Comparison Of House Made Of Dawn To

Catholicism – A Lterary Analysis Essay, Research Paper

In the novel House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday, there are many religious references

(mostly Catholic references) intertwined within the story. One must wonder why the story of a Native American s struggle to return to his cultural roots would be laced throughout with Catholic references, especially predominate Catholic character names. However, these same religious characterizations go far in giving the reader a structure for understanding this complex work. Of all the religious names found throughout this novel, the most immediately evident are those of the main characters Abel, Francisco, Angela, and Milly.

The first character we encounter is Abel. In the Bible, we know that Abel is the second son of Adam and Eve. In the Book of Genesis, it says, Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. In the course of time . . . Cain was very angry, and . . . Cain said to his brother Abel, Let s go out to the field. And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him (Genesis 4:2-3, 5, 8). This image of Abel as the helpless victim can be applied to Momaday s character as well. First, it is interesting to note the altercation between Cain and Abel in comparison to Abel s killing of the white man. While the Bible portrays Abel as the sympathetic victim of a vicious crime of jealousy, in Momaday s story, Abel seems at first to have taken the position of the aggressor in killing the white man. However, despite Abel s violent crime, he still seems to mirror his Biblical namesake more so than the violent image of Cain. Furthermore, unlike Cain, Momaday s Abel has valid personal reasons for slaying the white man. We first see him as the victim of the white man. At the feast of Santiago, we see the white man brutally beating Abel. The narrator says, Again and again the white man struck him, heavily, brutally, upon the chest and shoulders and head, and Abel threw up his hands (Momaday 41). This event is somewhat confusing as is seems to be a ritual of the feast, yet we find in the next sentence that Abel is not used to this game. One must ask why, if this is the same place in which Abel grew up, he is unfamiliar with the game. While we cannot know the answer, it is still evident that, regardless of Abel s inexperience, the white man administers an especially severe beating with the rooster. Because of this malicious beating, we are able to begin to better understand Abel s motivations for killing the white man.

The second factor that helps us to justify Abel s killing of the white man is the inherent evil that Abel perceives surrounding the white man. This idea of stamping out evil at all costs is not very uncommon. We see similar incidences in the Old Testament of the Bible, such as the flood (Genesis6:5-8:4), the plagues of Egypt (Exodus 3:19-10:36) and the abandonment of the Israelites in the desert (Numbers 32:11-13), where God kills and plagues people because they are evil. In this way, the combination of Abel s victimization and belief that the white man is evil incarnate make his murder less malicious than that of Cain.

The next character we meet in the story is Abel s grandfather Francisco. While Francisco is a more secondary character, his name is also surrounded in Catholic symbolism. Because Francisco is the Spanish equivalent of Francis, Francisco could refer to Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis was a rich youth who spent considerable time failing to be a knight and drinking too much. However, once he realized his holy vocation, he lived a life of extreme poverty, choosing to return to the teachings of the gospel and to shun material wealth (Matz, n.pag.). While we know little about Francisco in order to compare him to Saint Francis, it is interesting to note that Abel is very similar. In one of the first scenes where we see Abel, he is competing in the rooster game at the feast of Santiago. Unlike his nemesis the white man, Abel fails in his attempt to grab the rooster making a fool of himself. The narrator at this time, tells us When it cameAbel s turn, he made a poor showing, full of caution and gesture. Angela despised him a little . . . (Momaday 40). We also see Abel after his prison sentence, living in Los Angeles and drinking to excess. While his friend Benally tries to convince him to get a job and to stop drinking so much, Abel pays no attention and delves deeper into his drunken depression (Momaday 148-149). This is very similar to St. Francis behavior after his failure in the Crusades. By remaining drunk, both St. Francis and Abel manage to escape their problems temporarily. Finally, Abel experiences a kind of catharsis after his accident and return to the pueblo. While his grandfather Francisco is dying, Abel is returning to life. Essentially, he accepts a second chance at life. We see him at the end running with dead runners, a symbol of his freedom from his past (Momaday 173-174). Likewise, St. Francis, upon renouncing his family and wealth also experiences a rebirth of sorts as a servant of God and healer (Matz, St. Francis). One must consider why Abel would be so similar to St. Francis, the namesake of his grandfather. It seems that, while Francisco was not overtly like St. Francis, he may have carried these characteristics inside. Through him, these characteristics were then passed to Abel, who embodied them. In this way, Abel is living the shad