In Sherman Alexie's “Ten Little Indians”, Alexie has a wide variety of lead characters throughout his novel, such as Corliss from the first story “The Search Engine”, and the Women from the third story “Can I Get A Witness”. Alexie instills many traits into the lead character. Alexie also tries to get the reader connected with the characters’ likes and diles, and how their actions affect the character's outlook throughout the stories, including how it affects the reader's interpretation of the stories.
In Sherman Alexie's first story, “The Search Engine”, Corliss displays a broad spectrum of character traits, such as judgemental, bipolar, and ambitious. For example, Corliss “wanted to buy the skeletal woman a sandwich, ten sandwiches, and
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a big bowl of vanilla ice cream.” (Alexie 2).
Corliss was clearly judging a young woman on her size when he uses the word “Skeletal” because she has a body that appears to be delicate in the story. Another example of Corliss displaying her judgemental characteristic was when she said, “He told her where he was from and where he wanted to go after college...”(Alexie 2). She judges the young man in the student union at Washington State University because he told the skeletal woman where he was from and where he wanted to go after college. Corliss overheard the conversation and assumed that he was attempting to seduce her. Corliss also exhibits a bipolar trait of going from calm to rude without any warning to an elderly lady named Lillian when she asked, “Can I help you?”(Alexie 36) Corliss had responded “I’m just waiting for somebody,”(Alexie 36) Lillian followed up with “A young man perhaps?”(Alexie 36) Corliss ended up being extremely rude by saying, “Is there a man waiting at home for you?”(Alexie 37) she ended up apologizing to Lillian and explaining why she is feeling confused. She displayed her bipolar trait real well because she went from a simple conversation with Lillian to a very …show more content…
rude response to her. Instead of explaining why she was confused originally, she took her frustration out on Lillian. Also, Sherman Alexie presents Corliss as an ambitious character. “On every mission, there is a time to be strong and a time to be humble.”(Alexie 37) Corliss’s objective was to sit down and talk with Harlan Atwater no matter what the obstacles were that she had to overcome. She wanted to get down to the bottom line to see if Harlan Atwater was really a Spokane Indian and why he stopped writing. Next, Corliss showcases many reasons why we like her in Sherman Alexie’s Ten Little Indians.
In this case, Corliss humbles herself across the story. Corliss, “She had wanted a maximum life, an original aboriginal life, so she had fought her way out of her underfunded public high school into an underfunded public college.”(Alexie 5) she proves she is humble by defeating what is to be her destiny, “she seemed destined for a minimum-wage life of waiting tables or changing oil.”(Alexie 5) I really like this about Corliss because no matter what she was told she keeps moving forward to fulfill her dreams, and she will not let anyone stand in her
way. In Sherman Alexie's third story in the Ten Little Indians “Can I Get A Witness” The Women whose name was never mentioned illustrates a wide range of character traits, but mostly lost in the moment, disloyal and corrupt. The Women who experienced such tragic event at the diner where she was eating breakfast that morning was able to show her true colors after surviving the attack. The attack was executed by a terrorist bomber who had planned to detonate the bomb at the diner where she was at.
The story "Moowis, the Indian Coquette" is a unique story furthered by the author's background. Jane's parents were the opposites that helped her become who she was. Her mother was the daughter of a Ojibwe, an Indian tribe, war chief; this fact enriched her with the Ojibwe culture and language. Her father was an Irish fur trader whose influence helped her learn more about literature. This particular piece delves into the lifestyle of an Indians and how it is not as different from others. Jane would go on to have an important role in the Native American literature of America.
Sherman Alexie illustrates through the short story, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” how he developed the same reading and writing skills taught in a classroom solely from a Superman comic book. Alexie’s situation was unique from not only non-Indians but Indians as well. Alexie’s family was not privileged, which was the case for most of the people who lived on the Indian reservation. They, Indians, had access to very limited resources which ceased any aspirations they had at being successful. Alexie, as a young Indian boy, was not supposed to be educated by the societal norms expressed of his era. However, Alexie refused to fall victim to a stereotypical uneducated Indian boy. As a product of an Indian reservation, Sherman Alexie informs his audience, mostly dedicated to Indian children that he did not fail simply because of the joy he had for reading and writing.
The author, Sherman Alexie, is extremely effective through his use of ethos and ethical appeals. By sharing his own story of a sad, poor, indian boy, simply turning into something great. He establishes his authority and character to the audiences someone the reader can trust. “A little indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly…If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living in the reservations, he might have been called a prodigy.” Alexie mentions these two different ideas to show that he did have struggles and also to give the audience a chance to connect with his struggles and hopefully follow the same journey in becoming something great. By displaying his complications and struggles in life with stereotypical facts, Alexie is effective as the speaker because he has lived the live of the intended primary audience he is trying to encourage which would be young Indian
In this essay, McFarland discusses Native American poetry and Sherman Alexie’s works. He provides an overview of Alexie’s writing in both his poems and short stories. A brief analysis of Alexie’s use of humor is also included.
Alexie divulges that he looks up to his father by saying, “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well” (Alexie 12). Sherman Alexie, a young boy who loves his father, successfully utilizes apples to logos, pathos, and ethos. Since his father is his idol, he is a credible and reliable man in Alexie’s life, whom he loved, which logically explains that Alexie chose to love books. Because he loves his father, Alexie’s emotions of love and admiration drove him to follow in his father’s footsteps. His relationship with his father delves out necessary information for readers to tie his entire paper together by connecting the dots as to why Sherman Alexie is so entranced with literature, which corresponds with his love of
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.
In the fictional story, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, a Native American author, describes the problems of a teenager living between two different cultures; one Native American, and the other white. Alexie uses figurative language elements to convince teenagers to be aware and support people living between two worlds in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. By using these literary elements, Sherman Alexie guides the audience to respond emotionally and act upon about the book’s message. Throughout the story, Alexie uses juxtaposition to show the differences between the two worlds the protagonist lives in.
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 Indian Killer Alexie uses a pulp-fiction form, the serial killer mystery, to frame the social issues facing American Indians. He populates the book with stock characters such as a grizzled ex-cop, a left-wing professor, a right-wing talk radio personality, drunken bums, thuggish teenagers and a schizophrenic main character who serves as the most obvious suspect in a mystery that never quite resolves itself.
These moments of pure happiness inspire hope in the hearts of his characters. The Indians are able to find peace for just an instant holding onto it in a beautiful way that allows them to forget the strains of their lives. This psychological phenomenon is exhibited constantly throughout the collection of stories but Victor best embodies it when he remembers his father. He changes “[T]he memories. Instead of remembering the bad things, remember what happened immediately before. That’s what I learned from my father.” (page 34). Instead of remembering how his dad left him when he was young he savors the memory of him when he was there. By being able to be thankful for the days with his father Victor can make life without him less painful. Alexie shows through Victor’s use of this coping mechanism of thankfulness that Reservation Indians are happier with the little they have than the spoiled people of the rest of our country. This idea is clearly a positive and shows that Alexie’s realism is not all just the racist, stereotypical garbage that many claim it is. Instead it has actual meaning behind it; it is simply an examination of the Native American’s lifestyle and world-view
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.
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 behind in order to realize how important it actually is. Alexie grew up in the Indian culture but unlike Sa he willingly leaves. Alexie specifically showcases the changes in his life throughout the structure of his text through the idea of education.
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.
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that
Alexie begins the essay by telling the audience some background information about himself and his family. He tells of how they lived on an Indian Reservation and survived on “a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food.” (Page 1, para. 1) Right from the start, Alexie grabs the emotions of his audience. Alexie then goes on to talk of his father and how because of his love for his father, he developed a love for reading. “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.” (Page 1, para. 2) He talks of how he taught himself to read and that because of the books he began to thirst for more knowledge. Alexie says that once he learned to read, he began to advance quickly in his schooling. However, because of his thirst for knowledge, he got into much trouble. “A smart Indian was a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike.” (Page 2, para. 6) This statement is one of the most powerful statements in the entire essay. The reason for this being that Alexie knows that trouble will come but he was not going to let it ...