Essays on Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie’s poem “Evolution” is a scathing indictment of the white European settlement of the Americas, and the subsequent subjugation of the Native American people. By spinning the tale of white conquest over the Natives, and the economic dependence the Natives were forced to have on whites after that, into a fable involving famed Western icon Buffalo Bill, Alexie satirically points out the hypocrisy by which the white Western narrative makes a fable out of the removal of Native peoples and culture from their own hands. The poem begins with the establishment of Buffalo Bill, who “opens a ...

Awareness is always the first step for shielding the damage done by ignorance. Physical abuse, substance abuse, and sex are the stark challenges for the modern society and the most appropriate sense of precaution can be developed by the power of awareness about these issues prevalent in the modern society . “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie is a book that has been sought by parents to be banned in the USA. In his article, “Darkness Too Visible”, author Meghan Cox Gurdon has professed the ban of this book as the content of the book ...

“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is a short story written by Sherman Alexie and it is about an Indian man, whose name is Jackson Jackson, who is in search of his identity in life. Jackson has friends and most of them are Indian and his faith in the humanity of people is great and amazing. He believes that the good he does will come back to him and he lives by this rule. Jackson never says that, but it is obvious from his actions. He is kind and considerate towards people and he is rewarded because of that ...

While the bulk of the poem Capital Punishment by Sherman Alexie concentrates on an Indian facing capital punishment through the eyes of the prison cook, the last few lines take the focus off of the man about to be executed and places it upon the reader themselves. In these few lines the prison cook basically points out every one of us is guilty of something in life, saying, “,,,if any of us/ stood for days on top of a barren hill/ during an electrical storm/ then lightning would eventually strike us/ and we'd have no idea for which of ...

Jocks vs. Pukes and Superman and Me

Jocks vs. Pukes and Superman and Me In America today there exists a great cultural divide that has less to do with race, ethnicity and class (although these can certainly be factors) than with an almost Calvinist hierarchy of those who belong and those who do not. There are certainly examples of “otherness” in the black vs. white, straight vs. gay issue that surround us, but two prime examples of the more philosophical problem are at the heart of Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” and Robert Lipsyte’s “Jock Culture”. The two authors are extremely different in writing ...

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in heaven was a novel written by Sherman Alexie in order to demonstrate the unique strain that has been placed on his people, the Native American peoples, in a changing world. One way in which he distinctly demonstrates the impact that environment, or a changing environment can have on the Native American people is through the story telling of the Character Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Thomas is, at his core, a character that seems to live in the spiritual realm. As such, he tells stories that extend beyond himself, and demonstrate what he sees as major issues effecting the ...

Introduction

Through a suave recount of a childhood episode, Sherman Alexie presents in his essay “Superman and Me” the encounter between the Native American culture and the American popular culture. This essay exposes a personal analysis of Alexie’s writing, decrypting the symbols compressed within “Superman and Me”. Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” transmits critical emotions, as the readers are prompted to understand how a children belonging to an Indian community develops his cognitive skills by reading a “Superman” book, which seems to have shaped the author’s personality.

Body

The essay “Superman and Me” seems to be addressed to a children audience, as it recalls a ...

Response 5

Culture when broadly applied is a term that can be used to describe virtually all avenues and aspects of human life. In his textbook Cultural Anthropology, Richley H. Crapo defines it as “a learned system of beliefs, feelings, and rules for living around which a group of people organize their lives; a way of life of particular society” (Crapo, 2013). Perhaps that most astounding thing about humankind’s way of life is the vast diversity in culture that emerges in different groups of people. The differences in culture come from a variety of factors and one of the most important is geography. American culture ...

It is very rare to find a book that shatters your heart into a million tiny pieces and puts them back together whilst making you laugh at the same time, over and over again. One such book is Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian. Apart from the numerous awards this book has won, Neil Gaiman’s quote on the cover: “I have no doubt that in a year or so it'll be winning awards and being banned” is among the myriad of the reasons to pick up this book and give it a read. The semi-autobiographical, first person-narrative of ...

Sherman Alexie, in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, reflects on alcoholism as a social problem that has faced and is still facing the Native American Society today. He conveys alcoholism as a source of domestic conflicts, Loss of potential and lives, and the disintegration of the moral fabric within the Native American Society. He also conveys alcoholism as generic and is hence passed from generation to generation among Native Americans.

Sherman Alexie conveys alcohol as a key source of domestic conflicts throughout his book. One of the places where alcohol is conveyed as being a source of domestic ...