Literary Analysis Essay on the Names by Scott Momaday

Introduction

A person's name is one of the earliest components that give a person's identity. The memoir by N. Scott Momaday, The Names happens to provide a different perspective of the ritual of naming rights among the Native Americans. The author compares the naming practice of European-American culture and that of the Native American culture. Through the memoir, Momaday seeks to discover his own identity and come in terms with his Indian background. Names happen to be the aspect of a person that connects them to the rest of the world and the only thing that has the potential to outlive everything else in a person's life. According to Momaday, the naming practice is linked to family ritual, the cultural mythology and the landscape itself. Therefore, family, culture and geographical location form the different forms of identification and contribute to the productive nature of naming which links them to the individual.

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Family forms the most basic unit of not just the Indian society but also the European-American culture. The naming ritual effectively links a person to their family hence making them identify as one of them. Using the family identity, the author learns that his origins from his mother's side come from a Kentucky frontier family (Momaday 9). The naming essentially tied him to his Kentucky heritage. The naming becomes central to the book through the author's quest to discover his heritage. The book that is in the form of a memoir allows the author to document his findings in the form of a journey. He guides the reader through a series of discoveries that slowly reveals his family heritage to the reader. Another productive aspect of naming is in the author's name "Tsoai-talee." The title includes both his name and his family name. The graphic image serves to create a memory of the naming. The storyteller who was in charge of the naming kept a book of pictographs. The book served the purpose of keeping alive the memory of Kiowa past. That means that the productive aspect of the naming is central to The Names but also the cultural identity. Most of the pictures from the pictographs trace back to earlier generations, which makes the entire process a rite of passage. The pictograph is also useful to the author's quest to discover his identity because of the insight they provide about his family's past and that of the Indian people. They prove crucial in linking him to his family history and cementing the family as another form of identification for the Indian people.

Culture is another form of identification that is central to the book and reflects the productive nature of naming. Momaday's parents successfully managed to link the Indian and White practices - the two cultures that differed significantly but still had some common grounds that people could use to bridge the gap. Despite the influence of white culture, Momaday identifies himself as an Indian. Momaday's parent took him to the Devil's Tower when he was young. That was among the first episodes of the naming in Momaday's life. His parents took him there to be in the presence of Tsoai. While there Pohd-Lohk, who was a storyteller, gave him the Kiowa name Tsoai-talee. The culture of the Kiowa people is therefore present in the naming of Momaday through the name Tsoai-Talee. The name enabled the author to identify himself as among the Kiowa people. The naming practice is different from the white practice because of the importance it gives to the people's culture. But that isn't the only aspect of the naming that carries cultural identification. The Pohd-lohk, who named Momaday, happens to be a storyteller. When the named him he essentially anointed him to carry on the tradition of telling stories (Momaday 109). Storytelling is an integral part of Indian culture. Storytelling allows the transfer of information from the older generation to the younger generation. The naming practice which gives children the cultural identity also serves to ensure the continuity of cultural traditions. The book itself is an example of Tsoai-talee continuing with the storytelling tradition by spreading the Indian tradition to the other people and the younger generation. Culture a form of identification that is carried on through naming practice.

The landscape is also a form of identification that is central to the book. The author's parents took him to the Devils Tower in Wyoming. The location is an integral part of the Indian people because of its height and the spiritual aspect of the place. The devil's tower is sacred to the Indian people. Because of its spiritual significance, the devil's tower served as the location for the naming ritual. In the book, the author says," and they imagined that it stood some strange and meaningful relation to them and the stars. It was, therefore, a sacred thing"CITATION Mom76 \p 42 \l 1033 (Momaday 42) The devil's tower also serves as the dwelling place of Tsoai. Through the devil's mountain, the naming becomes central to the book. The author narrates his experience in the area as one of the earliest cultural practices. Moreover, Momaday's name has a strong resemblance to a river. The name Tsoai-talee means a word from which all events flow. The storyteller believed that a man's life proceeds as a river moves from the source. The use of the name Tsoai-talee, therefore, represents the flow of a river from the source. The naming links the bearer of the title to the Indian landscape. The memoir has already pointed out that various aspects of the geographical location of the Indian region carry great significance to the Indian people. The naming ritual connects the people to the critical geographic elements such as aspects and the river. But the naming and its productivity extend well beyond the geography of the Indian country. The author establishes the setting of his memoir early on the book. He vividly describes the land that settles into the summer, the white light and the whirlwind, the shadow in the grass, the tremor: the dense growth and the drift of the Washita River. The setting of the memoir is essential for reinforcing the Indian connection to nature. Indian culture emphasizes the importance of connecting with nature, which is what the author tries to do. In this case, the river and its source offer a form of identification for the Tsoai-talee.

Conclusion

Naming is necessary for the Indian culture. The productive aspect of naming is evident in the way it links the family background to the individual. A family becomes the first form of identity through the naming practice, which emphasizes the importance of family. With the help of the pictograph, the author can establish his family background and develop a sense of identity. There is also a cultural identity, which is another form of identification. The person that is in charge of the naming practice is the one they call Pohd-lohk. Pohd-lohk is a storyteller in the community, and by naming Momaday, he appoints him as the traditional storyteller to carry on with the practice. The final form of identification is in the landscape. The Indian names some carry symbolism to the scene of the Indian country. The landscapes such as the devil's tower are examples of forms of identity for the Native Americans. The naming, therefore, links the individual to the various types of identification.

Works Cited

Momaday, N. Scott. The Names: A Memoir. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, 1976. e-copy