House Made of Dawn: An Exploration of Native American Oral Tradition

1. Momaday House Made of Dawn

2. Prologue—Owens Other Destinies • Dypaloh – traditional invocation of Jemez Storytellers. Momaday shifts novel from mainstream to American Indian Oral Tradition and focuses on the Other who has been marginalized. • Stories in NA tradition have serious responsibilities to tell us who we are, where we came from and to make us whole; to heal us, to integrate us into the community.

3. Prologue—Owens Other Destinies • Navajo Night Chant – House Made of Dawn – situates the novel outside of the actual landscape into the timeless realm of myth. • The voice is that of the oral story teller. • The time and place are mythic • The reader is oriented away from historic consciousness into mythic time.

4. Prologue—Owens Other Destinies • Introduction of protagonist – Abel in second paragraph • In Jemez Pueblo, running has serious ceremonial applications. There are running ceremonies for each season. • Prologue shifts Abel from Occidental linear time into nonlinear, cyclical time of the Pueblo, in which he seems to be standing still.

5. Prologue—Owens Other Destinies • “Although, like the typical modernist protagonist, Abel is first seen in isolation, and though Abel’s illness will very shortly appear to resemble the schizophrenia theorists have identified as the postmodern condition, . . . This prologue underscores the stable, coherent, cultural and psychic center from which Abel is alienated and which may be recovered.”

6. Prologue—Owens Other Destinies • Read p. 95 of Owens.

7. Reception of the Novel—Schubnell N. Scott Momaday • Reviewer’s comments: M. traces the disintegration of a young “longhair” American Indian who cannot accommodate the contradictions between the ancient ways of the reservation where he grew up and the “outside” world. For Abel the first sign of trouble shows up during his service in WWII, when one day he goes berserk, attacks a tank and dances wildly around it yelling war whoops; later, back on the reservation, it is a wholly different kind of madness that leads him to cold blooded murder of a white man. From that point on, Abel is running—away from himself and from the best efforts of those who try to save him: his friend Benally. . ., a well-meaning social worker in L.A. and his heartbroken grandfather.

8. Momaday’s answer to these comments: • 1. The longhair is the grandfather, not Abel. • 2. Juan Reyes, the man Abel kills, is not a white man, but an albino Indian and a witch – the embodiment of evil. • 3. Abel’s first sign of trouble come long before he enters the army. • 4. He is not only running away from forces threatening to annihilate him, but more importantly, he is running symbolically and ritualistically back to the source of his strength, his native culture. • 5. Benally and the grandfather are far from helpless on-lookers. They provide the means for his successful reintegration into Jemez Pueblo.

9. Juan Reyes • P. 50 – his birth in 1875, which makes 72 in 1947. Think of the descriptions of him in the Middle during the rooster pull. • P. 66 – Francisco’s “warning sign” of trouble. • P. 82-84 the death scene.

10. Some Questions about the Albino • Why does Abel kill him? Does he fear some personal injury? Is he trying to rescue the community by eliminating an evil person? • The albino never threatens anyone that we see, yet Abel regards him as the enemy. Why does the Albino go willingly to his death? Is he consciously acting out some ritual part?

11. Abel and Albino • P. 2 Konevich

12. Religious Figures in HMoD • Frey Nicholas – p. 51 What is his relationship with Francisco? How does he treat his brother? How does he handle Francisco’s religious pluralism? • Fr. Olguin – p. 72 What’s his relationship with Angela? Why does he tear back into town after visiting her? How does he handle religious pluralism?

13. Tosamah See Krupat and Owen’s response. P. 109. How does he use Christianity? Does he use too many words, too? What’s the point of his story about his grandmother? How does it shape him or characterize him for the reader?

14. Ben Benally – The Night Chanter • The title of his section indicates that he plays a part in religious ceremonies with his chanting. • What’s his attitude toward his chanting or praying? • How do his prayers influence Abel?

15. Francisco • What is most important about Francisco’s participation in religious ceremonies? • I would assert that he is the holiest man among the holy men in the book. Would you agree? Why or why not? • Do you think Momaday is asserting that Francisco’s blending of religious doctrines and rituals is the key for survival? Or, is it his reverence and honor which is key?

16. Abel • Abel’s Trial – p. 101-102. • His vision of the runners – p. 103-104. How does this tie in with our earlier comments about evil?

17. Abel’s beating as an initiation ceremony • Lying in a shallow depression. See p. 126. • Darkness • Initiatory mutilations • Nearness of/to Water • Association with the fish – who will return to the water after spawning. • Significance of moon in so many scenes: • Rebirth, clearness of vision, control of sea and land (p. 128-29), cycles of life, connects past and present