Study Question
- What stereotypes concerning American Indians are commonly encountered? How do these stereotypes appear in the context of Momaday’s works? How does he challenge or reinforce the stereotypes?
- What generalizations can be made about Momaday’s sense of place? How is place (or landscape, or the land itself) an important component of his writing? What similarities can be identified between the landscape in House Made of Dawn and the characters themselves? What, for example, is Francisco’s relationship to the land? How is Angela like the city she comes from (and to which she eventually returns)?
- Some critics have argued that Momaday stereotypes his female characters. What generalizations can be made about his representations of women? What is Milly’s or Angela’s role in House Made of Dawn? Grey’s or Lola’s role in The Ancient Child?
- Animals seem to have important roles in much of Momaday’s work. What is the role of the eagle or the snake in House Made of Dawn, or that of the horse or bear in The Ancient Child?
- Religion and ritual play important parts in much of Momaday’s prose. How may his presentation of the Catholic Church, for instance, be compared with his depictions of Pueblo religious ritual practices, Navajo beliefs, or the Pan-Indian rituals in Los Angeles in House Made of Dawn?
- Momaday has often said that language and the word are of fundamental importance in his definition of his own identity. What is the role of the word or of language in his novels? What is the significance of Abel’s frequent inability to articulate his thoughts? What is the significance of Tosamah’s facility with language?
- Choose one of Momaday’s poems, read it carefully, and identify a main idea. Describe the role of metaphor, symbol, or diction in the poem.
- What relationships or similarities can be found between Momaday’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction?
- In addition to being a writer, Momaday is a painter. What are the relationships between his nonverbal art (especially as depicted in In the Presence of the Sun and In the Bear’s House) and his prose and poetry?
- Many critics have noted similarities between House Made of Dawn and Leslie Marmon Silko’s 1977 novel, Ceremony. Identify some of these similarities. Perhaps more importantly, what are some differences in the ways the two authors treat certain subjects, such as tribal ceremony, the landscape, or the role of the mystical?
- What are some of the similarities between Momaday’s works and those of other Native American authors such as James Welch, Gerald Vizenor, Louise Erdrich, and Simon Ortiz? What is the function of landscape in Welch’s 1974 novel, Winter in the Blood, for example, as it compares with Momaday’s use of landscape in House Made of Dawn? What similarities are there between Welch’s nameless protagonist and Abel in Momaday’s novel?
- In an interview with Camille Adkins, Momaday said he admired Ortiz and Joy Harjo as poets. What similarities can be found in the poems of Harjo, Ortiz, and Momaday?
- How may the term modernist be used to describe a work by Momaday?
- Like Momaday, William Faulkner in his 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury uses different narrators and an intricate structure to tell his story. How are these modernist practices important to the themes of Momaday’s works? Consider Momaday’s explorations of nonlinear time and his refusal to accept one single, authoritative point of view.
- How may either The Names or The Way to Rainy Mountain be compared to other well-known autobiographies? How would you tell stories from your own life similarly or differently? Momaday, for instance, finds the circumstance of his naming quite important to his identity. How would you compare the story of your own naming?
- How does Momaday’s telling of stories compare with the way your own family tells stories about your ancestors or of the place where you grew up?
- Momaday’s House Made of Dawn and The Ancient Child were written more than twenty years apart, and much happened in those years. How may the two novels be compared in light of what has happened in American history in those twenty-one years? What has happened in those years that might be reflected in The Ancient Child?
- Novels often reflect the era in which they were written. House Made of Dawn is set in 1945 and 1952 but was written and published in the late 1960s. What is historically important about these two eras that the novel does or does not seem to recognize? What similarities does the novel suggest exist between the two eras?
- Momaday shares many important themes and issues with other Native American writers. Such themes or issues include instances of transformation, homecoming, and reconnecting with an older or sacred tradition. Trace one particular theme in the works of different Native American writers to compare how they treat it.
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