Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.
Hilary Weaver argues in her piece of writing; that identifying indigenous identity is complex, complicated, and hard to grasp when internalized oppression and colonization has turned Native Americans to criticize one another. Throughout the text, Weaver focuses on three main points which she calls, the three facets. Self-identification, community identification, and external identification are all important factors that make up Native American identity. The author uses a story she calls, “The Big game” to support her ideologies and arguments about the issue of identity. After reading the article, it’s important to realize that Native American’s must decide their own history and not leave that open for non-natives to write about.
Part 1 "Bird Songs Don't Lie: Writings from the Rez" is a book by Gordon Johnson that features a collection of short stories and essays that examine the experiences of Native American people living on a reservation in Montana. The book delves into the complexities of reservation life, tackling topics such as identity, tradition, community, and family. The stories and essays offer a glimpse into the lives of the people on the reservation and the unique challenges they face, as well as their joys and triumphs. The writing in the book is diverse and includes various creative styles, such as fiction, poetry, and personal essays.
Jessica Hurdubei August 19, 2015 Mrs. Meredith AP Language & Composition Reading response to Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie Intro: The audience intended in the novel Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie , are most likely Native Americans or those who enjoy a good book with plot twists. This because the book is biased, favoring Native Americans, and Rock n Roll. Through the novel, many upsetting things occur on the Spokane Indian Rez. The tone of the novel is humorous and insensitive.
Sherman Alexie uses characterization and symbolism in his short story “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” to address the bad done by separation and classification of mankind. The fact that people are not equal is not an excuse to classify them according to their social economic status, intelligence, religion, or ethnicity. Through the main character in the story a young Spokane Indian, Alexie shows the dilemma of belongingness and stereotypes in all kind of people.
In his book the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie portrays a teenage boy, Arnold Spirit (junior) living in white man’s world, and he must struggle to overcome racism and stereotypes if he must achieve his dreams. In the book, Junior faces a myriad of misfortunes at his former school in ‘the rez’ (reservation), which occurs as he struggles to escape from racial and stereotypical expectations about Indians. For Junior he must weigh between accepting what is expected of him as an Indian or fight against those forces and proof his peers and teachers wrong. Therefore, from the time Junior is in school at reservation up to the time he decides to attend a neighboring school in Rearden, we see a teenager who is facing tough consequences for attempting to go against the racial stereotypes.
However, the protagonist Thomas still had strong ambition and passions for life, thriving to redefine identity of Native Indians. “This reservation hidden away in the corner of the world” (Alexie, 16). The presence of reservation was a total separation of culture and race. By introducing Thomas and Junior’s family background, Sherman Alexie showned the sad lives and fragmented identity that the Natives endured. However, the protagonist Thomas always looks for the best even under the difficult life he had in reservation.
Being an Indian that lived on the reserve himself, Sherman Alexie has most likely written this book to notify the readers about life on the reservation and how they were unfairly treated. It mentions the issues regarding assimilation and poverty. He writes this book in a diary format talking about his experiences living on the reservations and the many problems that he has faced. His goal might be to show others, specifically teenagers, who are suffering from problems, that they can make their way through them and achieve what they want to just like
In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the loss of native land produced many devastating effects on the
Reservation and hope as two opposing forces in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Introduction The name of Sherman Alexie has become the most endearing one among Native American literary arena since the publication of collection of poems called The Business Of Fancydancing in 1991. Hereafter quick succession of his works followed one by one like, I Would Steal Horses, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven etc., ,thelater being a collection of short stories.. The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) is another short story collection almost exclusively dealing with urban life. Another short story collection is Ten Little Indians (2003).
CONCLUSION Sherman Alexie in The Absolute Diary of A Part Time Indian, used images and stories to depict poverty and race in Junior 's life and how it affected his life. Poverty and race plays a role in the lives of the Native Americans and specifically Junior. While reading, it should be concluded that there 's hard times, and difficult measures to be crossed while living on the rez. All in all, poverty and race have shaped and molded Junior and the Native Americans on the
Sherman Alexie is one of the best known Native American writers today. He started his famous career with poetry and then wrote several novels and collections of short stories. From one of his novels The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, we receive the short story “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona” which is also shown through the film Smoke Signals. Throughout this story, we get to see life on the reservation as a Native American. This might be foreign to much of the American population as the Native American culture was quite literally erased from history and the only time we saw them was in movies when they were being killed.
Sherman Alexie uses his personal cultural experiences to form the character Junior in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian. Junior grows up on the Spokane Indian Reservation just like his author. Like Alexie, Junior also has medical problems he has to face, wants a better education which causes a loss for Junior, and the struggle of alcohol abuse with friends and family members. Sherman Alexie’s mother and father are both indians. His mother is a Spokane indian, and his father from the Coeur d’Alene tribe.
Being a writer of many different styles, Sherman Alexie started off as a poet before writing novels and short stories. His poetic manner continues in the story “Indian Education”. He has a wide array of dry statements mixed with metaphors and statements that are not meant to be taken literally. The trend for each years is that he starts off dry and literal and ends poetic and metaphorical. His description of his interactions with the “white girl” in seventh grade is a great example.
In this book, Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie explores a young Native American student goes through many challenges, with others and himself. The student had a small group of friends, Rowdy, Penelope and Roger. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows that friends would stand up for each other, forgive, be trustworthy with keeping secrets, have sympathy, show support and respect. The character of Rowdy shows how friends stand up for each other and how they could forgive each other even if a friend feels betrayed.
