.

How was the Marcos Administration depicted in the story?

            You can compare this to the Marcos Administration as it also displays non-conformity but in a more aggressive way. It depicts how some people apparently "disappears", but are actually abducted or tortured if not killed, during those times when they object or protest in their own ways against the actions of Marcos. It also shows how we are forced to follow a rigid point of view and how we are condemned when we choose not to.