Question

Where does momaday shift the sentence and structure? Why? Identify examples in the text to support your response

Answer 1

When Momaday describes where his grandmother grew up and her life there, he uses a series of long, descriptive sentences, which has the effect of showcasing the long history of the place and the vast landscapes of the area:

Great green and yellow grasshoppers are everywhere in the tall grass, popping up like corn to sting the flesh, and tortoises crawl about on the red earth, going nowhere in the plenty of time. Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolate; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man.

Then, when he tells the story he learned from his grandmother, his sentences become shorter, as if he is mirroring her storytelling:

Eight children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear after them. They came to the stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

1. Where he describes his people's history.

2. When he tells the Story his Grandmother told him.

Step-by-step explanation:

1. When describing the history of his people and the land they settled on, N. Scott Momaday in The Way to Rainy Mountain uses longer sentences to properly showcase the landscape and history of his people. For example, in the text we see this description;

"When the Kiowas came to the land of the Crows, they could see the dark lees of the hills at dawn across the Bighorn River, the profusion of light on the grain shelves, the oldest deity ranging after the solstices. Not yet would they veer southward to the caldron of the land that lay below they must wean their blood from the northern winter and hold the mountains a while longer in their view."

Notice how the long sentences, filled with multiple phrases and clauses help paint a picture of the landscape.

2. When he tells the story that his grandmother told him about the legend the Kiowas made at the base of the rock, he starts to use shorter sentences. This is probably because that was how she told her stories, in short sentences.

Notice the short sentences in the story are from this extract;

"Eight children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb, he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been..."