Alexie
writes his poems and short stories to recount parts of his life in his
perspective. He uses themes of alcoholism, racism, colonization, despair, and
resentment to capture the audience into feeling what he felt. For most of
Alexie’s characters they “struggle to survive the constant battering of their
minds, bodies, and spirits by white American society and their own self-hatred
and sense of powerlessness” (Casey). For example in the poem On the Amtrak from Boston to New York he
writes with what could be considered resentment. This poem is about the
overwhelming colonization of American culture overriding Native Americans and
their culture. The protagonist of this poem resents the lady for bringing up
the history of something that was part of his history first; she was ignorant
to the history beyond what she was taught. He call this “her country’s history”
not “his” or “our”. He feels the need to be quite and keep his thoughts to
himself, he views the ‘white American society’ as his ‘enemy’. He writes: “while I, as all
Indians have done since this war began, made plans for what I would do and say
the next time somebody from the enemy thought
I was one of their own;” in this he clearly separates himself from the
other, the enemy vs. him (Alexie).
Sherman
Alexie in his writing uses his ‘outsider’ perspective to make the reader
interact with his identity. Alexie is a Native American that was born and
raised in a reservation in Spokane. Alexie continuously writes himself into his
characters and uses themes that have affected him his whole life; “he is roused
to consciousness about his own entrapment within clichés and culturally
constructed ways of reacting” (Garic). The influence his youth had on him is
seen in all of his writing, he uses themes of despair, racism, and lost
identity to show what it is like to be a “part time Indian” in world that is
socially constricted.
By seeing things through Alexie’s eyes we can try to
understand his world. Alexi writes to “understand the world and to make fun of
the world (Garic). In his short story Indian
Education he writes about his personal experiences at school. Victor (the
main protagonist) describes his education through specific episodes of his life
that really stayed with him. Much like Alexie, Victor learned lessons that
didn’t necessarily come from attending school and books but from experiences
and life lessons. He uses specific experiences of others and compared them to
his perspective. For example, in 8th grade Victor could hear “the
white girls’ forced vomiting” and asked them to “give [him their] lunch if they
were just going to throw it up”. In the end, Victor concludes with “there is
more than one way to starve”(Alexie). By
using an eating disorder as a metaphor Alexie is able to show that starvation
goes beyond just food; “other forms of starvation are not explicitly tied to
food, as those on the reservation are starving for a real education, for
dignity, and for a better quality of life” (Battaglia). While these two girls
were throwing away their bodily nutrition, Victor (Alexie) saw it as throwing
up opportunities. This correlates with his past because Alexie chose to go to a
public school for education he had more opportunities, his friends back home
were not so lucky. The opportunities that were being thrown away were ones that
were wanted by others who are starving for more.
Through Sherman Alexie, you can learn life lessons
through different accounts and perspectives; lessons he learned through his
youth, perspectives formed from a socially constrict universe that labeled him
as an outsider looking in.
References:
Battaglia, Soheila. Theme
of the Short Story “Indian Education. https://penandthepad.com/theme-short-story-indian-education-1669.html.
2017.
Casey,Rob. Poetry
Foundation. Sherman Alexie. Poetryfoundation.org
Garic, Vanja.
"Part-Time Identities and Full-Time Narration as an Absolution in Alexie's
the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." Neohelicon: Acta
Comparationis Litterarum Universarum, vol. 44, no. 1, 2017, pp. 189
