Indian Body and White Gaze

【Abstract】House Made of Dawn is a 1968 novel written by N. Scott Momaday. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969， it is crowned as the breakthrough work that led Native American literature into the mainstream. This essay is going to analyze the influences white culture has exerted on Native Americans in House Made of Dawn from the perspective of the Power Dynamics of Gaze by Michael Foucault.

【Key words】House Made of Dawn； Native American； White Gaze； Power Dynamics

【作者簡(jiǎn)介】郭看（1989.04-），女，漢族，江蘇蘇州人，文學(xué)碩士，蘇州旅游與財(cái)經(jīng)高等職業(yè)技術(shù)學(xué)校，講師。

“The Longhair”， the first part of N. Scott Momadays Pulitzer Prize winning novel House Made of Dawn starts in 1945 when the protagonist， Abel is returning from the battlefields of the Second World War. The young Navajos war experience epitomizes Native Americans increasing involvement in the white cultural and political affairs as well as their growing interaction with white people. Momaday also introduces the special date July 20th “upon which the Navajo were ordered to surrender at Fort Defiance in 1863” （Owens 96）， alluding to the “entropic pressure of colonial and modern history” haunting the tribe people.

In and out of the reservation， Native Americans are consistently under the pressing gaze of the white. The white gaze is ubiquitous in the novel： the curtains which will provide Indians with privacy are unwelcome and the sneaking neighbor always watching “l(fā)ike she thinks youre going to sneak up on her or steal something from her” （Momaday 157） as well as the numerous questionnaires brought by the social worker which functions as a written form of surveillance. Understanding the gaze cast by the dominant white society at Native Americans is central to understanding their marginalized position. In Discipline and Punish， Michael Foucault elaborates on the gaze to demonstrate the power dynamics in the relationship between the gazer and the gazed. Assuming the centrality， the white gazer is granted the privilege to arbitrarily shape the images of Indians and stereotype them as the “exotic other”.

Nevertheless， upon a closer inspection of the gaze scenes in the novel， it is discovered that the equation of the gazer with power is completely subverted through Momadays rewriting of the history. Under his pen， the gazer is no longer rendered powerful， neither the gazed powerless. The privilege of the gaze never sides with either party for the power surpasses the usual binary opposition as observer/the observed. The power of gaze， in itself， functions in a circular motion.

Nowhere in House Made of Dawn is the flow of power between the gazed and gazer so clearly embodied as in relocation place where social workers keep “coming around” and “l(fā)ooking at” the Indians. Daniels， the foreman in the relocation plant keeps showing off his power by watching the Indian workers “pretty close” and getting on them “pretty bad” （Momaday 140）. Due to Abels previous absence from work， he comes over to the work line， “l(fā)ooking over his shoulder”， “inspecting everything he did” （Momaday 142）. Abel is made tense by his gaze and makes several tiny mistakes over which Daniels makes a fuss. As the white gazer， Daniels is in the commanding position with the privilege to “riding” Abel. However， the embodiment of the power transfer occurs when Abel finally “dropped everything and looked at Daniels hard， like maybe he was going to hit him or something” （Momaday 142）. The burst of Abel “took Daniels by surprise” （Momaday 142） and renders him speechless for a few minutes， indicating that he has been deprived of the power of ordering. His later exasperation and yelling further demonstrates the shame he feels as a loser.

The characterization of Martinez also exemplifies the process of flow of power from the gazer into the gazed and exposes white peoples underlying fear of the Native Americans. This fear is shared by the wasichus in Black Elk Speak in the chapter of “The Butchering at Wounded Knee”： Driven by the fear that the Big Foots people are dangerous， the soldiers begin to disarming during which an accidental rifle discharge triggers the massacre. The easily-irritated white soldiers just act as the counterpart of the Mexican cop. The unconscious conviction that Indians will threaten their assumed central position haunts them， and pushes them to treat them with extreme violence through which they can get a temporary relief. In House Made of Dawn， through the usual gazing at hands of Native American workers， the capricious white man feeds his racial superiority on the fears shared by some of them such as Ben. The sight of the “steady” （Momaday 153） hands of Abel evokes in him a rage of being threatened and insulted， which well explains his hysterical behavior of beating Abels hands “hard and fast”（Momaday 153） with his police stick. What he wants to break into pieces is not only the hand bones， but also the esteem of Abel as a Native American. During the fierce encounter， Martinez plays hard to disguise himself as a man with strength and dominance， whereas his “short and quick” （Momaday 153） breath betrays his inner upset and fear.