Way to Rainy Mountain

N. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain glorifies the Kiowa culture and describes its traditions. N. Scott Momaday in his reminiscence demonstrates nostalgic longing for a time that cannot be salvaged and is gone forever. The author reminds us of lost tribes, lost religions and lost hope. A person’s heritage is a very important aspect of himself. If a person’s heritage is somehow lost or destroyed, that person will be missing a very big component of him. The author uses his grandmother as a symbol for lost religion, hope and traditions. From his heritage only his grandmother was connected to Kiowas. After, she passed away; the author does not discern any connection between him and his heritage. The epoch of the Kiowa culture had emerged. The author employs nostalgic tone, to convey a mood of lost heritage. Through the use of different rhetorical devices, the author conveys his thesis precisely. Diction also plays a vital role in creating a nostalgic tone in the excerpt.

The diction that renders the symbol of the author’s grandmother is sophisticated and ornate. The author employs a great deal of vocabulary to convey his descriptions of the Kiowa culture and his grandmother. The author uses ornate diction to describe his grandmother’s sorrow and anguish when the Kiowa culture was vanishing. For example, in the excerpt the author writes, “I do not speak Kiowa, and I never understood her prayers, but there was something inherently sad in the sound, some merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow.” The author recalls this even via allusion. The words that convey his grandmother’s anguish are sad, hesitation and sorrow. The author also writes phrases such as “all but gone out of mankind”, “last Kiowa Sun Dance” and “disperse the tribe” to convey an atmosphere of loss. Words that indicate loss are last, gone and disperse. These words contain a sense of loss in their essences.

One image presented in the article is creation. Through the use of...