Emotion
In House Made of Dawn there are a lot of emotions thrown about throughout the story. Every character, whether minor or not, has some sort of emotion that is brought out during the story. Why is this? Why are emotions such a large part of the book?
8 comments:
That's a really interesting point. Based on other literature I have read about native Americans, such as Lucia St. Clair's "Walk in My Soul" (which I recommend to anyone who is at all interested in Native American culture, particularly the trail of tears- and not antimidated by the prospect of reading about 600 pages) they seem to accept things such as emotions as being what they are, rather than trying to control them. Yet at the same time, there is a certain reverence that they attach to asceticism, that we do not. They seem to value purity as a certain sort of emptiness, which can be attained through fasting, staying awake for long periods of time, and other means of self-denial.
While every novel deals with emotions in some capacity, this novel crafts its narrative around the characters' emotions rather than using a series of events to tell the story. This is largely due to Native American culture and its focus on nature and spirituality, rather than material goods. In addition, There is a certain connection between the poetic language which describes the landscape and the characters' views on life.
I think that this question goes back again to the Native American background. Along with being in touch with the world and the earth around them, I believe that they are also very in touch with their emotions. I get the impression that they are a very passionate people.
I agree with the comment above that Native Americans are very in touch with their emotions. This novel doesn't deal with dialogue so much as it does with emotion and storytelling. This novel brings out the Native American culture through these very emotional stories and you can almost feel what the characters are dealing with at that time.
I think the way emotions are handled is meant to reflect the Native American culture. They seem less concerned with hiding or being misleading with feelings, and maybe even place more emphasis on them. That does seem kind of paradoxical to me though, when you consider they have a much less individualistic society. I would expect in a culture that emphasizes the whole you would find far less value placed on emotion. And yet I think they do have considerable value attached to it—the characters look for symbols and act out their gods; even listening to sounds and looking into the distance seems to have some deep personal feeling. It could be tied to the stereotype of Indian spirituality, or some alternative view of reality (like personal development being a greater marker than physical events).
Sounds reveal the Native American culture similar to landscape and animals and the importance of it in their lives. The author may be adding more depth to the text. The sounds also help the reader's to focus on the small things in Native American's lives and how their lives and culture differ from the American culture.
By focusing on each character's emotion, the novel is trying to show the uniqueness of each soul, an important concept in Native American culture. This is similar to how Native American names are meant to be analogously descriptive in that they consist of a real world entity (most often dealing with nature) that represents one's "being".
I think that we sometimes repress our emotions in order to feel comfortable and more 'normal' so that we do not worry about issues our that our peers do not. I think that the characters in House Made of Dawn also repress their emotions and exhibit them through behavior, such as the killing of the eagle.
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