Ap Language Analyze
In Momaday’s “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” Momaday has the same structure described in Leslie Silko’s “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective.” Some of his story has roots from oral tradition, he takes a central subject and branches many ideas off it, like a web, and he writes informally as to show his true feelings to the reader. In Silko’s essay, she describes Pueblo writing as usually containing oral tradition. She also goes on to say that the Pueblo people like to include “the whole of history and time” in their stories. Although Momaday is of Kiowa descent rather than Pueblo, the similarities between these two Native American tribes are obvious. Momaday does, in fact, include a creation story in his writing. This story had been made centuries ago and was passed down from one Kiowa to the next, like how Momaday’s grandmother told him. Momaday including this story in his passage helps the reader understand Momaday’s culture. It assists the reader in trying to understand the Kiowas’ history and Momaday’s past along with his grandmother’s. This in turn makes the reader able to identify some of the cultural differences, but at the same time realize that these differences were normal for the Kiowas. An example of this would be when Momaday walks in on his grandmother, who, at the time, was nude above the waist covered only by her hair. In today’s society this would be very queer, but it is evident to the reader that this is nothing short of normal in a Kiowa culture. Another point made about Indian writing in “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective” is how Indian story telling has a structure that of a web. In Momaday’s passage, he took the point of his grandmother’s death and from there spoke about many other subjects related. For instance, he started out with a detailed description of Rainy Mountain. From there he told us of his grandmother’s demise and then told the reader the history of his people, the