N. Scott Momaday's House Made Of Dawn

House Made of Dawn was written by N. Scott Momaday in 1968. Momaday himself is a Native American of the Kiowa tribe, and he bases much of this book off of his experiences growing up in his native culture. The story is set back in 1945, and the main character is a young Native American man named Abel who just returned from World War II. The story describes Abel’s adjustment back into normal life, and eventually his adjustment to living in the big city of Los Angeles. Kluckhohn and Strodbeck’s (1961) Values Orientation Theory can be modeled in Abel’s and his Kiowa tribe’s relationship to nature, to activity, to time, to others, and to human nature. In House Made of Dawn, we can draw many conclusions about Abel’s value orientations based on his …show more content…
In House Made of Dawn, we can see Abel, as the protagonist, develop into different activity orientations throughout the book. In his childhood, he was more achievement oriented, meaning his motivation for behaving was external to himself. He portrayed this orientation through his general participation and value to his community. As Abel grows up, we see him turn his activity orientation more towards being. His motivation is internal, as he only acts in ways that are valued by himself and not others. He falls deep into drunkenness, even commits a murder, and generally hurts those closest to him with his behavior. At the very end of the book, we get a glimpse of hope for Abel as he tends back to the achievement orientation when he takes care of his dying …show more content…
From observing Abel’s character development throughout the book, his behavior would line up with a mixture/mutable orientation. The mixture/mutable orientation states that people have both good and bad traits, but can learn to be either better or worse. From the story, we have no indication that Abel was born either good or bad, but we do see him develop traits during the course of the story. After he comes back from the war, it’s apparent to Francisco that Abel has changed from who he once was. Abel allowed the evil of war to penetrate his inner being and we see it come out when he murders the albino. Abel takes a turn for the worst when he moves to Los Angeles and becomes an alcoholic. At the same time, we see that Abel is also able to learn good qualities and have glimmers of hope towards the end of the story. In House Made of Dawn, Momaday presents a very dynamic character in Abel. Throughout the book we see him having to adjust to the different cultures around him. There are distinct differences between the two main cultures he encounters in relation to Kluckhohn and Strodbeck’s Value Orientation Theory. The difference in orientations between the cultures forced Abel to adjust his way of living even though he didn’t always respond in the most positive manner. House Made of Dawn is the perfect example of an individual trying to adjust, but clearly being affected by culture shock