In Sherman Alexie’s writing there are many so called “controversial” topics, which includes many writings that he has been criticized for. But for other readers, Alexie does not deserve the criticism he receives or most of the criticism he receives due to what some of the critics are saying to be true in some ways. Throughout the book The Toughest Indian in the World, Alexie portrays Indians in a way that many readers don’t understand and may not agree with or like, this is why he is being criticized but, he should not be since he is Native American and talking about his culture and writing in a way to intrigue readers to want to read his short stories and in no way is he trying to discriminate. Even though the things he may say might be considered …show more content…
wrong, he does have a right since it is about his own culture, now if he were talking about Pacific Islanders or African Americans with him still being Native American that would be wrong. It is only less wrong since he knows the background about his culture and he is educated on his culture more so than some others.
Theoretically, it can be argued that Alexie and his writings allow a discussion of issues from the postmodern perspective. To give a little more insight on what the postmodern perspective is; the postmodern approach challenges the dominant assumptions of how we work in the world. Postmodernism describes the political and aesthetic movements that exist as disciplinary, social, and narrative responses to the historical period defined as modernity. Much of the content incorporated in postmodern writing such as the subjectivity of history or negative rhetorics including elements of discontinuity, etc are found in many of Sherman Alexie’s stories throughout the book The Toughest Indian in the World. Today it is difficult even to talk about the racial stereotypes once so confidently assumed. Stereotyping as a subject for study may be historical, but the emotions it arouses are eminently present day. Whether we use terms like image, stereotype or construct, we are talking about the same thing, ideas about a particular group that serve to characterize all the individuals within that …show more content…
group. Certain ideas entrench themselves as fundamental, and the rule of thumb is that such ideas are invariably self-serving, they promote the interests of the group that holds them, and they form the reality upon which that group acts. Owens’ argues that Alexie’s fiction reinforces stereotypes (Evans), and to an extent Alexie does do what Owens is trying to portray, but for some Alexie might be reinforcing these stereotypes only to intrigue readers and other people to read his stories. Readers can see where Owens is getting his thoughts and ideas from reading Alexie’s book, The Toughest Indian in the World. In a way, the reinforcing of these stereotypes is wrong but that is not what Alexie is going for. He is showing readers real things. A lot of readers that may read this book may have been told these things about Native Americans, and even thought that is wrong, Alexie is wanting to put these stereotypes in his stories to relate to the audience. Alexie uses these aspects of stereotyping to show not only his interest in the issues shown in his stories but also its coincidence with the center of the postmodern interest. Throughout reading the many stories in The Toughest Indian in the World, one can see the many stereotypes Alexie uses, for example, Alexie tells readers about the vanishing American, drunken Indians and Indians being unthreatening and infantilized, etc. In the short story The Toughest Indian in the World, the stereotype being said is that the story leads to the Native American culture dying. Readers can tell this because at the end of the story the main character who is also the narrator says “At that moment, if you had broken open my heart you could have looked inside and seen the thin white skeletons of one thousand salmon” (Alexie 34). Salmon played a huge role in this story, throughout the entire story it was said that the Native Americans believed to think the Salmon was dying off but the hitchhikers in the story believed that there was still salmon living. In a way this story is hopeful but there still is the stereotype of one’s culture being lost due to what happens with the main character in the story. The main character in this story is lost, he doesn’t really know who he is and is trying to find his way to figuring out his identity in a way most people wouldn’t go. In the end, the narrator doesn’t get what he wants which is to be “saved” by the fighter and in that sense it puts readers in the place that the main character has in fact been losing his culture which is the stereotype in this story. Owens’ also argues that Alexie’s writing also shows a lack of community.
In Assimilation, readers can see a lack of community. In Assimilation, Mary Lynn, struggles with cultural identity of her children and the question of whether she has a “white family or an Indian family” (Alexie 13) with her white husband. Disturbed, Mary Lynn’s husband disregards her question, telling her they have a “family family” ( Alexie 13), only reinforcing her feelings of isolation. The theme of white America’s blindness to the assimilation of the American Indian is prevalent in this passage, as in the rest of the book. This shows a lack of community because she doesn’t know where she should be placed, as in she doesn’t know if she coincides with white people or Native Americans. In Assimilation, Mary Lynn cheats on her husband because he is white and not Indian and she wants to make love to an Indian man. This shows readers that she has a broken family, and the reason why she cheats is because her husband doesn’t please her in the way that she wants to be pleased. Lack of community also coincides with broken families, characters living of the reservation or characters that continuously move around. In The Toughest Indian in the World, the main character loses his father and is then left alone. He has a job but not many friends to conversate with. The main character has a broken family and due to not living on his reservation he is lost and seeks to be saved by a man that is known as “the
fighter.” This story is about someone who is lost and can’t find their true identity, which also creates the mindset that they can’t connect to the world as a whole. Being lost and not knowing your place in the world shows a great sense of lack of community because if you don’t know where to go how can someone know how to get there or be able to connect to the surrounding community. Owens’ also argues that Alexie’s use of dark humor portrays the Native Americans in his stories as so called “savages” which brings the thought of, why does Sherman Alexie use dark humor? Alexie uses humor to address uncomfortable or confrontational subjects and in no way trying to hurt or discriminate anyone while doing so. Humor is often the only vehicle to address such topics. Humor also, releases tension for characters and the audience or reader. When things start to get too heavy or overwhelming, throwing in a little humor could release the tension. Alexie used this tactic of releasing tension in the story The Toughest Indian in the World when the main character and the “fighter” were making love. “Are you ready?’ he asked. ‘I’m not gay,’ I said. ‘Sure…” (Alexie 32). This quote shows part of the tension during the intercourse scene in The Toughest Indian in the World, but also shows a little bit of humor. There was so much tension so Alexie added a little laugh to ease the flow. In addition to releasing tension, humor also, keeps the reader or audience engaged. Most readers can stay more engaged when there is something that is making them laugh which makes them want to read more. People joke all the time, even in the most serious situations. Alexie wanted his characters to ring true-to-life, so that’s why he included dark humor and irony. Humor also provides punctuation and flow. Humorous remarks or incidents tend to happen near the end of a chapter or long scene. They provide a rhythm and let the reader know it’s time for the next scene, section, and a new set of concepts. In conclusion, Sherman Alexie should not be criticized for the way he writes his stories. He is a phenomenal writer and doesn’t deserve the discredit he receives. The way he writes works best for him and both readers and critics should respect that. Alexie is in no way trying to disrespect the Native American culture, he uses humor and stereotypes to intrigue people to want to continuing reading his stories and to increase the flow and rhythm in his stories.
The Essay, I have chosen to read from is ReReading America was An Indian Story by Roger Jack. The topic of this narrative explores the life of an Indian boy who grows up away from his father in the Pacific Northwest. Roger Jack describes the growing up of a young Indian boy to a man, who lives away from his father. Roger demonstrates values of the Indian culture and their morals through exploration of family ties and change in these specific ties. He also demonstrates that growing up away from one’s father doesn’t mean one can’t be successful in life, it only takes a proper role model, such as the author provides for the young boy.
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.
In a social setting the feeling of belongingness to a group is very important. If one is different and does not belong to a group that person is outcasted. The first story, “The Box” written by Riel Nason is about a character named Jeff who goes to a long time friends wedding and faces a number of obstacles. The second story is called “One, Two, Three Little Indians” written by Hugh Garner and focuses on the obstacles a native-canadian faces. Characters Jeff and Big Tom experience alienation and the difference in values which restrict them from achieving belongingness. Ultimately, it is seen that acceptance to the environment is the key to either success into integrating or failure to do so in certain circumstances.
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...
Alexie’s contrasting style is used to help support his thesis that America is a contradiction. Sherman uses events and people to show the contradiction in our history. “How did we get from there to here? This country somehow gave life to Maria Tallchief and Ted Bundy, to Geronimo and Joe McCarthy… to the Declaration of Independence and Executive Order No. 1066…” and forces readers to understand the contradictory state of the union, and the entire world. The forced analysis put forth in “What Sacagawea Means to Me” pushes the readers of TIME to digest his complex thought, and to enrich themselves in a history different than the one found in their high school
How White people assumed they were better than Indians and tried to bully a young boy under the US Reservation. Alexie was bullied by his classmates, teammates, and teachers since he was young because he was an Indian. Even though Alexie didn’t come from a good background, he found the right path and didn’t let his hands down. He had two ways to go to, either become a better, educated and strong person, either be like his brother Steven that was following a bad path, where Alexie chose to become a better and educated person. I believe that Alexie learned how to get stronger, and stand up for himself in the hard moments of his life by many struggles that he passed through. He overcame all his struggles and rose above them
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.
The systematic racism and discrimination in America has long lasting effects that began back when Europeans first stepped foot on American soil is still visible today but only not written into the law. This racism has lead to very specific consequences on the Native people in today’s modern world, and while the racism is maybe not as obvious it is still very present. These modern Native peoples fight against the feeling of community as a Native person, and feeling entirely alone and not a part of it. The poem “The Reservation” by Susan Cloud and “The Real Indian Leans Against” by Chrystos examine the different effects and different settings of how their cultures survived but also how so much was lost for them within their own identity.
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
Being unwanted, uncared for, unloved and forgotten by everybody even by your own family is a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. As the book The absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie talks about an Indian boy, Arnold Spirit, who was born in the Spokane Indian reservation in Wellpinit with brain damage. Arnold takes us along on his journey and we learn how absolutely awful and devastating poverty is and it is not for an individual but for an entire community. This condition leads to senseless death. They never had the chance to be anything but poor and hopeless Indians. If they stop dreaming of being poor and start searching for hope and try to live up with high expectations and accept more to them. They will look to their future with excitement and confidence and begin to do more of what they ever imagined. As a result, they will have a better living condition. Throughout the novel, we learn from Arnold’s fight for a better life. He inspires us and gives us hope. He goes to Reardan where white people live searching for hope. There, he makes new white friends and changes their ideas about Indians. Another inspiration we see in this book is, Mary Spirit, Arnold’s older sister, who leaves her reservation to make her dream come true. She goes to Montana, gets married and starts focusing more on writing her romance novels rather than focusing more on the reservation opinions. Therefore, Arnold’s and Mary’s decision is that they are not simply Indians or White but human being who belongs to many tribes.
In the beginning of the film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, viewers are introduced to the young Native American boy Oyisha, later known as Charles Eastman. After his father made him leave his tribe to go to an Native American boarding school, he is quickly forced to change his cultural identity through assimilation. Assimilation caused by the Dawes Act of 1887 was widely used to erase every bit of culture that Native Americans held so they can conform to “civilized” society. The film accurately portrays assimilation as the viewers see the main character Charles Eastman change from a cultured Native American boy to a man visibly disconnected from is Native American heritage.
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 ...