The Way to a Rainy Mountain Analysis

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Paragraph 14 of Momaday’s “The Way to Rainy Mountain” commands the audience to feel solemn by its morose opening sentence. The paragraph grants its readers the sense of Momaday’s longing when reading about his grandmother’s house. The rest of the section, Momaday illustrates what he sees in and around the house. Nevertheless, something as simple as this still conveys to the audience the sensation of Momaday’s yearning. Using figures of speech, including metaphors and imagery, Momaday demonstrates his attitude towards this place with a yearning voice, reminiscent tone, and an inspiring style. In the first sentence of paragraph 14, Momaday compares the silence in his grandmother’s house to the kind you encounter in funerals. He uses the metaphor, “funeral silence in the rooms” to set the stage for the solemn tone. To Momaday, if the rooms happened to be overflowing with chatty people, the house would still be just as quiet as the day his grandmother died. This metaphor reveals Momaday knows that his grandmother’s house will never be the same without his grandmother alive. He illustrates this concept by returning to his grandmother’s house after her death and becoming aware of its small size for the first time. In addition to metaphors, Momaday includes imagery into the piece. He illustrates what he sees as he sits on the stone steps of his grandmother’s house. He explains the moon; white and nearly full. He also writes of “long rows of trees by the creek” as well as a “low light upon the rolling plains,” and finally, “the stars of the Big Dipper.” All of these observations are meant to appeal to the audience’s sense of sight. The scenery all around his grandmother’s house that he describes give his readers the notion of how inspiring nature can be. Momaday cherishes his grandmother’s house so much that he even finds the surroundings significant to mention. Despite the

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