Winter In The Blood And House Made Of Dawn Analysis

In the books Winter in the Blood and House Made of Dawn, each of the narrators have differing perspectives. The narrator in Winter in the Blood is the protagonist. The narrator in House Made of Dawn rarely speaks. However, both of the narrators have some sort of connection with American Indian culture. Additionally, both of the narrators are on some sort of journey of discovery. By connecting both of the narrators’ similarities, it is possible to see how they impact the understanding of Indian culture as a whole. The narrator for Winter in the Blood uses first person, while the narrator in House Made of Dawn uses third person. The narrator in House Made of Dawn focuses mostly on the life of Abel, while the narrator of Winter in the Blood focus is on his own life. Moreover, the narrator in House Made of Dawn experiences quite a lot of culture clash, while that narrator from Winter in the Blood experiences a lot less. These differences help the reader or audience realize that the Indians might view their culture differently due to their own specific circumstances. All of this information gives us the ability to compare both of the narrators and see how their insights and experiences differ, which gives us a better understanding of what being an American Indian was like. The narrator in Winter in the Blood is a 32-year-old Blackfeet Indian. Through the entire course of the book his name is never revealed. This is odd due to the fact that he is the main character in the book. In the beginning of the book, he seems to have no direction in life. In addition, he has spent most of his life on an American Indian Reservation. In trying to search for his meaning in life, the narrator has many meaningless relationships and gets drunk very often. He shares some similarities and some differences when compared to the narrator in House Made of Dawn. The narrator from House Made of Dawn is omniscient and speaks mostly in the third person. However, on some occasions he switches to the first person, but this is a rare. Additionally, multiple portions of the novel are from other sources such as sermons, diaries and American Indian legends. Instead of having meaningless relationships and getting drunk a lot himself, like the narrator in Winter in the Blood, the narrator from House Made of Dawn follows Abel, a young man who takes pleasure in indulging in those things for himself. Despite this, there are many similarities between the two narrators. One similarity that the two narrators share is that both of their experiences and tales have been mostly on American Indian reservations. In addition, the majority of the characters in both of the narrator stories are Indian American. Moreover, both of the narrator in Winter in the Blood and the narrator in House Made of Dawn each spend some portion of their tales dealing with American Indian tradition. American Indian culture plays a big part in both of the narrator’s perspectives. Another similarity is that both of the narrators are either on a journey of discovery themselves or following somebody who is. In Winter in the Blood the narrator is looking for meaning and his life. In House Made of Dawn the narrator is following Abel who is looking for a place to fit in. Both of the narrators share the similarity of having drunkenness and meaningless …show more content…
The narrator in House Made of Dawn follows Abel, which gives him an outside view and a less personal one. However, the narrator in House Made of Dawn gives a better understanding of the whole situation. The narrator in House Made of Dawn follows his own self. This allows him to give more specific details, but more a more one sided view. In addition to the differences above there is one more. The narrator in House Made of Dawn follows events that take place both on and off of the reservation. This demonstrates the differences between reservation life and the kind of life that most typical Americans live. The narrator from House Made of Dawn has almost the entirety of his experiences happen on an American Indian Reservation. This demonstrates that Reservation life, without the interruption of typical life, may actually be something