Question

Momaday discusses the “irony” of the term “New World” (pars. 3–4). What are his reasons for this characterization?

Answer 1

Answer: Momaday characterizes the early inhabitants of North America as having “had some sense of society, of community, of cooperation and a human sense of morality, an irresistible craving for order, beauty, appropriate behavior” and as “intensely spiritual”.

Explanation: Support that characterization with examples and details from the Native American origin stories and trickster stories.

Answer 2

Answer: N. Scott Momaday - who is a native American himself - finds ironic that white people claimed that they were arriving into the "new world" when in reality there were ancient civilizations already living on those lands, and this claim is one that they have continued to sustain up to this day.

When Europeans arrived in 1492, there were very large Indian populations scattered all across America with a rich history and culture, an element that vastly defers the logic of the discovery of a "new world".