Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in House Made of Dawn, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Home, Belonging, and Identity
Nature
Religion, Ceremony, and Tradition
Storytelling
Connection vs. Isolation
Summary
Analysis
Abel sleeps through a whole day and night in Francisco’s house. The following dawn, he goes out and takes in the landscape. The story moves back in time to when Abel is 5 years old. He and his brother Vidal ride on horseback with Francisco. Vidal brings Abel to a canyon alongside the face of the red mesa, which makes Abel feel claustrophobic and prompts him to cry. They return to their grandfather and watch him work with other men, digging a ditch to bring river water farther inland.
The story has already started playing with time by beginning with a prologue that doesn’t define where it falls in the timeline of the story. As Abel (and, by extension, the reader) moves through his memories, that commitment to non-linear storytelling continues. The catalyst for Abel’s consideration of the past is his view of the landscape, highlighting the significance of returning to one’s native land.
Themes
On breaks during the work day, the workers and their families sit on the ground in groups divided by family and clan. They eat food that Abel and Vidal’s mother brings. Abel does not know who his father is, but other townspeople say that he was an outsider (they believe he was Navajo, but don’t know for certain). This marks Abel’s family as “somehow foreign.”
Abel’s family is led by Francisco, but Abel can sense that Francisco is growing old just as he can sense that his mother will die soon of her illness. He understands this innately, the same way he understands the sun and the seasons. When his mother dies, Abel cannot bring himself to visit her grave for a long time. He remembers her beauty and her soft voice.
Despite the fact that Abel is the novel’s protagonist, the narrative does not offer much insight into the way he thinks. The suggestion that Abel innately understands the world around him even at a young age is one of his first elements of characterization.
Themes
In another childhood incident, Abel is cursed by an outsider woman whom the townspeople consider a witch. Afterwards, he hears a loud moaning wind, and for the rest of his life he associates that sound with anguish. He hears that sound again when Vidal dies a few years later, and he believes he finally understands the witch’s curse. Abel looks at his brother’s body at the funeral. He observes that while all the life is gone from Vidal’s face, all the pain is gone as well.
The townspeople’s distrust of the outsider woman highlights the community’s exclusivity, and their belief that she is a witch speaks to the superstition and faith that is entrenched in the pueblo. Vidal’s death is another moment in which Abel is isolated, and this leaves Francisco as Abel’s only surviving relative. Abel’s observation of Vidal’s body demonstrates that even at a young age, Abel perceives that life and pain are inextricably linked.
Themes
Get the entire House Made of Dawn LitChart as a printable PDF.
On January 1, 1937, Francisco wakes the 17-year-old Abel before dawn and they travel to Sia, a neighboring Pueblo nation. A local man gives them coffee while they wait for dawn. When the sun starts to rise, they go outside and join the Navajo and Domingo elders. People begin to sing and dance, and wildlife run down from the hills. Abel watches the crows and thinks that they must be cold. He redirects the attention to the dance, which he describes as “nearly perfect.” Later in the ceremony, Abel has sex with a playful young woman. Afterwards, she runs away, and he is too drunk to chase her.
At the ceremony, members of neighboring Pueblo nations unite and celebrate elements of their shared belief systems. Nature is integral to these ceremonies, as the running wildlife are as significant to the ceremony’s success as the dancers. Although everyone enjoys the ceremony, Abel doesn’t believe that the dance is flawless, describing it as only “nearly” perfect. His isolation continues through this ceremony, despite the communal aspect of the celebration—for instance, his lover runs away from him, and he fails to chase her.
Themes
The story shifts to explain the Eagle Watchers Society, an important group among the local Pueblo nations. It is the principal ceremonial organization of the Bahkyush, immigrants from the city of Bahkyula who moved to the Pueblo nations several generations ago, after their population was decimated by persecution and plague. One day, after helping break a horse for a rancher, Abel is walking home. He sees a pair of golden eagles flying together. The female eagle carries a rattlesnake. She drops it, and the male eagle swoops down and swiftly finishes the kill. Instead of picking the snake back up, the female eagle flies away, and her mate follows.
The story’s attention to the history of the Bahkyush demonstrates the importance of Indigenous history and stories throughout the book. Meanwhile, the golden eagles, which hunt together in perfect tandem, represent a sense of connection and freedom. They are connected to each other and to nature, displaying a confidence of their place in the world that teenaged Abel lacks.
Themes
Abel describes what he saw to the chief of the Eagle Watchers Society, who then allows Abel to join the Society on their eagle-hunting trip. The men hunt rabbits and use them as bait, pausing the hunt at intervals to pray. A pair of eagles see the prey, and the female descends to hunt. Abel grabs her legs and brings it to the other men. They don’t notice when Abel starts to cry with empathy for the eagle. That night, Abel leaves dinner by the campfire and looks at his captured bird. Filled with “shame and disgust,” he strangles the eagle.
Eagle-hunting is a sacred act among the Eagle Watchers Society, and they imbue that act with holiness by punctuating the hunt with prayer. Abel feels a connection to the eagles, but his empathy and respect for them does not stop him from killing the captured eagle. Despite his instinctual emotional response, Abel believes that killing the eagle is the right thing to do, and so he does it.
Themes
Time moves forward further as Abel prepares to leave Walatowa. Francisco is distraught at his grandson’s decision, and he doesn’t see Abel off when the bus arrives for him. Abel has never been in a motorized vehicle before, which only increases his simultaneous excitement and dread at leaving behind all he has ever known. As they drive away, he doesn’t remember to look back at the fields until it is too late.
Abel’s departure from Walatowa signifies the division between the pueblos and the rest of America. The technological advances that most of America takes for granted have not reached the pueblos, which prioritize tradition and lacks access to many resources available outside of pueblos and reservations.
Themes
Abel remembers the time leading up to his departure, but he doesn’t recall much of his time away. One moment that he remembers with clarity, though, involves him waking up surrounded by dead soldiers. He has grown used to the explosions of mortar fire, and now that the battle is over, the silence is unsettling. He looks at the sun and sees a tank––which he can only identify as a machine––appear on the horizon. It passes by him, leaving Abel trembling alone among the corpses.
The story does not spend much time describing Abel’s time in combat, but his loss of memory contrasted with his clear recollection of this traumatic moment suggests that serving in the army significantly damaged Abel’s mental health. His repeated description of the tank as simply a machine paints a picture of the tank as an unnatural and violent machine imposing on the woodland battlefield.
Themes
Back in 1945, Abel takes in the silence of Walatowa at dawn. The sunrise appears to light the sky on fire. A car appears on a hill and drives by. Abel stands for a long time, looking for something, though he doesn’t know what. The sun rises completely above the horizon.
Having returned to Walatowa, Abel tries to reconnect with the land. The car in the distance suggests that Abel cannot entirely leave behind the modern, technology-dependent world, but he is able to stand in silence and take in the dawn. Dawn—the start of a new day—suggests this is a moment of growth and change.
Themes
At the local mission, the priest Father Olguin prepares to say Mass for his congregation, which includes Francisco. An unfamiliar white woman enters, but she does not take the sacrament. After Mass, she introduces herself to Father Olguin as Mrs. St. John. She explains that she and her husband live in Los Angeles, but she has taken up residence at the Benevides house in Los Ojos and needs local men to cut firewood for her.
The relationship between Indigenous religions and Christian spirituality runs throughout the book. Francisco sang traditional Jemez songs earlier in the story, but he is also regularly attends Mass, indicating that he is comfortable with both the traditional religion and Catholicism. Mrs. St. John’s entrance into Mass implies that she is unafraid to insert herself into Native American spaces to make requests, which speaks to her privilege and status.
Themes
Abel returns to his grandfather’s house, but Francisco is not there. The men have yet to speak to each other. The rooms of the house are small, bare, and white, so in the late afternoon Abel follows the river to the hills along the red mesa. He looks over the farmland and sees Francisco and other men working in the fields. For a moment, Abel is at peace as he recognizes that he is home.
Abel’s first real moment of peace since his introduction comes as he looks over Walatowa. He feels a genuine connection, however briefly, to the land of his ancestors and to his fellow community members working in the fields. The fact that Abel’s mental health deteriorated so severely when he was cut off from the land and people of Walatowa emphasizes the importance of those connections.
Themes
