What is Momaday's relationship with his grandmother in The Way to Rainy Mountain?
Momaday has a good relationship with his grandmother, Aho. Further, the relationship is very important because it is Momaday's grandmother who connects Momaday to his heritage of the Kiowa tribe of Native Americans. Many of Momaday's memories of his grandmother have to do with activities in everyday Kiowa life, including prayer:
I see my grandmother in the several postures that were peculiar to her: standing at the wood stove on a winter morning . . . sitting at the south window, bent above her beadwork . . . going out upon a cane, very slowly as she did when the weight of age came upon her; praying. I remember her most often at prayer.
When Momaday remembers his grandmother "most often at prayer," she is praying to Tai-me, the Sun Dance god. This, of course, is a very important connection to Momaday's Kiowa heritage. Later in The Way to Rainy...
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Mountain, the reader learns that Momaday's grandmother was present at many important Kiowa events, including the last complete Sun Dance where the religious rituals to Tai-me were completed. She was also there for the last incomplete Sun Dance when the Fort Sill soldiers arrived and dispersed the Kiowa tribe.
Just like the quotation above mentions, Momaday has many memories of his grandmother, Aho, at prayer to Tai-me. Aho's prayers were often rambling, long, and anguished. Her prayers are representative of her grief for the dispersal of the Kiowa tribe members. Momaday is able to explore his heritage fully because of the good relationship he had with his grandmother, Aho.
In The Way to Rainy Mountain, how old was Momaday's grandmother when she died?
Although we are never given an exact age, we know that Momaday's grandmother lived to be very old. The reader knows this by the following quotation:
Now that I can have her only in memory, I see my grandmother in the several postures that were peculiar to her: standing at the wood stove on a winter morning . . . sitting at the south window, bent above her beadwork . . . going out upon a cane, very slowly as she did when the weight of age came upon her; praying. I remember her most often at prayer.
There are many important words here that lend themselves to the idea of old age. Momaday's grandmother, Aho, is "bent" over her beadwork. This shows that her spine is no longer straight (which often accompanies old age). Next, she always goes "out upon a cane, very slowly." Using a cane and moving "very slowly" are also usual aspects of an elderly person. Finally, Momaday gives the direct description that the "weight of age came upon her." This is a literal way of telling readers that Aho is truly old.
Further, Aho's age is extremely important in that it is her age that allows her to have experienced some of the most important events in Kiowa culture. Most importantly, Aho experienced the last two Sun Dances of the Kiowa tribe of Native Americans. Aho describes both for her grandson, Momaday, who eventually writes this book. In a sense, it is The Way to Rainy Mountain that immortalizes the Kiowa tribe in regards to myth, history, and personal experience.