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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:
).
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 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:
).
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.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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.
