English Language and Literature Commons^™

Coming Home: Storytelling, Place, And Identity In N. Scott Momaday's House Made Of Down And Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Azalyn Croft

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"This analysis will examine authenticity through the conflated elements of identity, home, ceremony, and storytelling in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony and N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn. Coming home for characters Tayo and Abel involves redirecting of isolated individual energy to the whole community, enabling them to return to their estranged homes. Traumatic experiences in the war have alienated these men to the point where they can no longer claim place, identity or self. The author analyzes the ways in which these men have become "un-homed" as well as the various forces that "home" them. This thesis, on a …