House Made of Dawn
House Made of Dawn proved many points about Native Americans and how the “White Man” influenced their downfall throughout the years. Life was already hard for the Indians when the government made it only harder to live off of what little they possessed. Although the government gave them money, they also took away their rights as a people to practice their religion, which is in the constitution. Not only did they do all and more of these awful tragedies; the government also took away what little land they owned and moved them to small and more poverty stricken areas. This caused many of the Native Americans to give up hope and changed their society forever; however, some converted into the world of the white man and learned their ways to hopefully make a better life for themselves. The hopeless future of the Native Americans is best depicted through Abel’s experiences and alcohol usage, Ben’s adaptation into the white way of life, and the white’s dominance of the Native Americans’ way of life. Abel shows how hopeless the Native American culture was through the majority of his experiences while living with Ben and while living with his grandfather, Francisco. All throughout the novel Abel was depicted as a lost Indian that didn’t know what he was doing. The fact that the majority of the Native Americans are always having to “fear” (Momaday, 102) the white man makes them want to give up what they are trying to succeed in and fear is how the white man remains in control of their society.