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Ben Benally
Angela St. John is a wealthy white woman who moves into the Benevides House near Walatowa. She and Abel have a brief sexual affair. Despite her privilege, Angela is troubled, afraid of her secret pregnancy, and disgusted by her own body. She employs Abel to chop wood for her, and she becomes both fascinated and frustrated by Abel’s stoic silence. When she first indulges in a sexual fantasy about Abel, Angela imagines provoking him with deliberately racist language, and she displays a desire to sexually dominate him. However, she also watches a corn dance with reverence and respect, and she is gentle and kind when she visits Abel in the hospital several years after their affair. Her conflicting treatment of Indigenous cultures and people presents Angela as a complicated woman whose personal struggles can result in ignorance and insensitivity. Nevertheless, her last interaction with Abel in the hospital is one of genuine care.
Angela St. John Quotes in House Made of Dawn
The House Made of Dawn quotes below are all either spoken by Angela St. John or refer to Angela St. John. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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3. The Longhair, July 24 Quotes
She could think of nothing more vile and obscene than the raw flesh and blood of her body, the raveled veins and the gore upon her bones. And now the monstrous fetal form, the blue, blind, great-headed thing growing within her and feeding upon her. […] And at odd moments she wished with all her heart to die by fire, fire of such intense heat that her body should dissolve in it all at once. There must be no popping of fat or any burning on of the bones. Above all she must give off no stench of death.
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4. The Longhair, July 25 Quotes
[…] there was no longer a white house of stucco and stone, looming out against the leaves of the orchard, but a black organic mass the night had heaved up, even as long ago the canyon had been wrenched out of time […]. It was no longer the chance place of her visitation, but now the dominion of her next day and the day after, as far ahead as she cared to see. […] In fact it was secret like herself, the Benevides house.
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Angela St. John Character Timeline in House Made of Dawn
The timeline below shows where the character Angela St. John appears in House Made of Dawn. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
2. The Longhair, July 21
...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...
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3. The Longhair, July 24
Abel takes the job cutting wood for Angela St. John. When he comes to her house, she is prepared to negotiate his wages,...
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When Angela is alone in the afternoon, she speaks to a child in her womb and searches...
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Abel leaves, and Angela reflects on her own body. She cannot see it as beautiful, perceiving it only as...
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Father Olguin visits the Benevides house and invites Angela to the town’s celebration of the feast of Santiago. She accepts, and though Father Olguin...
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4. The Longhair, July 25
Later that afternoon, Father Olguin walks through Walatowa with Angela. He stops to talk to some townspeople, and Angela moves on without him. She appreciates...
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The albino man grabs the rooster, and as he passes Angela, she is disgusted by his ugliness. Once he has the rooster, the other men wait...
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...sleep, but he has a deformed eye that doesn’t close properly. At the Benevides house, Angela returns home. The house seems to her “a black organic mass” birthed from the canyon,...
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5. The Longhair, July 28
Abel approaches the Benevides house. Inside, Angela waits for him. She hears him arrive and start chopping wood, and she listens to...
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Angela asks Abel if he finds her beautiful. When he says no, she asks if he...
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6. The Longhair, August 1
...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...
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Angela invites Father Olguin in, and he doesn’t notice that she is surprised to see him....
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...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...
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8. The Priest of the Sun, January 26
...the injury, Abel still remembers feeling like his hurting body betrayed him. He thinks of Angela, and of the trial he faced for killing the albino man. He’d had little interest...
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10. The Night Chanter, February 20
...delivery for the factory. While Ben unloads the truck, Abel points out a white woman (Angela) to Ben and explains that he used to work for her and that they had...
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...When the doctors let him in, Abel is still unconscious, and that night Ben calls Angela. She visits 2 days later, when Abel has woken up, and talks to him. She...
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Ben is startled that Angela has made up a story that closely resembles a Navajo legend. He relates the story...
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