Rashad Young

Mr. Salsich

9 English

11.12.2008

“The Way to Rainy Mountain”;

A Reaction to an Essay

The Rainy Mountain was a place of pain and suffering, but also a place of love and worship. In “The Way to Rainy Mountain” N. Scott Momaday uses many words that would otherwise seem unnecessary to describe many things such as the Mountain itself. He also shows compassion when chanting about his grandmother and how she always kept the spirit of Kiowa very strong. His many descriptive words give me a better understanding of his life and lifestyle during the early 1900’s.

(TS)Throughout the essay "The Way to Rainy Mountain", Momaday uses very descriptive words, which brings the places he is describing to life in the minds eye. (SD)The essay begins with his description of the homelands of his Kiowa people, which has been given the name of Rainy Mountain. (CM)The picture painted in the readers mind by these beautiful descriptions makes it easily understandable why the Kiowa people came to settle upon this land as their home. (CM)For example, part of the description Momaday gives of the land within the first paragraph is, “There are green belts along the rivers and creeks, linear groves of hickory and pecan, willow and witch hazel.” (SD)At a distance in July or August the streaming foliage seems almost to writhe in fire."(CM) I cannot help but imagine the trees wavering in a gentle early fall breeze as the yellows and reds seem as if the whole land is burning beneath the fading summer sun. (CM)Halfway through the essay he describes the Black Hills by saying, "A dark mist lay over the Black Hills and the land was like iron. (SD)" He then describes Devil's Tower in the next sentence by writing "…I caught sight of Devil's Tower up thrust against the gray sky as if in the birth of time the core of the earth had broken through its crust and the motion of the world was begun. (CM)"The way Momaday depicts this tower gives me a crystal clear picture in my head. (CM) It almost makes me feel like I was actually there and this is just a distant memory in my head. (CS)Momaday writing to me seems like an illustrated picture book, with elaborate drawings and Illustrations.
During our time our life and morals are changing as we progress into the future. Momaday’s essay is an excellent example of making a tremendous change in culture, religion, and even language. After reading this essay, Momaday has inspired myself to work hard through my bad times and even harder through the horrible ones. N. Scott Momaday is one of the best writers of our century and this essay proves that.