Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Based on an Indian myth about a boy who turns into a bear, this spiritual novel written by N. Scott Momaday focuses around a middle aged artist who is forced to confront his extraordinary destiny with the aid of a beautiful medicine woman who loves him. More specifically, The Ancient Child revolves around the Kiowa story of Tsoai: Eight children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear after them. They came to the stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were beyond its reach. It reared against the trunk and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper. The main character of the novel, Locke Setman (Set) is a man of Kiowa descent and a painter. Set is pushed by an unknown force or urge within him to fulfill a personal journey of discovery. A