The Truth Untold

House Made of Dawn began to command attentions after it was awarded thePulitzer Prizes.Abel,the main character in House Made of Dawn,is a Second World War soldier who suffers from postwar psychological trauma.Momaday has combined several realistic characters into the establishment of Abel and this combination of Abel reflects the real situation of the American Indians during 1960 s and 1970 s.Many historians attached great importance to the postwar situation of the whites and the blacks and ignored the desperate situation of young Indians,which was a major cause for the red power movement.With the influx of Europeans into American land,Christianity and European values have made their way into Indians’ daily lives,which considerably underplays the importance of Indian traditions and religion and results in individualization among the Indians.By constructing a unique narration,Momaday reflects in House Made of Dawn that the red power movement arises from Indian self-fashioning of their unique existence instead of mere inspiration from the black power movement.According to New Historicism,one of the ways to disinter the true history is to read the texts written during that period and analyze them.The marginalized group,which is generally ignored,should be attached importance during the process of history.Hence the historicity of texts appears.The Second World War has spawned a generation of mentally wasted Indians who suffered from postwar psychological trauma and were ignored and wasted by the federal government,with their benefits being deprived and their reservations being impoverished.In addition,texts can predict the future by digging the details and exploring the reasons for future social development.Hence the textuality of history appears.The American Indians were mostly ignored in academia of literature until House Made of Dawn was awarded the Pulitzer Prizes.This novel plays an important role in actuating the American Indian Movement during 1960 s.This paper will reveal what the actual Indian life is during postwar period and try to explore the reason behind the red power movement and the American Indian movement.The paper is divided into three chapters.Chapter one explores the history behind House Made of Dawn,and what impacts they have on the characters and how Indians live in their reservation.This chapter concentrates on how the Second World War altered the lives of the Indians mentally and their reservations economically and the multiple policies which resulted in the disintegration among Indian tribes.Chapter two explores the true reason behind the red power movement which causes a commotion among Indian reservations.Among the reasons,the spiritual wastelands and dwindling religion faith is the main focus in this chapter.Chapter three will explore the spiritual salvation of Indians which champions the red power movement.The spiritual salvation from their awakening of Indian religion and epiphany from Mother Nature will be the concentration in this chapter.