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Influence of Words & Silence in Native American Lit: Momaday & Erdrich, Lecture notes of Voice

The use of words and silence in the works of Native American authors, specifically focusing on Scott Momaday and Louise Erdrich. The text delves into the importance of language in creating personal identities and connections to culture, as well as the role of silence in Native American literature and its impact on contemporary Native Americans. The document also discusses the necessity of self-discovery before a connection to tribal identity and the generative power of words in the face of cultural annihilation.

What you will learn

  • What role does self-discovery play in the connection to tribal identity in Native American literature?
  • What is the significance of words and silence in Native American literature?
  • How does the generative power of words help in the face of cultural annihilation in Native American literature?
  • How do Scott Momaday and Louise Erdrich use language and silence in their works?

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2021/2022

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N.
SCOTT
MOMADAY'S
HOUSE
MADE
OF
DAWN:
THE
CRUCIAL
"SILENCING
HIN
THE
SEARCH
FOR
IDENTITY
By
MARLYS
CERVANTES
Bachelor
of
Arts
Oklahoma
State
University
Stillwater,
Oklahoma
1995
Submitted
to
the
Faculty
of
the
Graduate
College
of
the
Oklahoma
State
University
in
partial
fulfillment
of
the
requirements
for
the
Degree
of
MASTER
OF
ARTS
July,
2000
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Download Influence of Words & Silence in Native American Lit: Momaday & Erdrich and more Lecture notes Voice in PDF only on Docsity!

N. SCOTT MOMADAY'S HOUSE MADE OF DAWN:
THE CRUCIAL "SILENCING H^ IN THE
SEARCH FOR IDENTITY

By MARLYS CERVANTES Bachelor of Arts Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 1995

Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for MASTERthe^ Degree OF ARTS^ of July, 2000

N. SCOTT MOMADAY'S HOUSE MADE OF DAWN:
THE CRUCIAL "SILENCING" IN THE
SEARCH FOR IDENTITY

Thesis Approved:

Thesis Advisor

~~"--_.

----D=-e-a'""'-n.....~~llege

ii

which I may have achieved at Oklahoma State University. In life, I must always thank my parents, Gary and Connie Sheffield, for their undying love and support of my many endeavors, and my brother, Todd, for continually being my partner-in-crime and best friend. During the many hours of research, reading and writing, Jose Cervantes has provided unconditional time, patience and love, while Isaac Todd Cervantes has provided breaks (probably more than I should have taken) over this past year. And, last but certainly not least, I must thank Alana, who has been my muse for the last eighteen years, continually providing the love and the heartache which inspires all of my writings and the many beautiful memories which fill my mind daily. Thank you all for swimming with me in my tumultuous ocean of life, and I wish for each of you the quiet moments of self-discovery and the beauty of memories within.

IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 - I. INTRODUCT ION Section Page - I I. THE POWER OF WORDS - Building Identities - Sustaining Life - Risks of Sound 
  • III. THE BEAUTIFUL RISK OF MEMORy - Beautiful Memory - Risk Within M.emory
    • IV. SILENCE AS A SANCTUARY OF SOUND - Silence as Sanctuary - Critical Silencings - Consequences of the Unexpressed - V. CONCLUSION: CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SOUND AND SILENCE
  • NOTES
  • WORKS CITED

power of language, but often it is not realized until silence prevails. Silence. Remember both, we are told. (79) Silence serves as the locus for recollection, for the contemplation of words' meaning, which is one of the sources of their power. The very fact that Walters chooses to write about both the spoken word and silence indicates the connection which she recognizes between the two. Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday and many other contemporary Native American authors, such as Sherman Alexie and Louise Erdrich, develop characters who demonstrate the overwhelming power of words, especially the way in which control of these words relates to the characters as they strive to maintain or create personal identities and connections to their cultures. Although numerous scholars and critics focus on Momaday's assertions regarding the power of words, very few delve even superficially into his use of silence, leaving a void which cannot be overlooked. The juxtaposition of language and silence, within a narrative form and within the life of a person, creates an opposition so vital to the narrative that the two serve as a yin and yang: without silence, words would lose their power. And, although many Native American authors tend to find a great need for and power in silence, scholars also tend to neglect any exploration into the element of risk

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that such silence lends to the lives of contemporary Native Americans,l as well as come to different conclusions from this thesis regarding the necessity of a personal self- discovery before a connection to a tribal identity occurs. If the element of silence is overlooked, one may easily miss the process of self-discovery as essential in leading to unity with a person's tribe. The conflict between personal will and community need is as old as humanity. Such a struggle--self-identity versus communal perception--requires the individual who wishes to do more than simply survive or be more than simply a member of a larger whole to find ways in which to reconcile the two selves. In numerous contemporary Native texts, protagonists who either are alienated from their tribal communities or who are merging into "white" society while distancing themselves from their Native communiti s, whether by their own choices or not, are the individuals who feel that struggle. It is interesting that throughout Momaday's own life, possibly due to his alternately living on reservations and in white communities, he has been successful in this reconciliation. For him, the communal perception includes the self. However, this inclusion is not the case for many of his characters as well as many contemporary Native Americans. This problem of duality led to the structural movement of my thesis. Sections II, III, and IV each move from the positive to the negative, or the 3

Tedlock working to translate such texts without losing the nuance, intonations and pauses found within the oral representations. Tedlock provides readers with a "performance-oriented text,"2 a system of symbols to indicate the subtleties of the narrative. Although a seemingly daunting task, it is not unheard of in other contexts, such as in script writing for theatrical productions or in the scoring of music. Therefore, Tedlock can be said to provide his readers with a narrative "song," providing the appropriate points for crescendo, allegro, staccato, rests and holds. This type of effort may well be one of the best avenues for preservation of the oral tradition. Responses to this move from oral to written narratives continue to be at the forefront of any discussion of Native texts, and Momaday and his works continue to be n integral part of the dialogue. In a 1990 interview with Laura Coltelli, Momaday himself best sums up the idea that writing "springs in a natural way from the oral tradition": "I think that the two traditions are probably more apparently different than they are really different one from another they are probably closer together than we realize" (93). Momaday's use of "probably" certainly stresses the ambiguity of the issue; however, the fact that a master storyteller such as Momaday views writing as an avenue to express his ideas, his Native heritage, lends a certain

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validity to the assertion that both methods provide power to the words. Momaday explains: The verbal tradition by which it [man's idea of himself through language] has been preserved has suffered a deterioration in time. What remains is fragmentary: mythology, legend, lore, and hearsay- -and of course the idea itself, as crucial and complete as it ever was. That is the miracle. (Rainy Mountain 4) Momaday's 1968 novel House Made of Dawn captured the literary world and began what is now known as the Native American Renaissance. 3 Critics agree that with this Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, Native American literature moved center stage as a topic for critical debate. Numerous authors followed Momaday's lead, and readers and critics were provided ample opportunities for review of the texts and the Native cultures. Momaday is one member of contemporary Native American traditions whose works frequently explore the tension between speech and silence; House Made of Dawn, the most important primary text covered in this study, turns this tension into social commentary and a source of conflict for more than one character. This thesis concludes that, in the novel, Momaday exemplifies the opposition of sound and silence by making the times his characters choose to be silent just as important as when they choose to speak.

SECTION II
THE POWER OF WORDS

The lives and words of our ancestors are part of the land, lasting echoes, never gone. They return to us with each story, each song, as old as the sun, as new as each dawn. --Joseph Bruchac (Lasting Echoes 131.21-28)

Building Identities Numerous Native American authors, including Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich and Susan Power, strongly convey a sense of the power of words through their prose and poetry, and N. Scott Momaday certainly has made this idea the foundation of his works. Other authors' fictional characters, like Momaday's, display in their dialogue and thoughts the tremendous creative and sustaining power inherent in words; Momaday, however, also fully incorporates this within his nonfictional work, which indicates that this power is not only important to his texts and to his fictional characters, by crucial to his own survival as well. In a critical response to his 1989 interview with

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Momaday, Charles L. Woodard explains the source of Momaday's beliefs regarding the importance of words: childhood stories. Among these stories, Woodard asserts, the one that remains of paramount importance to Momaday is that of the arrowmaker, "the man who saves himself through language" (2). Woodard notes: The arrowmaker is a man who dares to speak in a moment of crisis--a man who risks himself in words in order to overcome an enemy. The boy [Momaday] learned from that story the importance of applying words to the world. He would come to believe that humans are beings made of words and that he could realize himself, and communicate himself, through language. He would corne to believe that he could create his world in words, and that through words he might even transcend time and have perpetual being. (2) Momaday's essence of self, of a being "made of words" and the risk such creative power generates, developed as a result of the many stories of his ancestors, stories which often dealt with the great creative power of words, stories that Momaday relied on as he grew to manhood, as he built an identity, as he discovered and continually rediscovers himself. The author, unlike many of his characters and, I would suggest, many younger Natives, easily merges his tribal identity with his self-identity. 10

origins" more directly than any other writer (18). I would take Blaeser's assertion another step and claim that Momaday not only has spoken of this process directly, but has allowed his reader to see how he lives by the concept more fully than most writers, actually diminishing the line between his craft and his person as he brings to being his own vehicle to identity through his words. His words do not just create identity for fictional characters, but also for Momaday himself. In The Way to Rainy MQuntain, MQmaday prQvides an example of this impQrtant avenue Qf Qrigin: "A wQrd has pQwer in and of itself. It CQmes frQm nQthing intQ sound and meaning; it gives Qrigin tQ all things" (33). The strengths Qf wQrds are creative, aboriginal, all- encompassing. MQmaday provides an example Qf this in his nQvel, HQuse Made Qf Dawn. TQsamah's grandmQther understands the creative pQwer of wQrds. The grandmQther "had learned that in wQrds and in language, and there Qnly, she could have whQle CQnsummate being" (94). Without wQrds and language, she WQuld nQt be. The wQrds becQme a part Qf her self and they alQne can make her whQle. Momaday's writings continually reflect either directly or indirectly on the wholeness to which language can lead the individual. Paying homage tQ this impQrtance of words, Momaday writes, Language is the stuff of the imaginatiQn. The 12

imagination is the creative aspect of language. It enables us to use language to its highest potential. It enables us to realize a reality beyond the ordinary, it enables us to create and to re-create ourselves in story and literature. It is the possible accomplishment of immortality. (Man Made of Words 2) The above concept seems very Western, and may result from Momaday's own merging of his academic background with his Native culture; however, even if the idea stems from the tension between and/or merging of the two cultures, the idea of an individual immortality suggests a certain privilege which Momaday, at least, places on individual identity, rather than the more traditional privilege placed on the Indian community over that of the individual. Momaday is not alone in his quest to show the reader 0 Native American literature the creative power found in words, in imagination. In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Spokane/Coeur d'Alene author Sherman Alexie also stresses the creative power of the imagination: Imagination is the politics of dreams. Imagine a song stronger than penicillin. Imagine a spring with water that mends broken bones. Imagine a drum which wraps itself around your heart. Imagine a story that puts wood in the fireplace. (152-53) 13

times she is Lakota. Often, she is from the same tribe as the last Indian woman he has seen on television" (4). John feels compelled to create a past--to give birth to a mother, so to speak--through his words; although the account is vividly detailed and emotionally moving, he cannot actually remember the "history." Still, because his isolation from his culture proves too difficult for him to cope with, John Smith needs to create an identity, an Indian identity, for himself. Alexie puts in motion this overarching use of language and imagination to create a mother and provide this connection. However, Alexie also takes the power of language a different direction by allowing the creations of other authors to thrive once again within the pages of his own writings. When Daniel (the adoptive father of John Smith) searches for John, he speaks to an Indian man about homeless men the Indian has seen. Among the characters from other Native American novels mentioned in the conversation between the Indian man and Daniel is "Abel, the Kiowa" (220). By including this character, whether in jest or seriousness, Alexie allows the life Momaday previously breathed into the character Abel to carryon past the borders of House Made of Dawn. In doing so, Alexie provides a new home and continued vitality to the "homeless" Abel within the borders of a different text, beautifully sustaining the life Momaday previously created.

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Despite language's beauty, though, there remains a risk in creating an identity through stories, through language. In Indian Killer, Alexie's John Smith makes up his own stories, but other, possibly innate, stories try to get through to him: "John could remember when it first happened, this noise in his head. He was young, maybe ten years old, when he heard strange music" (23). John cannot understand the noise which forces itself into his mind; he cannot merge his "true" identity with the one he is living. Indicating this same sensation of an inability to belong in White culture, Calvin Martin explains that "so long as [the Indian] subscribes to the promptings and messages of the mythic world of his ancestors he remains a misfit in [the white world]" (31). Alexie's John Smith represents a portion of the very problem discussed by Martin. Although Smith does not "subscribe" to the mysticism of his Native heritage because he does not possess the knowledge to make a connection to his tribal identity, he still feels and hears the "messages" from that identity but cannot understand them. Smith desires to grasp the world of his ancestors, but cannot because he does not possess the skills, whether in actuality or only in his mind, necessary to make the connection. As a result, the meaning of the sounds of a distant past eludes him. The sound was like "clear and precise" voices, yet he could not understand it, something John knew he could do "if he were a real Indian" (24). 16