Rainy Mountain

What is the method of development in the first paragraph? How does the introduction, with its focus on Rainy Mountain, serve as a vehicle for the central meanings in the essay?

After reading the very first paragraph, the reader can vividly see how Rainy Mountain may appear to an outsider; although, there is much more to it than that. The descriptive examples Momaday uses such as "...grass turns brittle and brown..groves of hickory and pecan, willow...green and yellow grasshoppers are everywhere.." profoundly give the reader a distinct physical picture of the Kiowas and where this nomadic tribe lived during their time in Oklahoma.

The opening paragraph also gives off a major sense of solitude and loneliness. Momaday has returned to Rainy Mountain to pay his respect and to say his goodbyes to his dead grandmother. The reader can easily feel how much he appreciated her as a person and also as a Kiowa Indian by the way he talks about her accomplishments during her lifetime. The author explains a few of the historical events this tribe had to go through in order to obtain there land. Whether it was various tribes pushing the Kiowas further from their previous settlements through an act of war or the deteriorating buffalo (a major food source for this particular tribe) they experienced it all. His grandmother was along for this intense journey of survival. Another example of how this essay represents loneliness is near the closing of the story. Momaday recalls visiting his grandmother when he was young. Now looking back after the funeral, and cherishing distant memories, he is hit hard with reality. He learns that there is no going back and life will go on no matter what.