Reconstruction Under White Shadows: A Post-Colonial Reading Of House Made Of Dawn

N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn was credited as the first novel that obtained wide acceptance by the American dominant society. Its winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 not only laid solid foundation for Momaday's literary career, but also initiated the Native American Renaissance in the next decade and a half. Entwining his childhood experiences and observations on the reservations in Arizona and New Mexico with the events in the novel, Momaday relates the story of how the protagonist Abel, wedged in between several cultures (Anglo-American, Jemez pueblo, the Pecos pueblo, the Navajo, and the Kiowa), strives for his survival both in his tribes and in Los Angeles. Momaday's detailed depiction of the contradicts between American white people and American Indians reveals his compassion and sympathy for American Indian people, disadvantaged and poverty stricken.With the help of Fanon, Stuart Hall and Said's post-colonial theories, the thesis attempts to concentrate on the theme of self-return to discuss the influences exerted on Abel by several white figures, their cultural implications, and the delicate relationship between Anglo Americans and American Indians, such as controlling and being controlled, being positive and being passive, colonizing and being colonized. The thesis asserts that the returning journey of the protagonist more or less carries through under the white's shadow; and that following the trail of the protagonist's returning journey, Momaday presents a powerful attack on the invasion of white culture on American Indian culture, and effectively categorizes the post-colonial effects by shaping different characters.In Introduction, this thesis intends to legitimate the adaptation of post-colonial theories to American Indian literatures. Actually, House Made of Dawn is seldom read from the post-colonial perspective, not that scholars are blind to the post-colonial dimension of this novel, but that concerning the problems of whether American Indian lands can be counted as colonies and of whether American Indian literatures can be classified into the category of post-colonial literature, scholars opinions vary from person to person. Moreover, the absence of an unequivocal definition of post-colonial is another contributor that excludes American Indian literatures from post-colonial criticism.In the main body of this thesis, starting from the discussion of Abel's motivation in knifing the Albino, this thesis concludes that American Indian people's identity is closely related to the influence of white culture with the help of Fanon, Stuart Hall and Said's post-colonial theories. Then the thesis moves on to uncovering the symbolic meanings that the white police officer Martinez carries in abusing Abel and Ben, and then analyzing, through the American Indian history, how American Indians suffer from twofold oppression of colonial as well as post-colonial. In Chapter Three, with the discussion of Momaday's seemingly contradictory depictions of Angela, this thesis explores how Momaday deconstructs the white culture in his manner and his opinions of post-colonial phenomenon that are similar to Homi. K. Bhabha's hybridity theories.This thesis is original in the following aspects. First, it is the first one in China to put House Made of Dawn under the post-colonial framework. Second, it explores the symbolic meanings of three white characters. Though some of these may overlap with former opinions of other scholars, the larger part of this exploration is new to readers. It is also original in that it links the symbolic meanings of these three white characters with a thread of post-colonialism and thus explores their deeper cultural implications. Fourth, through an analysis of the novel's writing style and plot setting, this thesis explores Momaday's strategy in deconstruction of the imperial discourse.