In Sherman Alexie’s piece, Dear John Wayne the blurry difference between truth and lies is present throughout the text. This conversational style story narrates a conversation with Etta Joseph the interviewee, who seems to thwart conversation, and as said in the story “have fun with” Spencer Cox who is interviewing her. The story concludes with Etta describing her passionate affair with John Wayne from which sparks uncertainty. In this piece there is a constant speculation of what is a lie, and what is the truth.
This focus on lies begins with Etta’s questioning Cox’s as he lies about his mother. As well as his responses to that question such as, “Yes I tell lies. But I hardly think of myself as a liar,” or, “Okay, so perhaps I am a liar, but not all the time.” Continuing on this theme, Etta later explains to Cox, the anthropological books about Indians that Cox writes and idolizes started with someone’s lie, and then were prolonged by more lies. In criticizing white literature about Indians calling them, “just your oral tradition…filled with the same lies, exaggerations, mistakes and ignorance as our oral traditions, Etta seems to be attacking the work that Cox has done, as well as any literature written about other cultures by white anthropologists. While additionally placing Cox’s idealized white culture at the same level as Native Americans.
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Cox says things such as “confrontational banter has always been a culture mainstay of indigenous cultures,” and, “Yes, very amusing. Irony, a hallmark of the contemporary indigenous American,” and finally, “Formality. Yes, quite another hallmark of the indigenous. Ceremony and all.” There is a pattern of over arrogance and obvious disregard to the intelligence and personhood of Etta by Cox throughout the
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Print.
Deloria, with his analytical survey, Indians in Unexpected Places, recounts the synthesis of western white expectations, and American Indians. The book takes its title from the general thesis, which explores not only the relationship between Indians and their introduction into an alien culture, but also the expectations that we have of Indians and how they “should” interact with our white western culture. According to Deloria, the common notion is that, “Indian people, corralled on isolated and impoverished reservations, missed out on modernity- indeed, almost missed out of history itself.” (Deloria p. 6) This falsified expectation that we have of the Native American peoples causes us to balk at the anomalies of an Indian when combined with Western culture.
The women who asked the last question went on to defend her stance and would not budge on her viewpoint. Being respectful, Howe did not pursue a fight. In another city on the tour, a woman “brought a Choctaw” dog so Howe could meet it (67). It’s apparent that these individuals did not read her book because they did not understand the concept of the “Live Indian.”
The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, is about a high schooler trying to get away from his futureless culture. Although the book was an easy, amusing read, filled with pictures, and funny captions. Portraying the hopelessness of the Native American people, his culture, in his eyes. By analysing the text you dig past this comedic writing to see the true struggles of a kid our own age. “You’ve been fighting since you
It is hard to tell if the author of this book is an historian, journalist or an expert of some area, if this book is the only source for me to judge. Yet, after doing the research of Sherman Alexie, the author of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian”, there are many of books wrote by him, like “Reservation Blues” (1995) “Indian Killer” (1996) and so on, Alexie is a Native American, who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation (Poetry Foundation). It is not hard to see, the background and the experiences are must affect author a lot on his work, it gives him inspiration and sources of the book, which also makes the audiences feel real after reading “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Another week passes by and this time around we go deeper into ideas of Oral traditions, we read Las Casas' Devastation of the Indies, Couvade" by Wilson Harris, and "The Amerindian Legacy" by Wilson Harris. In these pieces, we went over the “nature of the development of the arts in Caribbean Society” and how their program is designed to inform students about their heritage and spark discussions. Then we talk about Bartolomé de las Casas story about the slaughterer of the Indie. The story is told from a priest point of view who talks down about the Indians and call the Spaniard's savages for killing without a second thought and holding gold above God. “Are still acting like the ravening beast, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and
... a variety of readers, Drew Hayden Taylor uses a variety of tones. His views on First Nations stereotypes are expressed through his essays “What’s an Indian worth These Days” and “Why did the Indian block the Road”, and through his use of humorous, which shows how ridiculous stereotypes are, informative, which gives disproves stereotypes through evidence, and sarcastic tone, which stretches a reader’s understanding about a topic, he is able to challenge and contradict stereotypes about First Nations people.
The reading this week dealt with minorities in America and America’s contradictory nature. It began stories of various Indian tribes who lost their land to the English settlers. The Choctaw and Cherokee Indians who were forced away from their homes towards barren stony mountains. Then Takaki switched his focal point to slavery and its significance within America’s past. Then, the sixth chapter ends with Irish emigration.
Since these were his direct experiences written in a personal journal, I feel like there is no room for intended bias. It is not like he was writing a persuasive essay to try to convince people to believe something about his interactions with the Native Americans. He was simply using his journal to document “early relationships between settlers and Native Americans” (Pomeranz, 83). He is capable of conveying the truth free of these biases and ethnocentricity. Ethnocentricity is when one believes that their own cultural or ethnic group is more superior than another. Never once does he add a derogatory or degrading comment about the Native Americans. In fact, he even calls one of the Native Americas, Squanto, “a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation” (Pomeranz, 84). This part of the account brought to light a pivotal encounter for the settlers and native
After playing a convincing role as an action hero in a new film, a movie star exits the stage, leaving his character behind, and attends a press conference claiming that he did all his own stunts, becoming both an actor and a liar. When it comes to the difference between these two characters, clear differentiations are not immediately apparent. In this example, in order to impress his audience, both the actor and the liar are untruthful regarding their accomplishments. Both require a skilled performer who is well versed in the various protocols. A good liar must display flawless body language, careful not to reveal the truth. At the same time a good actor must abandon the habits of his true-life and replace with them with the inclinations of his specific character. Overall, the practices of acting and lying share countless similarities and many people view them as synonymous with one another.
As Indians living in white culture, many problems and conflicts arise. Most Indians tend to suffer microaggressions, racism and most of all, danger to their culture. Their culture gets torn from them, and slowly, as if it was dream, many Indians become absorbed into white society, all the while trying to retain their Indian lifestyle. In Indian Father’s Plea by Robert Lake and Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie, the idea that a dominant culture can pose many threats to a minority culture is shown by Wind-Wolf and Alexie.
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. Stuttgart: Klett Sprachen, 2009. Print.
In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as they are and are not exchanged for actions. King continuously alerts the reader about taking actions towards change as people tend to be ignorant of what is going around them. At the end people give a simple reason that they were not aware of it. Thus, the author constantly reminds the readers that now they are aware of the issue so they do not have any reason to be ignorant.
“What Sacagawea Means to Me” was featured in TIME magazine’s Lewis and Clark edition. In the article, he writes about Sacagawea’s struggles throughout the Lewis and Clark Expedition and challenges his readers to think personally about the benefits and downfalls of colonization. He supports his argument and preaches to his audience with a satirical tone that forces the reader to think critically about his questions. He argues in his article that the story of Sacagawea and America are both contradictory, and forces the reader to see their world in a different way. Alexie’s use of satirical language was essential in making his audience think and understand the article.
Sherman Alexie, an Indian boy who was born and raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington, grew up in a world where he was expected to be stupid due to his ethnic background. Alexie was different than all of the other Indian kids in his class at school; he had a willingness to learn and he didn’t want to be like the other kids who sat back, quiet as could be, with the thought that putting in any effort was pointless. Making something of yourself during that time and with that background was unheard of; instead, ‘those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non-Indians’ (Alexie, 17). The Indians wanted to appear as weak and stupid because that is what they grew accustomed to and because a “smart Indian” was considered a dangerous person (Alexie, 17). Alexie did not want to live that way; he did not want...