The Uprooting Of A Japanese-American Family And The Way To Rainy Mountain

In both short nonfictional stories, “ The Uprooting of a Japanese- American Family” by Yoshiko Uchida and “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N.Scott Momaday both authors have comparative and contrasting traits in their purpose of writing their own stories.

In comparison of the both stories they both have a purpose of giving praise to another person. In Uchida’s story it was praising her mother and in Momaday’s story it was about praising and giving tribute to his grandmother. In Uchida’s story when her family were stripped from their homes and have been sent to an internment camps. She describes tribute to her mother when she explains, “ … and eagerly pulled out the familiar objects from home. We unpacked our blankets, pillows, sheets,

tea kettle, and most welcome of all, our electric hot plate” (p. 540). She praises her mother because she was very practical in bring the necessities when they were forced to leave the house.

She also praises her for that is because, when you’re not warned in advance that you half to leave and it’s all of a sudden and without impulsively getting anything in reach. She thought about the practicals knowing they were going to a very terrible place with barely anything. She grabbed the blankets, pillows and sheets for bedding, a tea kettle for making tea and a hot plate to warm up the food that would be given to them that would possibly be in editable conditions. Correspondingly, in Momaday’s story he pays respect and tribute to his grandmother and his heritage of being Kiowan. He first starts out with saying, “I wanted to see in reality what she has seen more perfectly in the mind’s eye, and traveled fifteen hundred miles to begin my pilgrimage” (p. 548). He shows respect to

his grandmother and background because he is willing to travel 1500 miles just to see what his grandma was talking about when he was a young boy. He was interested and willing into going on a pilgrimage rather than feeling forced to go just for the heck of it.

Not to mention, both authors Momaday and Uchida use explanation/informing for their purpose in their stories.

In the beginning of Uchida’ story she explains the reality of what she is going to face with, “As the bus pulled up to the grandstand, I could see hundreds of Japanese Americans jammed along a fence that lined the track” (p. 537). It shows Uchida that she is going somewhere and she doesn’t know where it is yet and the reality hit her when her family and her were pressed against a fence getting lined up by Americans on a bus which were headed to internment camps where they would be housed in barracks. Another way Uchida uses informing in her story is when, “ Most internees got into the habit of rushing for everything. They ran to the mess halls to be first in line, they dashed inside for the best tables and then rushed through meals to get the washtubs before the suds ran out” (p. 544). This detail explains that in the internment camps the Japanese Americans were being chaotic because everything is so scarce and minimal which makes them believe it’s the end of the world and they have to rush to be the first for anything. The camp dehumanized the Japanese Americans to act like savages within their own community. In Momaday’s story he incorporates a myth about Devil’s Tower which informs the reader about the Kiowa culture parts of the myth include, “His fingers became claws, and his body was covered in fur… the sisters were terrified: they ran, and the bear after

them…” (p. 549). Momaday has such a connection which his culture that he wants the reader to understand what Kiowa people value and what stories and such they had to do with their daily lives.
In conclusion, both authors Uchida and Momaday had two types of purposes to their stories to, inform/educate and to praise/pay tribute to.