The Way to Rainy Mountain Questions and Answers
Name three activities that Momaday recalls as he thinks about his grandmother’s house in The Way to Rainy Mountain.
How was Momaday’s grandmother able to describe people she had never seen and places she had never been in The Way to Rainy Mountain?
In "The Way to Rainy Mountain," what significance does Momaday's grandmother have for him, and what does she represent?
Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain incorporates many different styles and narrative devices. Discuss them.
What two natural phenomena are explained by the Kiowa legend about the seven sisters and their brother in The Way to Rainy Mountain?
In The Way to Rainy Mountain, what was the most important insight Momaday gained about his heritage during his pilgrimage to Yellowstone and his grandmother's grave?
What is the thesis or main idea of The Way to Rainy Mountain?
Explain Momaday's relationship with his grandmother.
Why is the legend of Devil's Tower important to the Kiowa tribe in The Way to Rainy Mountain?
What does the metaphor "in the Summer the prairie is an anvil's edge" mean in "The Way to Rainy Mountain?"
Create a digital presentation about a chapter from The Way to Rainy Mountain explaining the overall meaning of the chapter, the historical context, and how your media elements relate to your analysis.
What happened at the last Kiowa Sun Dance that changed Kiowa culture?
What do you think Momaday means when he calls the Kiowa migration "a journey toward the dawn" in The Way to Rainy Mountain?
In The Way To Rainy Mountain, in what ways do the activities at Momaday's grandma's house connect to a vanishing way of life?
Where is Rainy Mountain? Why does Momaday return there?
Momaday says that the Kiowas believed they "entered the world through a hollow log." Explain what this phrase means.
In "The Way to Rainy Mountain," how was Momaday's trip symbolic?
Momaday states that his grandmother belonged to the "last culture to evolve in North America." What does she mean?
According to myth, what is one reason the Grandmother Spider worries about raising the Sun's child?
The structure of N. Scott Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain is unique. Discuss your feelings about the structure — what you liked about it and what you didn't like about it (in both cases, explain why).
Why is Tai-me important to the Kiowa?
What is the most important metaphor in The Way to Rainy Mountain?
What does the Kiowa story about the seven sisters and their brother explain?
In The Way to Rainy Mountain, where is Rainy Mountain, and why does Momaday return there?
In The Way to Rainy Mountain, what are your impressions of Momaday's grandmother, Aho?
What two things might the houses described in The Way to Rainy Mountain symbolize?
How does Momaday use adjectives and descriptive phrases to show profound respect for Rainy Mountain? Great green and yellow grasshoppers are everywhere in the tall grass, popping up like corn to sting the flesh, and tortoises crawl about on the red earth, going nowhere in plenty of time. Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolated; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man. To look upon that landscape in the early morning, with the sun at your back, is to lose the sense of proportion. Your imagination comes to life, and this, you think, is where Creation was begun. (The Way to Rainy Mountain, Introduction)
According to the creation myth in The Way to Rainy Mountain, how did the Kiowa enter the world?
What does the author mean when he describes the visitors as being "made of lean and leather"?
The author refers to a time when the Kiowa were living "their last great moments in history." What happened to end this period in Kiowa history?
What tone does the imagery in the first paragraph convey?
What are your impressions of Momaday's grandmother Aho?
According to The Way to Rainy Mountain, how did the Kiowa people become great hunters?
In "The Way to Rainy Mountain," what does the narrator mean when he talks about the crickets and the moon?
What is the significance of the title The Way to Rainy Mountain?
How does The Way to Rainy Mountain deal with nature and self-identification?
What is a pilgrimage, and does Momaday take one?
What are three of the significances of the Sun Dance in The Way to Rainy Mountain?
What images does Momaday use to convey strongly contrasting feelings of light and life versus darkness and death in The Way to Rainy Mountain? Is the overall mood of this work light or dark?
What is the importance of Rainy Mountain?
Why does Momaday travel to Yellowstone, the Rockies, and Black Hill?
Which recurring figure in The Way to Rainy Mountain was the author's grandparent and once acquired powerful medicine from a mole?
In paragraph 14 of the Introduction, what does the cricket refer to?
In N. Scott Momaday's book The Way to Rainy Mountain, what is an example of the way in which Momaday adapts history so that it makes sense in a modern world?
In The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday, what does the speaker mean when he says that his grandmother was born when the Kiowas were living the "last great moment of their history"?
Momaday chose a travel narrative for the introduction to The Way to Rainy Mountain. Why did he choose the journey motif to structure this exploration of his cultural past? What roles do place and landscape play in Momaday's physical and metaphorical journeys?
What attitude does Momaday communicate in the story The Way to Rainy Mountain?
In the Prologue, Momaday says that “In one sense, then, the way to Rainy Mountain is preeminently the history of an idea, man’s idea of himself, and it has old and essential being in language.” What does the author mean?
How did meeting the Crows change the Kiowas?
Write a reflection essay based on the following prompt: Momaday chose a travel narrative for the introduction to The Way to Rainy Mountain. Why did he choose the journey motif to structure this exploration of his cultural past? What roles do place and landscape play in Momaday’s physical and metaphorical journeys?
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