Throughout the book the Reservation Blues there are many descriptions of how each character demonstrates faith and strength. Hence the fact that Sherman Alexie shows how each character goes through the struggle in their lives. Most of the characters from the Reservation Blues are Native Americans and go through many trials which they overcome shows how strong they are. Generally speaking, Native Americans have a rough way of living throughout the novel. The main character, Thomas has dreams which represent the truth about the reservation life. For example, both Chess and Checkers lived a hard life as stated in the book. The father said he was going for help, but no one responded. The father searched for a doctor in that enormous snow storm,
Sherman Alexie was a man who is telling us about his life. As an author he uses a lot of repetition, understatement, analogy, and antithesis. Alexie was a man of greater words and was a little Indian boy at the beginning of the story and later became a role model for other boys like him who were shy and alone. Alexie was someone who used his writing to inspire others such as other Indian kids like himself to keep learning and become the best that they can be.
Sherman Alexie began his literary career writing poetry and short stories, being recognized for his examination of the Native American (Hunter 1). Written after reading media coverage of an actual execution in the state of Washington, Sherman Alexie’s poem Capital Punishment tells the story of an Indian man on death row waiting for his execution. The poem is told in the third person by the cook preparing the last meal as he recalls the many final meals he has prepared over the years. In addition to the Indian currently awaiting his death, the cook speaks of a black man who was electrocuted and lived to tell about it, only to be sent back to the chair an hour later to be killed again. He also recalls many of the meals he had prepared had been for dark-skinned men convicted of killing white people. The thought of racial discrimination in capital punishment seems to be the theme at first glance, but reading further indicates differently. The cook also ponders his own survival in the prison system as an inmate. Learning to cook and outlasting all the others before him, whether by age or fate, allowed him the opportunity to create food filled with love for the one that will die. After this final meal has been prepared by the cook for the condemned inmate to eat, fear and anticipation takes over his body. Just as proper temperature is needed for cooking, a proper amount of electricity is needed to operate the electric chair and this need creates a dimming and flickering effect in the prison reminding all those left behind of their possible fate:
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...
Can you imagine growing up on a reservation full of people with no hope? The character Arnold in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie did. In the beginning of the book, Arnold was a hopeless Native American living on a hopeless reservation. In the middle of the book, Arnold leaves the reservation and finds out that his sister left too.
This story also portrays the pessimism felt by the people at this time. At this time in history, the world had just suffered the worst war in the history of man-kind up to that date. Also, the United States had not that long ago gone through the Civil War to free men from the oppression of slavery. However, some felt that the freedom the slaves were given had led to more oppression in the northern, industrial states that paid poorly for the jobs they held, in effect a new form of slavery. This era was the age of war. Not only was it an era of war, but also a time of great extremes. There were the very rich and wealthy people, and there were the very poor and poverty-stricken people, a middle class had not really been established at this point in time. The poor had little to hope for and their plight in life was beyond their control. A dream world was a way for them to escape the sorrows of their lives, perhaps the only way for many. Soon to come would be the biggest war in the history of man, World War II.
“A Wall of Fire Rising,” by Edwidge Danticat is a story of dreamers. In this story are three characters, Lili, Little guy, and guy. This small family lives in a run-down town where work is hard to come by, leading to their poor life style. Lili is a hard worker, always doing what it takes to make sure there is food on the table. Her only hope is that her son will have a better life than the one they are currently living. Little Guy is like many young children; he loves his mother and father and is oblivious to his family’s circumstances. He is a hard worker and wants to succeed in school. Guy, a father who is struggling to create a life for his family, is also trying to find a meaning for his life. After a series of events in the story, Guy comes to the decision to commit suicide. Following his death are the reactions from his family, and ultimately, the end of the story. In “A Wall of Fire Rising,” we learn that man’s ability to dream, often takes an important role in their realities. We see this demonstrated by the thoughts, and actions of Lili, Little Guy, and Guy.
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
The immigrants of the twentieth century faced many hardships and shockingly inhumane treatment. They came to America in pursuit of a better life and to see the famous "land of opportunity." However, what they saw was discrimination, isolation, poverty, and unfriendly competition. The protagonist in each of the novels convey the dispiriting side of the America that the immigrants unknowingly fell into. The stereotypes and classifications placed upon the ex-colored man, the Filipino immigrant, or Mexican-American boy were unfortunate but true representations of the time. The American Dream was not attainable by all, as it claimed to be.
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.
In the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, many immigrants came to the United States to pursue the American Dream. The American Dream is a belief that anyone can have success and prosperity through hard work in a society where upward social mobility is possible. The values and ideals of the American dream consist of democracy, equality, fairness, justice, and liberty. In Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, he portrays through a Lithuanian immigrant family the hardships immigrants faced while seeking a better life in America. One member of the Lithuanian immigrant family is Jurgis Rudkus, who marries a young woman named Ona Lukoszait. After they get married, Jurgis and Ona move into a home in Chicago with some of Ona’s family members. As the family struggles to pay for the house, they undertake stressful jobs and become workers of cruel and selfish employers. Although employers exploit Jurgis, Jurgis continues to tell Ona that he “will work harder” (Sinclair, 22) to help them achieve the American Dream. Upton Sinclair portrays how capitalism attacks the values of the American Dream through the ugly effects of capitalism, such as exploitation, poor working conditions, dishonesty, manipulation, and corruption.
In Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama, the author is troubled by a band of mixed emotions. Confusion and desperateness lead the author to go in search of the future that will help him find his place in life.
...llison 371). This is basically symbolizing the American Dream for African Americans. It is traced back to the slavery times which his grandfather had to once go through. But unlike slaves, often forced to run for their lives, the narrator starts running and is kept running by others who seem to have no real impact on his life. The whole time throughout the story he never truly finds ‘himself’.
The death of one character, June, Albertine’s aunt, unites the Kashpaw and Lamartine families and shows the issues within them. As a young woman, Albertine witnesses situations involving domestic violence and poverty. The desperate manner of the lives of many Natives living on Reservations is shown throughout the novel. In White Men Fear to Tread, the life of Russell Means on and off of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota portrays many of the issues of Reservation life, especially today. Means describes his life experiences from growing up as a young man to being grown and going to find a job and later being a leader in the AIM movement and the struggles he experiences there. Works of literature such as these open the eyes of many people to the issues that exist on many Native American Reservations today, specifically to those who aren’t Native and are ignorant to what is happening really. For example, some people think that all Reservation Indians lack motivation and therefore don’t do anything in order to make something of themselves, but this isn’t necessarily true. There are various situations that Natives are exposed to and the conditions on many Reservations account for the habits which some people
Many people in the novel have dreams. Everyone has dreams. Junior’s mom had dreams, Junior’s dad had dreams, Junior’s sister had dreams and Junior himself had dreams. But not all of them have done something to actually accomplish their goals. Most of the Indians in the reservation have Accepted their “Current Reality”, Junior once said “We reservation Indians don't get to realize our dreams. We don't get those chances. Or choices. We're just poor” (Alexie 9). We see that Junior is a smart guy. He notices that his life isn’t going on the right direction, so he decides to transfer schools and go to a much better school out of the reservation. Junior did something to change his life, but we never really got to know what his dream was. We just know he has a lot of hope in the future. Someone that the author has actually told the reader about the dreams that the person had was Junior’s sister. Mr P talked to Junior and told him his sister Mary had the dream of writing Romance novels. Mr. P told Junior that Mary was the smartest girl in the class, even smarter than Junior. Mr P said “I really thought she was going to be a writer," Mr. P said. "She kept writing in her book. And she kept working up the courage to show it to somebody. And then she just stopped."(Alexie 23). Mary gave up on her dream and stayed in the basement most of the time. One day, her life changed. She decided to change her life and moved to Montana with her husband. “After seven years of living in the basement and watching TV, after doing absolutely nothing at all, my sister decided she needed to change her life.” (Alexie 48) . Mary seemed happy, and then Junior realized that “She was trying to live out her dream”(Alexie 50). Mary didn’t completely give up, she always had hope that her life would change; and when she was given the chance to leave the basement to change her life she did it. Junior once said “There's always time to
To which these symbols push this driving theme of what the American dream looks like for black people at the time in comparison to those who were white and to some extent within a position of power. Through the protagonist’s unexpected night while only wanting to give a speech to the wealth white men in his town he is subjected to a naked white woman, to which a young black man is not allowed. He is then forced to fight other young black men till the last man standing, only to be taunted with the illusion that gaining wealth would be anything less the painful. The idea of “The American dream” is based on who you are and what you look like. The rich white men are already in the position of power all. The American dream is understated by the fact that it is so obtainable or obtained from where they sit. On the other hand, the young black men must fight tooth and nail and even then, the things that are considered the “American dream” is not within reach. This is shown to the reader by giving the first person point of view narration, this gives you a more personal walk through of the environment. The extensive use of literary symbols used by Ellison makes this a unique read, that of which you would not be able to see all his metaphorical imagery with only one read. Upon further review of the text you start to see the underlining theme of this battle