This paper examines N. Scott Momaday's philosophy of language and imagination as expressed across three of his works: the essay "The Man Made of Words," the memoir The Names, and The Way to Rainy Mountain. The paper argues that Momaday views language not merely as a communication tool but as the defining creative force of human consciousness — the mechanism by which man takes possession of himself, shares experience with others, and constructs a meaningful reality. Through close reading of key passages, the paper traces how imagination and language operate in tandem throughout Momaday's writing to both create and perpetuate what it means to be human.
N. Scott Momaday, in both his poetry and his criticism, shows an incisive understanding of humanity and of the functions and nature of language. Especially evident throughout much of his writing — and made explicit in his commentary and criticism at several points — is the connection between language and humanity, and the manner in which language is truly the only vehicle by which a sense of humanity can be achieved or expressed. One might argue the reverse as well: that humanity, in turn, shapes language. Momaday's philosophy holds that imagination also plays an important role, and is strongly linked to language. It is the ability to associate elements of the world with elements of thought — that is, expressible thought, which is language almost by definition — in a free and unhindered manner that constitutes the essence of humanity. This capacity is imagination. It is what allows man to perceive himself and the world around him in a meaningful and communicable way. This assertion makes its presence known in a variety of ways and with wide implications throughout Momaday's works.
In his essay "The Man Made of Words" (1970), Momaday writes: "the state of human being is an idea, an idea which man has of himself. Only when he is embodied in an idea, and the idea is realized in language, can man take possession of himself" (88). That is, it is only when man can imagine himself in a way that is expressible to others — and more importantly, to himself — in a concise and repeatable manner that he has truly achieved the status and being of "man." An idea, after all, is a concise and repeatable expression of some naturally occurring complexity, meaning it has been framed in a conscious way, and man is the creature of consciousness.
According to Momaday, it is precisely the gift of language that allows for this framing, and it is the automatic hallmark of consciousness in the human sense. This is made perhaps most clear by the story of the arrowmaker, with which Momaday opens "The Man Made of Words." Spotting an intruder outside his teepee, the arrowmaker converses with his wife in normal tones, yet he is actually challenging the stranger outside to identify himself if he understands the language being spoken. Receiving no response, the arrowmaker shoots and kills his enemy. According to Momaday, this story "centers upon [the] procession of words to meaning. It seems in fact to turn upon the very idea that language involves the elements of risk and responsibility" (11). When language is the creative and identifying force, it necessarily and automatically carries the weight of the world — and of all survival — on its shoulders.
In his memoir The Names (1996), which the author himself considers both autobiographical and a work of the imagination, language and imagination are again seen as the essential creative forces in both thought and reality. It is through the author's recollected imaginings and his understanding of the language around him that he constitutes his perception of recollected reality. In the scene where he recalls being prayed over, the only words "the boy" understands are the closing words following a Kiowan prayer: "In Jesus' name. Amen" (73). Just as the author speaks only English — and only spoke English then — the truly salient features of his world are those defined by the English language he can use to take in and express ideas. This memoir illustrates how the boundaries of one's language become, in a very real sense, the boundaries of one's experienced world.
"Language bridges individual selfhoods and enables shared experience"
"Kiowa history realized and perpetuated through language and imagination"
This is made especially clear in the prologue, in which Momaday reflects on the stories of the Kiowa's origin and their migration from their original homeland: "the way to Rainy Mountain is preeminently the history of an idea, man's idea of himself, and it has old and essential being in language… [it] continues to be made anew each time the miracle comes to mind" (4). That is, the experience of the Kiowas' journey to Rainy Mountain is not truly real until it has been expressed — formulated in a pattern of language within one's own mind, shared through language with another, or imagined in the mind of a listener. Not only do these acts lead to the creation of the reality of this journey, at least in terms of reality as it is experienced by a human consciousness, but each time the journey is so realized, it is made real again. Language and imagination thus possess the singular ability — and even the responsibility — to both create and perpetuate reality in the human context. This is something no other feature of humanity can accomplish, and it requires both language and imagination working in tandem in order to function fully.
Momaday's philosophy is deceptively complex. It seems simple to assert that language creates the framework of reality, but the implications of this assertion are quite far-reaching and profound. In each of the works examined here, Momaday demonstrates the power that language has in creating the human experience. His expression of this idea in each work is itself an extension of that creation.
Momaday, N. Scott. The Man Made of Words. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.
Momaday, N. Scott. The Names. University of Arizona Press, 1996.
Momaday, N. Scott. The Way to Rainy Mountain. University of New Mexico Press, 1969.
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