Literature analysis - first draft. I choose the book because of the cultural twist and identity crises topic. Also, to challenge myself with a new genre, foreign culture and to travel back in time.
House Made of Dawn is a story about a boy named Abel, a mixed-race Indian who finds himself unable to fit in on the reservation or in white culture. The novel is just like many immigration literature books, which addresses identity issues and the conflicted feelings it provokes, estranging from one's own culture, except that this young man's story was between two cultures in the same country.
“In the white man's world, language, too -- and the way which the white man thinks of it--has undergone a process of change. The white man takes such things as words and literatures for granted, as indeed he must, for nothing in his world is so commonplace. On every side of him there are words by the millions, an unending succession of pamphlets and papers, letters and books, bills and bulletins, commentaries and conversations. He has diluted and multiplied the Word, and words have begun to close in on him. He is sated and insensitive; his regard for language -- for the Word itself -- as an instrument of creation has diminished nearly to the point of no return. It may be that he will perish by the Word.”― N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn
Furthermore, the author attempts to transliterate Indian culture, myth, and sensibility to the foreign reader, with its vague mysteries using his expertise in cultures different from our own. The writing itself is very beautiful, especially the descriptions of nature and the detailed description of Indian life. However, it is hard to connect to any of the characters, especially with the verbally awkward dialogues that I assumed to be based on cultural barriers. Also, the struggle to make sense of the repeated violence against animals which is part of the native Indian rituals.
Overall, from the pages I've read so far, which I managed to analyse in this assignment, I consider this a good story of power and beauty that helps the reader straighten her imaginative imagery: a profound emotional and intellectual insight into the Indian culture.
“There was only the dark infinity in which nothing was. And something happened. At the distance of a star something happened, and everything began. The Word did not come into being, but it was. It did not break upon the silence, but it was older than the silence and the silence was made of it.”
― N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn
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