1. Find (or draw) four pictures, one for each section, that would make appropriate introductory images for each section. Write a brief explanation of your choice for each. 2. Silence has both positive and negative value in House Made of Dawn. Compare a passage or an instance of the positive […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsStudy Help Full Glossary
A.A. Kaul Office Supply Company the business that has a storage facility upstairs from Tosamah’s chapel. Abelito “little Abel,” an intimate nickname. Abelito diminutive form of “Abel” in Spanish, showing closeness, affection. advents and passiontides Preparation during the four weeks before Christmas (Advent) and the two weeks before Easter (passiontide) […]
Read more Study Help Full GlossaryCritical Essays Varieties of Narrative Strategy
Ambiguity and Instability House Made of Dawn is a complex novel which some readers find difficult to read because it does not follow a single chronological story line nor remain within a single consistent point of view. The seeming fragmentation and dislocation of the text is, of course, a deliberate […]
Read more Critical Essays Varieties of Narrative StrategyCritical Essays Understanding Federal Relocation Policy
The particular socio-political context of the two middle sections of House Made of Dawn is referred to by Tosamah and Benally, especially in Benally’s recollections of Tosamah’s objections to the policies. When Abel first appears at the carton factory, he has been brought there by a Relocation official who has […]
Read more Critical Essays Understanding Federal Relocation PolicyCritical Essays Navajo Chants and Witchcraft
House Made of Dawn takes its title from a prayer that forms part of a long, extremely elaborate Navajo ritual, the Night Chant. This prayer, along with other texts and a volume of information about the Night Chant ceremony, was transcribed and edited during the 1890s by an army physician […]
Read more Critical Essays Navajo Chants and WitchcraftCritical Essays Pueblo Ceremonies and The Peyote Way
Major events in House Made of Dawn are tied to the seasonal ceremonies of the Pueblo agricultural year. Abel recollects an early sexual encounter that took place at a New Year’s ceremonial dance, and his sickness of soul appears in his killing of the captured eagle during the Bahkyush Eagle […]
Read more Critical Essays Pueblo Ceremonies and The Peyote WayN. Scott Momaday Biography
In keeping with Kiowa and other Native traditions which see each individual as part of a complex set of kinship, clan, and place relations, N. Scott Momaday opens his memoir, The Names, with a long exploration of his ancestry and genealogy. The forebears of his mother, Natachee Scott Momaday, include […]
Read more N. Scott Momaday BiographySummary and Analysis Part 4: 28-Feb
This is the last chapter of the novel, and one of the shortest. Abel wakes suddenly some time before dawn. In the chill room, he senses a profound stillness and realizes that his grandfather is dead. By the light of the glowing embers, he prepares the body in the ritual […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 4: 28-FebSummary and Analysis Part 4: 27-Feb
This chapter opens a week after Abel has returned to Walatowa and a month after his terrible beating in Los Angeles. The narration, in the voice of the omniscient narrator, picks up this part of the story at the point in the novel when we encountered Francisco in the first […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 4: 27-FebSummary and Analysis Part 4: Walatowa 1952
This last of the four major sections recalls the prologue and brings the story back to its starting point. The place is again Walatowa, and the year is 1952. The Dawn Runner of the title is Abel, who will now take his place with the other three men of traditional […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 4: Walatowa 1952