The Way To Rainy Mountain Analysis

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Analysis of American Indian Elements in the Way to Rainy Mountain 浅析《雨山行》中的印第安元素 ⅠIntroduction N. Scott Momaday, an American Indian writer, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction by virtue of House Made of Dawn. The Way to Rainy Mountain was his follow-up work blended folklore with memoir. As the Pulitzer work has been studied a lot at home and abroad, this paper is not going to discuss. Despite the perspectives of symbolism, ecology and cultural identity are frequently studied in the Way to Rainy Mountain, this paper concerns with a comparatively new viewpoint—the American Indian Elements. Actually, there are a lot of mysterious mythologies, legends, ceremonies and phenomena in American Indian history as a result of backward productivity and technology at that time. However, because of that, another world, the Spirited World, where exists immortal souls, animal spirits, etc. comes into being. As for communicating and connecting with that world, the people in this life therefore create various totems and ceremonies filled with unique American Indian features. ⅡA Hollow Log—the Circle “’You know, everything had to begin…’ For the Kiowas, the beginning was a …show more content…

“American Indians think death is the continuation of life and those two are just a transformation, an endless cycling.” The life and death, except indicating for people, can also suggest American Indian’s culture. The body of the Way to Rainy Mountain consists of three parts, which respectively are setting out, going on and closing in. For one thing, it is the physical process that the author returns to his hometown, for another, more importantly, it is his journey of heart, a journey of memorizing the past people and culture. For all the journey closes in, it is still endless, for he will return to the beginning and start again, so does other American Indians, which also shows his further

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