The Journey to Self-DiscoveryDeath and life are contrasting viewpoints while discovery seems to be the main point of Joan Didion's essay "On Going Home” and N. Scott Momaday’s essay The Way to Rainy Mountain. For Joan Didion, returning home is a source of comfort, confusion, and conflict. The life she lives with her husband and child is a world apart from the life she grew up in. Her memories are part of who she is and the kind of mother and wife she hopes to be. Perhaps in her quest, she will find the best of herself to devote to her new life. On the other hand, N. Scott Momaday’s “home” is his grandmother. It encompasses everything he has come to know and love. Kiowa traditions came to life in her home through her beadwork, cooking, storytelling and prayers. His death is a turning point in his life that sends him on an adventure to discover his Kiowa roots. Joan Didion's goal in returning home was to share her daughter's first birthday with her family and hopefully give her a sense of belonging. At least a feeling of the “normal, happy” home she grew up in. Didion's family hasn't changed in all the years she's been gone. The dust didn't move, the conversation didn't change, and their reaction to her husband didn't change. Her brother calls him "Jeanne's husband" and she calls his marriage a "classic betrayal." By bringing a stranger into the family, she endangers the relationships and family dynamics she has with her mother, father and brother. She brought a stranger into the family environment. He is barely noticed when she brings him home. He writes DUST (1419) in the dust on the surfaces of the house which goes unnoticed. Joan Didion faces her childhood memories head on as she empties a drawer...... middle of paper...... the desire to find out who he is. A Kiowan by birth linked to his ancestors through his grandmother and her love for her people. At the end of Joan Didion's quest to confront the past, she realizes that she does not need to create the same life she had for her daughter. Didion clings to the things that bring her joy, like her grandmother's cups of tea, and gets rid of what she can't control. She realizes that she can create memories for her daughter by giving her the love and time she needs. She wants to allow her daughter to experience being a child without having to please anyone. "...I would like to give him a picnic by a river with fried chicken and his hair uncombed, I would like to take it home for his birthday." Because she can't give him these things because of their lifestyle, she gives him a xylophone and promises to tell him a funny story..