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
Father Olguin goes about his life and work as usual, convincing himself that he is content and at one with the ancient land. Other Navajo families and people (who self-identify as Dîné) travel to Walatowa on horses and wagons for an upcoming ceremony. While Father Olguin does his work, he thinks of Angela. He imagines visiting her, easing her loneliness and earning her envy, all while piously resisting his attraction to her. He rings a bell to call for noontime prayer, then he departs to visit Angela.
Father Olguin, as the pueblo’s representative of the Catholic Church, lacks the connection to the earth and the community shared by those with ancestral ties to Walatowa. He tries to convince himself otherwise, but his connection to the Church distances him from the other residents of Walatowa. Father Olguin is also not as holy as he likes to believe; he takes perverse pleasure in resisting his lust for Angela.
Themes
Angela invites Father Olguin in, and he doesn’t notice that she is surprised to see him. She has drawn all the shades in the house. Father Olguin makes himself comfortable and lectures Angela about the history of the town and its ceremonies. She loses interest and listens to the thunderstorm outside, yearning for the rain. When the priest finishes speaking, Angela laughs and mockingly responds with the first line of the Act of Contrition.
Father Olguin continues to reject obvious truths––first he convinced himself that he is a member of the community, and now he ignores Angela’s blatant disinterest in him. He is an agent of Catholicism, the primary force behind undermining traditional religions, yet he presents himself as an expert on Indigenous ceremonies. The Act of Contrition functions as an apology to God, and Angela’s mocking use of it in response to Father Olguin is an act of disrespect against him and the Church he represents.
Themes
Father Olguin drives recklessly back to town from the Benevides house, narrowly avoiding hitting several children and animals. He is struck with “fear and revulsion” for the many people he passes. A smiling infant and celebrating people’s laughter worsen Father Olguin’s insecurity. Back at the Benevides house, Angela watches the thunderstorm. She lets the loud thunder and bright lightning become all she can perceive, and she stands in the doorway breathing the electrified air. Everything else seems to fall away.
Angela’s mockery has pushed Father Olguin’s underlying insecurities to the surface. He is so caught up with his own anxiety, he disregards the safety of the people around him, forsaking the compassion expected of a priest. As Father Olguin’s emotional state worsens, Angela’s improves. Instead of seeing “nothing in the absolute,” as she once wished for, she now finds peace in perceiving only one element of nature.
Themes
The celebrations have begun. An old man in ceremonial clothing painstakingly makes his way to the Middle. He is most likely Francisco, but the man is once again not called by name and identified only by his age and his disabled leg. He appreciates the smells of the festival and the various languages spoken by those who have traveled to celebrate. He appreciates the beauty of the Navajo people and the art they create.
The ceremony is a moment of unity and celebration among the Pueblo people in the area. It allows the different nations, towns, and tribes to honor and learn about each other’s cultures, fostering goodwill and respect.
Themes
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In the Middle, Francisco bows before the kiva (a place of worship), though it is not yet decorated for the celebration of Porcingula. He imagines the procession that will take place after Mass. The parade will involve comedic reenactments of Spanish history, including a wooden bull, clowns, and children in blackface. With difficulty, Francisco climbs up a ladder and enters through the kiva’s rooftop entrance. The kiva reverberates with the sounds of drums and thunder as the storm reaches Walatowa.
The Feast of Porcingula is a festival in honor of Santa Maria de los Angeles. It combines aspects of Catholicism with traditions of the Jemez religion, just as Francisco does in his personal religious observances. The casual acceptance of blackface in the Spanish-inspired element of the ceremony also speaks to how colonizing nations spread racism and bigotry across the world.
Themes
Francisco leaves the kiva with other holy men to watch a pantomime involving a horse and a bull. The horse is portrayed by a talented dancer whose movements seem holy and unearthly, while the bull is deliberately clumsy and chased by a group of clowns in blackface. Francisco reflects on the role of the bull as an object of mockery and hatred, and he muses that the men have grown less strict about preserving tradition. He thinks about winning a race against its best runner, and about the times he portrayed the bull.
Francisco’s position in the kiva among other holy men highlights his role as a religious leader in Walatowa. He remembers participating in the parade, and he also recalls the footrace victory he thought about in the first chapter, emphasizing its significance in his life. His musings on the upkeep of tradition also highlights that tradition must be purposefully preserved, and that communities decide for themselves what aspects of traditions they want to perpetuate.
Themes
The celebration ends, and the storm moves away from the plain. Most of the visiting families leave, except for a handful of young Navajo men who remain at a bar. At the bar, Abel and the albino man conduct a whispered conversation. Throughout the discussion, Abel smiles, and every so often the albino man lets out a thin, weak laugh. They leave the bar and pause midway between the river and the highway. The albino man moves as if to embrace Abel, but Abel draws a knife and stabs him in the heart. For a moment, the albino man stands still, his hands on Abel’s shoulders, looking into “the black infinity of sound and silence.”
The narration remains distanced from Abel and the albino man, never allowing the reader to know what they discuss. This distance remains when Abel kills the albino man; the narration describes the action without explaining Abel’s internal monologue or his motivation for the murder. Abel kills the man between the river and the highway, a symbolic halfway point between the realms of the modern and the traditional. Abel has been languishing in this unresolved intermediate space since he came back from the war, and his turmoil has culminated in violence. As the albino man dies, he sees a “black infinity” that resembles the “nothing in the absolute” that Angela believes will bring inner peace.
Themes
The albino man pulls Abel close to him, holding him tight even as Abel tries to move away. Abel pulls out the knife and stabs the man again and again, until finally the albino man falls down dead. Abel’s terror and disgust fades, replaced with “a cold, instinctive will to wonder and regard.” He kneels by the corpse to examine it, and he stays there for a long time.
Abel avoids closeness with other people, but the albino man forcibly draws Abel close as he dies. When the man is finally dead, Abel’s brief surge of emotions fade, and he returns to his usual reserved state. He looks at the corpse with the curiosity and “wonder” with which he looks at all of nature.
Themes
