House Made of Dawn: Foil 2 key examples

Outwardly, Ben Benally has a rather seamless transition to life in Los Angeles when he moves away from the reservation where he grew up. He supports himself with a factory job and takes his success as evidence that the fantasy of American capitalism is real: anyone can make their way in the world by contributing to the industrial economy. In fact, Ben believes that assimilation is in American Indians' best interest. He envisions a future where holding fast to traditional ways of life will bring only poverty and other social challenges. Ben remains connected to Diné religion and traditions by going to Tosamah's church, a "Pan-Indian" religious institution that functions much like a Christian church. Instead of participating in all-encompassing community ceremonies like the feast of Santiago, Church members listen to sermons at the church itself and then go back to their lives in the secular world. Ben thus fits his Indigenous identity neatly into the structures of Christianity and industrial colonialism.

Abel, on the other hand, struggles to cordon off his Indigenous identity and experience. He arrives in Los Angeles deeply traumatized, recently incarcerated, and dependent on alcohol. He struggles to contain his violent outbursts and to show up to work on an industrial clock. He is an outsider even in Tosamah's church, where Tosamah refers to him pejoratively as a "longhair" because he refuses to cut his hair and make himself fit in with a White-dominated society.

Ben sees Abel as a fellow tribal transplant, just like him. He tries to help Abel make a life for himself in Los Angeles and bonds with him over shared memories of the traditions and ceremonies that were part of both men's upbringing. Despite all this, Abel still can't seem to assimilate in the way Ben so readily does. Abel's persistent struggles challenge Ben's belief that industrial capitalism is the way forward for everyone. In Ben and Abel, Momaday plays with the trope of the "good Indian" who helps White colonists and the "bad Indian" who threatens them with vengeance and violence. Both of these stereotypes place White colonists at the center of American Indian identity. According to this racist cultural framework, Ben is a "good Indian" who conveniently props up the narrative that the U.S. no longer needs to deal with American Indians as sovereign peoples. Abel, on the other hand, is a "bad Indian" who stirs up trouble and is met over and over with discipline from the police and the carceral system. Abel eventually returns to Walatowa, realizing that his lot in life is to be neither a "good Indian" nor a "bad Indian." Rather, he becomes an American Indian who exists and persists for the sake of his own people and their traditions, even in the face of oppressive colonial forces. After Abel's return, Ben, too, wonders if he should break out of his role as the "good Indian" by returning to his reservation.

Abel doesn't just kill Fragua—he kills him in a way that is intensely physical and intimate. The close-range stabbing allows Abel to hear and feel Fragua's dying breaths. Fragua seems almost to kiss Abel, pressing his lips and tongue against his murderer's face and holding Abel to his dying body even when Abel tries to pull back in "terror and revulsion." Abel responds by thrusting the knife for a second time into Fragua's groin.

The almost sexual imagery Momaday uses in this passage echoes some of the language from the scene in Chapter 5 when Abel and Angela first have sex:

Angela caught her breath, and after a long moment she came to him. She bent down and kissed him, and he put his hands on her and drew her close against him. She felt the strength of his hands and the heat of his body. His hands were hard with work and sharp with the odor of wood. She took hold of one of his hands.

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Angela and Abel's encounter does not turn violent in the same way as Abel's encounter with Fragua. Still, in both passages, a pale body pulls Abel close and kisses him. The sex that follows seems to be consensual, but it nonetheless follows the pattern of a power struggle that Abel wins. The passage ends with Angela looking up at Abel and thinking that he reminds her of a dangerous bear she once saw and desperately wanted to touch.

As a foil for Fragua, Angela helps shed light on why Abel might kill Fragua, and why the albino man might let him. For Abel and Angela, sex and intimacy are about claiming and overcoming the power they each perceive the other to have. To Abel, Angela represents the freedom to move between the reservation and the White-dominated world beyond. By taking her money and having sex with her, Abel hopes to prove that he, too, can move beyond the limited role assigned to him by colonialism. Angela, meanwhile, becomes obsessed with the idea that Abel has the spiritual freedom she wants; she hopes that by having sex with him, she can take some of his freedom for herself.

The way sex, power, and identity intersect in Abel and Angela's relationship is a key to understanding Abel and Fragua's relationship. Abel becomes fixated on Fragua because, like Angela, Fragua has access to Whiteness that Abel can never have. Abel, meanwhile, fits in on the reservation in a way Fragua likely never has because of his albinism. The two men are obsessed with one another to the point of sexual violence and death because they each want what the other has. In turn, by comparing Fragua and Angela, the reader can see clearly that Angela and Abel's relationship was never going to last.

Abel doesn't just kill Fragua—he kills him in a way that is intensely physical and intimate. The close-range stabbing allows Abel to hear and feel Fragua's dying breaths. Fragua seems almost to kiss Abel, pressing his lips and tongue against his murderer's face and holding Abel to his dying body even when Abel tries to pull back in "terror and revulsion." Abel responds by thrusting the knife for a second time into Fragua's groin.

The almost sexual imagery Momaday uses in this passage echoes some of the language from the scene in Chapter 5 when Abel and Angela first have sex:

Angela caught her breath, and after a long moment she came to him. She bent down and kissed him, and he put his hands on her and drew her close against him. She felt the strength of his hands and the heat of his body. His hands were hard with work and sharp with the odor of wood. She took hold of one of his hands.

Cite this Quote

Angela and Abel's encounter does not turn violent in the same way as Abel's encounter with Fragua. Still, in both passages, a pale body pulls Abel close and kisses him. The sex that follows seems to be consensual, but it nonetheless follows the pattern of a power struggle that Abel wins. The passage ends with Angela looking up at Abel and thinking that he reminds her of a dangerous bear she once saw and desperately wanted to touch.

As a foil for Fragua, Angela helps shed light on why Abel might kill Fragua, and why the albino man might let him. For Abel and Angela, sex and intimacy are about claiming and overcoming the power they each perceive the other to have. To Abel, Angela represents the freedom to move between the reservation and the White-dominated world beyond. By taking her money and having sex with her, Abel hopes to prove that he, too, can move beyond the limited role assigned to him by colonialism. Angela, meanwhile, becomes obsessed with the idea that Abel has the spiritual freedom she wants; she hopes that by having sex with him, she can take some of his freedom for herself.

The way sex, power, and identity intersect in Abel and Angela's relationship is a key to understanding Abel and Fragua's relationship. Abel becomes fixated on Fragua because, like Angela, Fragua has access to Whiteness that Abel can never have. Abel, meanwhile, fits in on the reservation in a way Fragua likely never has because of his albinism. The two men are obsessed with one another to the point of sexual violence and death because they each want what the other has. In turn, by comparing Fragua and Angela, the reader can see clearly that Angela and Abel's relationship was never going to last.