The Ancient Child | Themes
Momaday's multicultural sources for this novel serve as the background to his greater purpose: to show the ways public story-telling and private self narrative shapes one's identity. In a culture that is examining the stories we tell about ourselves, that is exploring the connections between the stories we tell about ourselves to ourselves and self-esteem (or the lack of it), in a society that is questioning its use of the media, labels, jokes and stereotypes to tell stories on its subcultures, Momaday shows the positive potential of storytelling and ritual in the process of...
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