Comparing Momaday's The Way To Rainy Mountain And Beauty

More Different Than Alike
The narratives of N. Scott Momaday’s “The Way to Rainy Mountain” and Alice Walker’s “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self,” differ more than they are alike. The two narratives compare slightly in theme, but they differ in use of emotion. Momaday lacks raw emotion in his narrative, unlike Walker, who uses raw emotion as a major tool. Structurally, Momaday and Walker use some of the same techniques: both are personal narratives and use past events. The two personal narratives differ in structure as well. Momaday uses a past-to-present structure and present-to-past method, moving from looking at his grandmother’s grave to “tiredly laying his head on her lap” after playing at prayer meetings (Momaday 3). Walker’s

Momaday’s personal narrative is his journey to his grandmother’s grave. This journey leads to reminiscing about his childhood and the stories his grandmother told him about the Kiowas. In Momaday’s narrative, he discovers that it is up to him to carry on the Kiowa’s heritage and he understood what the land and their traditions meant to his people that they defended their land and beliefs at all costs. He explained how, “It had gone there, I thought, to live and die, for there, of all places, was its small definition made whole and eternal. A warm wind rose up and purled like the longing within me” (Momaday 3). He describes before the quote the night and landscape he is looking at and he appreciates it as he realizes what his Kiowa people felt when they looked at the land. Going along with the theme of Momaday’s narrative, Walker’s narrative has self-discovery as well. Due to a BB gun accident, she goes blind at age eight. She went from a confident young girl to quiet and never lifting her head up. She started gaining more confidence when her brother and sister in law paid to have the “glob” removed from her eye and started to

Momaday describes his childhood with his grandmother and his memories with her. He remembers, “When I was a child I remember playing with my cousins outside, when the quiet returned, I lay down with my grandmother and I could hear the frogs away by the river and feel the motion air”(Momaday 3). As well as Momaday, Walker too reverts to her childhood for key points to describe her struggle of self-consciousness. She recalls, “I am six years old and have learned one of the longest Easter speeches to be heard that day, when I rise to give my speech I do so on a great wave of love and pride and expectation” (Walker 2). She describes the confidence she had in herself before the accident with her eye. In Momaday’s narrative, he tries to recapture a memory whereas Walker in her narrative writes more in the moment. Momaday’s narrative lacks raw emotion, as he does not describe what he is feeling. This lack makes it difficult for the reader to connect with his memories. On the other hand, Walker’s narrative uses raw emotion to help reach out to the reader. She explains, “As I dance whirling and joyous, happier than I’ve ever been in my life, another bright-faced dancer joins me” (Walker 8). This quote describes her feelings after the self-discovery of loving her eye and allows the reader to experience a memory