Throughout the book the Reservation Blues there are many descriptions of how each character demonstrates faith and strength. Hence the fact that Sherman Alexie shows how each character goes through the struggle in their lives. Most of the characters from the Reservation Blues are Native Americans and go through many trials which they overcome shows how strong they are. Generally speaking, Native Americans have a rough way of living throughout the novel. The main character, Thomas has dreams which represent the truth about the reservation life. For example, both Chess and Checkers lived a hard life as stated in the book. The father said he was going for help, but no one responded. The father searched for a doctor in that enormous snow storm,
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.
Sherman Alexie began his literary career writing poetry and short stories, being recognized for his examination of the Native American (Hunter 1). Written after reading media coverage of an actual execution in the state of Washington, Sherman Alexie’s poem Capital Punishment tells the story of an Indian man on death row waiting for his execution. The poem is told in the third person by the cook preparing the last meal as he recalls the many final meals he has prepared over the years. In addition to the Indian currently awaiting his death, the cook speaks of a black man who was electrocuted and lived to tell about it, only to be sent back to the chair an hour later to be killed again. He also recalls many of the meals he had prepared had been for dark-skinned men convicted of killing white people. The thought of racial discrimination in capital punishment seems to be the theme at first glance, but reading further indicates differently. The cook also ponders his own survival in the prison system as an inmate. Learning to cook and outlasting all the others before him, whether by age or fate, allowed him the opportunity to create food filled with love for the one that will die. After this final meal has been prepared by the cook for the condemned inmate to eat, fear and anticipation takes over his body. Just as proper temperature is needed for cooking, a proper amount of electricity is needed to operate the electric chair and this need creates a dimming and flickering effect in the prison reminding all those left behind of their possible fate:
This story also portrays the pessimism felt by the people at this time. At this time in history, the world had just suffered the worst war in the history of man-kind up to that date. Also, the United States had not that long ago gone through the Civil War to free men from the oppression of slavery. However, some felt that the freedom the slaves were given had led to more oppression in the northern, industrial states that paid poorly for the jobs they held, in effect a new form of slavery. This era was the age of war. Not only was it an era of war, but also a time of great extremes. There were the very rich and wealthy people, and there were the very poor and poverty-stricken people, a middle class had not really been established at this point in time. The poor had little to hope for and their plight in life was beyond their control. A dream world was a way for them to escape the sorrows of their lives, perhaps the only way for many. Soon to come would be the biggest war in the history of man, World War II.
“A Wall of Fire Rising,” by Edwidge Danticat is a story of dreamers. In this story are three characters, Lili, Little guy, and guy. This small family lives in a run-down town where work is hard to come by, leading to their poor life style. Lili is a hard worker, always doing what it takes to make sure there is food on the table. Her only hope is that her son will have a better life than the one they are currently living. Little Guy is like many young children; he loves his mother and father and is oblivious to his family’s circumstances. He is a hard worker and wants to succeed in school. Guy, a father who is struggling to create a life for his family, is also trying to find a meaning for his life. After a series of events in the story, Guy comes to the decision to commit suicide. Following his death are the reactions from his family, and ultimately, the end of the story. In “A Wall of Fire Rising,” we learn that man’s ability to dream, often takes an important role in their realities. We see this demonstrated by the thoughts, and actions of Lili, Little Guy, and Guy.
The immigrants of the twentieth century faced many hardships and shockingly inhumane treatment. They came to America in pursuit of a better life and to see the famous "land of opportunity." However, what they saw was discrimination, isolation, poverty, and unfriendly competition. The protagonist in each of the novels convey the dispiriting side of the America that the immigrants unknowingly fell into. The stereotypes and classifications placed upon the ex-colored man, the Filipino immigrant, or Mexican-American boy were unfortunate but true representations of the time. The American Dream was not attainable by all, as it claimed to be.
In the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, many immigrants came to the United States to pursue the American Dream. The American Dream is a belief that anyone can have success and prosperity through hard work in a society where upward social mobility is possible. The values and ideals of the American dream consist of democracy, equality, fairness, justice, and liberty. In Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, he portrays through a Lithuanian immigrant family the hardships immigrants faced while seeking a better life in America. One member of the Lithuanian immigrant family is Jurgis Rudkus, who marries a young woman named Ona Lukoszait. After they get married, Jurgis and Ona move into a home in Chicago with some of Ona’s family members. As the family struggles to pay for the house, they undertake stressful jobs and become workers of cruel and selfish employers. Although employers exploit Jurgis, Jurgis continues to tell Ona that he “will work harder” (Sinclair, 22) to help them achieve the American Dream. Upton Sinclair portrays how capitalism attacks the values of the American Dream through the ugly effects of capitalism, such as exploitation, poor working conditions, dishonesty, manipulation, and corruption.
In Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama, the author is troubled by a band of mixed emotions. Confusion and desperateness lead the author to go in search of the future that will help him find his place in life.
...llison 371). This is basically symbolizing the American Dream for African Americans. It is traced back to the slavery times which his grandfather had to once go through. But unlike slaves, often forced to run for their lives, the narrator starts running and is kept running by others who seem to have no real impact on his life. The whole time throughout the story he never truly finds ‘himself’.
Alexie, a Native American himself, was able to illustrate conflicts in a very honest way. One of the central conflicts in the novel is the community’s devotion to maintaining their rich and cherished culture, while trying to keep up with the modern world. Young and guarded white readers most likely have little understanding of what it means to have a desire to keep old traditions alive, but are educated on that topic through this novel. In Reservation Blues, younger generations were greatly influenced by mainstream media with little acknowledgement of their ancestor’s old traditions. Contrary to the younger generations, the older generations showed a great desire for the upkeep of these old traditions. The young band in the novel is greatly influenced by media and yearns to keep up with popular culture. They get caught up in the fame and fortune and realize that they have the potential to do big things. Alexie foreshadowed this event when he wrote, “For the rest of our lives, all we can hear are our names chanted over and over, until we are deaf to everything else” (1995, p. 212). They forget their own culture’s teachings and the idea that music has a purpose of healing the soul. Their elders look down on those who neglect to acknowledge the beauty in their traditions and view it as a demise of their beautiful culture. White Americans haven’t necessarily been too heavily exposed to experiences like this. The United States is so young that it’s traditions are being formed now, as opposed to other countries and cultures who have dated back hundreds, if not thousands of years. The value in reading Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues is that story provides readers with the understanding that their are older cultures out there that might not want to form to the
A reader of Sherman Alexie’s novel Reservation Blues enters the text with similar assumptions of Native American life, unless of course, he or she is of that particular community. If he or she is not, however, there is the likelihood that the ‘typical’ reader has images of Native Americans based upon long-held social stereotypes of the Lone Ranger’s Tonto and Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves,” possibly chastened with some positive, homey images of the First Thanksgiving as well. However, Alexie’s prose forces one to apprehend Native American life anew, and to see Native Americans as fully-fledged individual characters, with wants and needs and desires, not as those who are simply stoic and ‘other.’
Many people in the novel have dreams. Everyone has dreams. Junior’s mom had dreams, Junior’s dad had dreams, Junior’s sister had dreams and Junior himself had dreams. But not all of them have done something to actually accomplish their goals. Most of the Indians in the reservation have Accepted their “Current Reality”, Junior once said “We reservation Indians don't get to realize our dreams. We don't get those chances. Or choices. We're just poor” (Alexie 9). We see that Junior is a smart guy. He notices that his life isn’t going on the right direction, so he decides to transfer schools and go to a much better school out of the reservation. Junior did something to change his life, but we never really got to know what his dream was. We just know he has a lot of hope in the future. Someone that the author has actually told the reader about the dreams that the person had was Junior’s sister. Mr P talked to Junior and told him his sister Mary had the dream of writing Romance novels. Mr. P told Junior that Mary was the smartest girl in the class, even smarter than Junior. Mr P said “I really thought she was going to be a writer," Mr. P said. "She kept writing in her book. And she kept working up the courage to show it to somebody. And then she just stopped."(Alexie 23). Mary gave up on her dream and stayed in the basement most of the time. One day, her life changed. She decided to change her life and moved to Montana with her husband. “After seven years of living in the basement and watching TV, after doing absolutely nothing at all, my sister decided she needed to change her life.” (Alexie 48) . Mary seemed happy, and then Junior realized that “She was trying to live out her dream”(Alexie 50). Mary didn’t completely give up, she always had hope that her life would change; and when she was given the chance to leave the basement to change her life she did it. Junior once said “There's always time to
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
To which these symbols push this driving theme of what the American dream looks like for black people at the time in comparison to those who were white and to some extent within a position of power. Through the protagonist’s unexpected night while only wanting to give a speech to the wealth white men in his town he is subjected to a naked white woman, to which a young black man is not allowed. He is then forced to fight other young black men till the last man standing, only to be taunted with the illusion that gaining wealth would be anything less the painful. The idea of “The American dream” is based on who you are and what you look like. The rich white men are already in the position of power all. The American dream is understated by the fact that it is so obtainable or obtained from where they sit. On the other hand, the young black men must fight tooth and nail and even then, the things that are considered the “American dream” is not within reach. This is shown to the reader by giving the first person point of view narration, this gives you a more personal walk through of the environment. The extensive use of literary symbols used by Ellison makes this a unique read, that of which you would not be able to see all his metaphorical imagery with only one read. Upon further review of the text you start to see the underlining theme of this battle
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.
The death of one character, June, Albertine’s aunt, unites the Kashpaw and Lamartine families and shows the issues within them. As a young woman, Albertine witnesses situations involving domestic violence and poverty. The desperate manner of the lives of many Natives living on Reservations is shown throughout the novel. In White Men Fear to Tread, the life of Russell Means on and off of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota portrays many of the issues of Reservation life, especially today. Means describes his life experiences from growing up as a young man to being grown and going to find a job and later being a leader in the AIM movement and the struggles he experiences there. Works of literature such as these open the eyes of many people to the issues that exist on many Native American Reservations today, specifically to those who aren’t Native and are ignorant to what is happening really. For example, some people think that all Reservation Indians lack motivation and therefore don’t do anything in order to make something of themselves, but this isn’t necessarily true. There are various situations that Natives are exposed to and the conditions on many Reservations account for the habits which some people