Blooms Literary Themes - THE TRICKSTER.pdf - ymerleksi - home

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N. Scott Momaday
Th e in-between, the space between boundaries of all kinds, is the
realm of the trickster, an ancient fi gure who is sometime messenger
and sometime thief, mediator between heaven and earth, the living
and the dead. Tricksters are characteristic of many cultures, but as
Alan R.Velie declares, “Th e trickster is an archetype universal among
Indians, and in most tribes the most important mythic fi gure” (324).
Tricksters are multidimensional. Michael Carroll contends that
Trickster’s two most important roles, usually held at the same time,
are as selfi sh buff oon and the culture hero “who makes human society
possible” (301). Th e Native American trickster possesses the traits of
such creatures as coyotes and ravens. Velie points out that Momaday
has been most infl uenced by the Kiowa and Blackfeet tricksters
(Sendeh and Napi, respectively). Both are benefactors of their tribes—
Sendeh provides the Kiowa with the buff alo and the sun, and Napi
is the creator of the Blackfeet. But he notes that these “tricksters are
amoral fi gures” with huge appetites who are “usually irresponsible and
often cruel and bloody” (324).
Multiple, often confl icting interpretations have been off ered of
who or what is the trickster in House Made of Dawn: the narrative
itself; Santiago, the legendary hero of the pueblo’s founding; the “priest
of the sun” whom Abel meets in Los Angeles; or Abel himself. All
of these interpretations aff ord understanding into the dynamics of
Momaday’s text.
Th e leading candidate in much recent criticism of House Made
of Dawn is the narrative itself: Momaday’s multiple narrative voices,
seemingly random insertion of fl ashbacks, ambiguous time references,
and frame (the beginning taken from the ending) often make for a
confusing read. Th e trickster-like narrative of House Made of Dawn
doesn’t allow us to use the usual codes with which we read texts.
However, as Frederic Jameson tells us, those codes actually support
a political agenda (9), which Elizabeth Ammons identifi es as “the
preservation of elite white male power in the United States” (viii).
However, Dee Horne points out that Native American writers can
avoid and confront these codes “by creating a multi-voiced discourse
that illustrates the ‘complex relationalities’ of power” (15). Th us the
form alone of House Made of Dawn can be seen as undermining the
hegemonic white culture with which tribal peoples must negotiate.
Paul Tidwell seems to agree. He sees the fragmentary narrative,
the complexity of the visions, and the “oddly juxtaposed images” as