A Writers Style

1223 Words3 Pages

The Pulitzer Prize winning writer N. Scott Momaday has become known as a very distinctive writer who depicts the stories of the Native American life in almost poetic ways. He does an excellent job of transporting the reader from the black and white pages of a book, to a world where every detail is pointed out and every emotion felt when reading one of Momaday’s books or other writings. This style of writing that Momaday uses is very evident in his work “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” and made even more apparent by reading a review of the book House Made of Dawn found on a web site run by HarperCollins Publishers.

Throughout the essay “The Way to Rainy Mountain”, Momaday uses very descriptive words, which brings the places he is describing to life in the minds eye. The essay begins with his description of the homelands of his Kiowa people, which has been given the name of Rainy Mountain. The picture painted in the readers mind by these beautiful descriptions makes it easily understandable why the Kiowa people came to settle upon this land as their home. For example, part of the description Momaday gives of the land within the first paragraph is, “There are green belts along the rivers and creeks, linear groves of hickory and pecan, willow and witch hazel. At a distance in July or August the streaming foliage seems almost to writhe in fire.” (Momaday, 95) I can not help but imagine the trees wavering in a gentle early fall breeze as the yellows and reds seem as if the whole land is burning beneath the fading summer sun. Halfway through the essay he describes the Black Hills by saying “A dark mist lay over the Black Hills and the land was like iron.” (97) He then describes Devil’s Tower in the next sentence by writing “…I caught sight of Devil’s Tower upthrust against the gray sky as if in the birth of time the core of the earth had broken through its crust and the motion of the world was begun.” (97) The way that Momaday describes these breathtaking scenes allows the reader to both see and feel the emotion that these great views evoke. This style of writing is backed up through HarperCollins Publishers online review of Momaday’s book, House Made of Dawn, when it states that “The world of his grandfather, Francisco—and of Francisco’s fathers before him—is a world of seasonal rhythms, a harsh and beautiful place…” This shows that inside the book House ...

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...aw the reader in.

In conclusion, upon looking further into N. Scott Momaday’s style of writing, I have found it to be true that he has developed one of the most sound and beautifully descriptive styles of writing. The way he describes each scene with so much feeling brings the reader in through a very emotional avenue. Also, his style is very strong where he covers the changes of the world and how the Native American people adjust to the many new and different challenges they face. Even though there are a few times when Momaday’s writing can seem sidetracking and misleading, he is still able to bring it all together in the end. This makes for very beautifully well written works with some of the most descriptive scenes I have ever read. I would highly recommend any of Momaday’s writings based off of the knowledge I have gained by examining a few short pieces by him. The stories are great, and the descriptions are powerful enough to leave you breathless.

Works Cited

Momaday, N. Scott. “The Way to Rainy Mountain.” Fields of Reading. Ed. Nancy Comley, et al. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. 577-580.

Perennial Classics. Ed. HarperCollins Publisher. 26 February 2002

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