Reading Like a Writer: M. Scott Momaday's A First American Views His Land

What kind of rhythm does the writer create? Is there a variety in the sentence structure? Read the piece aloud to get a sense of the writer’s voice. Write about the writer’s rhythmic choices and their effect on the overall tone of the piece.

Momaday’s rhythmic style has more to do with his alternating use of poems and full on paragraphs. In some instances, he asks questions in sentence form, and then answers them through poem. Though the poems aren’t perhaps the best, they are creative in the way that the author uses them. If Momaday wanted to create just a poetic piece, he would’ve used only poems, or if he wanted to convey a message through essay, he would have only used paragraphs. It’s a creative way to use poems and sentences. Personally, I didn’t quite like the poetic structure and would have added more to the poems to further add to the piece altogether.