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Essay about native american literature
Essay about native american literature
Essay about native american literature
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In The Lone Ranger and Tonto FistFight In Heaven, the author, Sherman Alexie, conveys a number of Native American experiences in each of his short stories. In most of his stories, he emphasizes on the resilience and endurance they demonstrate in their daily life and how each experience will bring them together as a community in the end. This is best shown in the short story Every Little Hurricane. Victor, the main character, has been a witness to the problems that plague the reservation since childhood, as he experiences many of the problems firsthand. For example, poverty, alcoholism, fights and isolation from the society outside of one’s reservation. In the end, he eventually sober up and move towards the more uncertain future.
Firstly,
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Fights and crime are so common that Indians hardly care much about it. Victor’s uncles, Adolph and Arnold, fight outside the house and are looking as they are “going to kill each other” (3). Nobody does anything as they are only witnesses and it is also so common that “[one] Indian killing another [does] not create a special kind of storm” they are just as the text mention, “generic” (3). To Victor, “strangers [will] never want to hurt each other that badly’ (2). This tells us that Adolph and Arnold shares a strong bond and have love of one another that makes them fight to kill each other as Victor is able to see the “look of hate and love on his uncle’s face” (3). The fight stops in the end, however, it may only be temporarily. The love touches both Adolph and Arnold through all the “memories of previous battles, storms that continually haunted their lives” (8). It is true, for instance, we will never want to punch another stranger walking down the street who just so happen to bump into us. However, the situation will be different when the stranger becomes a friend or sibling, most people will be cursing, may be even asking each other where their eyes are when walking down the street. This in turn becomes the little issue in life that may eventually bring us to love the friend or sibling even more, because you care them and does not want them to bump into a wall or fall off a cliff, may be. It can also …show more content…
In “Every Little Hurricane”, it says, “Victor’s cousins made him climb a tall tree during a rainstorm. The bark was slick, nearly impossible to hold on to but Victor kept climbing. …, but there were always sudden funnels of water that broke through, startling enough to nearly make Victor lose his grip. Sudden rain like promises, like treaties. But Victor held on” (7). This quote tells a lot, as Victor hates the rain. Hence, in reality problems are just like rain, they will continue to fall and drop hard on Victor, but he never let go of the most important things in his life, his parents. Those sudden funnels of promises that break through may be the promises his parents make to him, for instance, presents on a Christmas Eve. However, his father is too poor to buy him any present but he never let that pull him down, he hold on tighter to his parents. As his mother mention, “we’ve got each other” (4). It is this kind of inner strength and resilience a boy builds up on growing up in poverty, the bond form here is indeed “stronger than most anything” (8). He starts growing up towards an uncertain path to the future and many other promises will be made and many will fall through just like it happen here, but Victor will have by than have he will have inner strength and
Victor had a tough relationship with his father and it becomes even worse as it gets. The more his dad was drinking,
---. “A Drug Called Tradition.” The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 2005. 12 - 23.
It is this issue of forgiveness that is the most valuable from this film. The viewer can benefit from this by being able to notice how Victor got through his problems. If the viewer has problems of his or her own that are similar to this, then maybe the viewer can apply the film’s lessons to his or her life. The issue of forgiveness is the main point, but there are other great lessons and morals such as the importance of friendship, the danger of alcoholism, handling family conflicts, etc. Not to mention, there is a lot to be learned about Native American culture from this film.
Sherman Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington as a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal member (Sherman Alexie). He began his personal battle with substance abuse in 1985 during his freshman year at Jesuit Gonzaga University. The success of his first published work in 1990 incentivized Alexie to overcome his alcohol abuse. “In his short-story and poetry collections, Alexie illuminates the despair, poverty, and alcoholism that often shape the lives of Native Americans living on reservations” (Sherman Alexie). When developing his characters, Alexie often gives them characteristics of substance abuse, poverty and criminal behaviors in an effort to evoke sadness with his readers. Alexie utilizes other art forms, such as film, music, cartoons, and the print media, to bombard mainstream distortion of Indian culture and to redefine Indianness. “Both the term Indian and the stereotypical image are created through histories of misrepresentation—one is a simulated word without a tribal real and the other an i...
In “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona”, Victor has become psychologically troubled because he has put his own traditions behind. Throughout the story, the readers find out that Victor has an internal conflict due to the unhealthy relationships in his life. His father abandons him at a very young age, which causes Victor’s loss of guidance and self-identity. The day that Victor’s father abandons his family, Victor gets “really drunk and beat[s] Thomas up for no apparent reason at all”(276). If no one would have stopped Victor, Thomas-build-the-fire would have died which clearly shows the readers that Victor is mentally troubled. Not only does he lose his father but, Victor also loses his best friend on that same day. In other words, Victor is mentally traumatized after the abandonment. In fact, Rothe Eugenio, a professor in the department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health at Florida Inter...
The attitude of Victors mother reflects th... ... middle of paper ... ... ment haunts him through the rest of the novel. Victor is weak and it is only near the end of the novel that he attempts to face his creature and to destroy it to restore nature's order. Finally the pursuit of his creation destroys him.
Victor grows up in school both on the American Indian Reservation, then later in the farm town junior high. He faces serious discrimination at both of these schools, due to his Native American background. This is made clear in both of the schools by the way the other students treat him as well as how his teachers treat him. His classmates would steal his glasses, trip him, call him names, fight him, and many other forms of bullying. His teachers also bullied him verbally. One of his teachers gave him a spelling test and because he aced it, she made him swallow the test. When Victor was at a high school dance and he passed out on the ground. His teacher approached him and the first thing he asked was, “What’s that boy been drinking? ...
Culture has the power and ability to give someone spiritual and emotional distinction which shapes one's identity. Without culture society would be less and less diverse. Culture is what gives this earth warmth and color that expands across miles and miles. The author of “The School Days of an Indian Girl”, Zitkala Sa, incorporates the ideals of her Native American culture into her writing. Similarly, Sherman Alexie sheds light onto the hardships he struggled through growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven in a chapter titled “Indian Education”. While both Zitkala Sa and Sherman Alexie were Native Americans, and take on a similar persona showcasing their native culture in their text, the two diverge in the situations that they face. Zitkala Sa’s writing takes on a more timid shade as she is incorporated into the “white” culture, whereas Alexie more boldly and willingly immerses himself into the culture of the white man. One must leave something in order to realize how
In conclusion, Sherman Alexie created a story to demonstrate the stereotypes people have created for Native Americans. The author is able to do this by creating characters that present both the negative and positive stereotypes that have been given to Native Americans. Alexie has a Native American background. By writing a short story that depicts the life of an Indian, the reader also gets a glimpse of the stereotypes encountered by Alexie. From this short story readers are able to learn the importance of having an identity while also seeing how stereotypes are used by many people. In the end of the story, both Victor and Thomas are able to have an understanding of each other as the can finally relate with each other through Victor's father.
With the different trips that Victor endures individually, it hints a sense of individuality as he seeks isolation from the world. He is also a very emotional man, who loves his family. As death of his family members occurs, he becomes emotionally unstable and seeks revenge against his creation. Ultimately trying to end the life he so vigorously wanted to create. This reflects both the passion and individualism theme from the Romantic
Hardship is everywhere but Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” is an amusing and intelligent novel that clearly provides the reader with perfect examples of poverty and friendship on an Indian reservation. Alexie incorporates those examples through the point of view and experiences of a fourteen year old boy named Arnold Spirit Jr.
...s creation as a way of revenge and payback for all the distress he brought to the creature. The creature, beginning as the most innocent, is alienated by his creator and every individual who witnesses his presence. Finally, Victor isolates himself from his beloved ones in order to fulfill his ambitions. All these misfortunes are caused by the lack of moral decision making. Unfortunately, these decisions ruined the life of many people involved in Victor’s life. All these events are the proof of what people’s actions can result into when isolation is a major theme in one’s life.
This challenge which brewed deep within Victor makes him forget about his own life and leads him into isolation and a complete concentration on project. Blinded by his quest, Victor is unable to measure the consequences of what he is trying to do. Victor returns home feeling frustrated and feeling as though all his hard work had ended in the utmost failure. In addition, Victor feels guilty, realizing that his creation is the cause of his little brother’s death. During this time, he also encounters that an innocent victim, Justine, is sentenced and condemned, a person of great significance, someone like a sister, to the love of his life, Elizabeth. In analyzing the following paragraph, the reader is able to see the difficulty that Victor has in expressing his emotions.
Alexie Sherman’s, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” displays the complications and occasional distress in the relationship between Native-American people and the United States. Despite being aboriginal inhabitants of America, even in present day United States there is still tension between the rest of the country, specifically mainstream white America, and the Native-American population. Several issues regarding the treatment of Native-Americans are major problems presently. Throughout the narrative, several important symbols are mentioned. The title itself represents the struggles between mainstream America and Native-Americans. The theme of racism, violence, and prejudice is apparent throughout the story. Although the author
Victor remembers his childhood as a happy time with Elizabeth, Henry and his mother and father. But looking back, Victor see’s his first tragic event, the death of his mother as “an omen, as it were, of [his] future misery.” Chapter 2 He blames his passion for education as the impetus to his suffering. “in drawing the picture of my early days, I also record those events which led, by insensible steps, to my after tale of misery: for when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion, which afterwards ruled my destiny” CHAPTER 2