Web Project Ideas

Considering the project prompts, I find myself most interested in both C and D.  

Because all of my knowledge of, and interest in, Native American literature has come from taking this course, I feel that pursuing C would only enhance my understanding, as well as my group members' and our online audience.  It is fair to say that the many aspects of Native American literature yield a broad topic to deal with, so this project might call for more of a condensed approach.  However, I like Rouzie's suggestion of creating a timeline, complete with several links, as it will greatly organize our ideas.

Similarly, prompt D would further my sense of Native American culture.  Out of Rouzie's many research topic proposals, I would most like to explore the various cultural references found in Silko and Alexie's work, like the trickster figure, Indian magic, fancydancing, etc. Although my group may only be able to focus on a few, these are great subject matter to work with, features of a compelling site.

Lastly, I have always loved creative opportunities like this, but I am absolutely foreign to the mechanics of web design.  My life is void of a facebook and my English blog was intially a step out of my comfort zone, but I am willing to provide my group with any artistic visions I may have for our site.  I just might be lacking when it comes to electronically executing them.  

Summary/Application: Coulombe and Alexie

Summary

Many of Alexie’s critics claim that his application of humor entertains Indian stereotypes, suggesting that he neglects his responsibility to shed his people in a positive, genuine light.  Coulombe counters such evaluations by arguing that, through humor, Alexie is able to surface factors of oppression, remediate pain, and fuse mentalities from culture to culture.  Very significantly, such objectives are met as the role of humor alternates throughout his work.  It is noted that this constant shift induces a character-reader interaction, where “contrary powers” are evident in Alexie’s widely identifiable characters.  However, even though such “cross-cultural humor” can connect the minds of various backgrounds, it can, likewise, create distance between them.  Coulombe draws a parallel between Alexie’s humor and that of his heritage, as the shifting role of humor is a traditional feature in Indian laughter.  Alexie’s humor is thought to be iconic of the mythical Indian character, Trickster, whose wit was known to bring the community together.  However, Alexie promotes a shared understanding and respect among diverse groups by facilitating an open area where he invites all to reconsider outdated clichés; with this, he reflects on the past, responds to the present, and writes the future.  Coulombe mentions some critics’ struggle to identify Alexie’s aim in his satire, and asserts that the reader is required to approach such instances with analysis--because the usual “moral-of-the-story” is not necessarily made explicit in Alexie text.  When approaching poignant realities with laughter, Alexie encourages the reader to assess the conditions which permit such sad and sardonic humor, perhaps suggesting that today’s reality is warped and in dire need of repair.  In its many contexts, Alexie demonstrates how the individual uses humor as a defense mechanism for reality, a tool of denial, of personal withdrawal, but also an instrument of personal strength.  Most importantly, because humor exists in all cultures, it stands as the “great unifier,” the ultimate purpose for Alexie’s jokes.

Application

Coulombe noted how Alexie’s characters use humor as a personal escape from reality.  Throughout much of his essay, he used the tale of Jimmy as a salient example.  Forced to accept the reality of his cancer, Jimmy would constantly ridicule himself as a way not to.  A similar instance can be found in Alexie’s short story, “Amusements;” here, two Indians, Victor and Sadie, sit their drunken Indian peer, known as Dirty Joe, on a rollercoaster for their mere entertainment, as well as for the amusement of the whites.  As the whites mocked the drunken Indian, Victor supposed that he was equally the butt of their jokes and dreaded to personally facilitate the stereotype: “I was afraid of all of them, wanted to hide behind my Indian teeth, the quick joke.” (Alexie 55)  And, as an impulsive cover-up, he joined in the whites’ laughter: “’Shit,’ I said.  ‘We should be charging admission for this show.’”(Alexie 55)  Humor, in this case, is utilized to deny identity.  Victor is so humiliated to be associated with a drunken Indian that he attempts to deny himself as an Indian.  With a plan to hastily leave their friend to fend for himself on the rollercoaster, Victor states, “We walked fast and did our best to be anything but Indian.”(Alexie 56)  Victor’s account in this narrative does not only exemplify humor as an instrument of denial; also apparent is Coulombe’s point that humor can sometimes create distance between people, instead of bonding them, even people within the same group.  And, it is evident that Victor joked to distance himself from his own cultural group.

Coloumbe also touched on Alexie’s use of humor as a means to expose saddening truths.  Quite often, Alexie precedes a candid Indian heartache with his own entertaining wit.  As Coulombe states, “he uses humor to draw readers in and entertain them; once he has them, he communicates his world view, one that does not necessarily reflect the comforting, traditional American ideals of equal opportunity and democratic justice for all.”(Coulombe 108)  “A Drug Called Tradition” well illustrates this tactic, as the reader is offered Victor’s firsthand comical, yet grave, experience tripping on psychedelic mushrooms.    As the drug is often rumored to induce spiritual effects, Victor incorporates his own Indian ethnicity when inviting peer Thomas Builds-the-fire to join: “It’ll be very fucking Indian.  Spiritual shit, you know?”(Alexie 14)  Although Victor’s description of his trip humorously begins with a conversation he shares with a talking horse named Flight, he eventually encounters some painful thoughts in their concrete form: “They’re all gone, my tribe is gone.  Those blankets they gave us, infected with smallpox, have killed us.  I’m the last, the very last, and I’m sick too.”(Alexie 17)  He is convinced of his own infection of smallpox until he conducts a Ghost Dance to bring back the deceased members of his tribe; and, as his “blisters heal” and “muscles stretch, expand,” a bit of his contempt for the colonizer’s is revealed: “The buffalo come to join us and their hooves shake the earth, knock all the white people from their beds, send their plates crashing to the floor.”(17)  His vision of the whites ended with him and his tribe dancing on the shore as “all the white hands waved good-bye” and returned to Europe.   What was originally introduced as an amusing bit about kids and their hallucinogens exposed a mass notion, or grudge rather, of the Indian nation.  This story shows how Alexie can use laughter to explain his people’s anguish, but it also demonstrates how Alexie assigns fault, as Coulombe says, “Whereas Alexie often uses humor to reveal social injustice and immorality, he does not simply blame Indians.  White America is the root cause of Indian problems.”(Coloumbe 105)

Works Cited:

Alexie, Sherman. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven.”Grove Press. New York: 2005

Coulombe, Joseph. “The Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor:Sherman Alexie’s Comic Connections and Disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” American Indian Quarterly 26 (Winter 2002): 94-115. Project Muse. Ohio University Lib. Athens, OH.

Revision--Language: Its Ability to Colonize and Decolonize

Bird Summary

Noticing that her fellow natives have not just been colonized, but the minds of her people have been colonized, Gloria Bird focuses her article on her search for a method of mass mental decolonization.  She states that Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony serves as the best auxiliary for this pursuit, which involves much self-examination and evaluation. Deeming language to be a significant source of identity confusion, Bird not only directly links passages to her own history with “old language,” but she also reveals that it evoked within her a sense of psychological freedom. Bird furthers her admiration of Ceremony as she demonstrates Silko’s confrontation with “existing hegemonic discourse.” She does this by addressing, but furthermore specifically identifying, the issues of colonization; she expresses the negative effects of Christianity, as illustrated by the role of Auntie, as well as conveys the obstacle faced by the mixed blood Indian.  Furthermore, Silko approaches the dynamics of language by using certain writing tactics to string an element of Indian tradition through her novel. As the novel’s events sit sporadically on a chronological timeline, Silko illustrates how every entity in existence is interconnected, even though she “collapses the element of time.”  And, as Silko intertwines narratives of the mystical and realistic sort, she further paints for the reader the concept of an “interactive web” of earth, humans, and traditional stories. Finally, Bird shares that, as an educator, her curriculum includes Ceremony, as a means for her to reverse what has been internalized in the minds of her students.  In sum, Bird believes that Ceremony provides a source of empathy, and, consequently, emotional and mental liberation, for other natives—a tool for the decolonization the mind.    

           

Application

Certainly, in her essay and in Silko’s novel, language is a significant topic; in its many forms and contexts, it can serve as a tool of exclusion, assimilation, community, and liberation.  From talk of mixed speech to writing syntax, Bird’s essay includes an exploration of language as a multipurpose device.

            Bird shares in her essay her sense of alienation that language has personally placed on her in her past.  Raised with only an English tongue, she often felt “illiterate,” as she describes, in the presence of her people. Even more specifically, she has even felt segregated from her own multilingual mother: "Internalizing the colonizer's terms regarding the axiom of our Otherness and obvious difference, she spoke Indian around me only when she wanted to exclude me. "(Bird 1)  Furthermore, she later emphasizes that the ability to converse in native tongue is valued, especially during special community events.  However, even at a time of unity, Bird has housed mixed emotions:

Thus, my memories of wakes, funerals, marriages, giveaways, ceremonies and name-givings are remembered as emotional moments that inscribed both my feelings of inclusion and participation and, paradoxically, of estrangement in not knowing my native language. (Bird 7)

A fine example of this is found in Ceremony, when Tayo is visited by the medicine man, Ku’oosh, and is bombarded with his older dialect, shamefully lost for words in the appropriate language. (Silko 32)  Truly, speaking English was a route to assimilation, a catering to the “hegemonic phase” that Bird explains they are living in the midst of; and, in return, that lead to an alienation from history, culture, family.  However, just like Bird, Tayo still felt that hint of “inclusion and participation” with every story that he heard, as it was the storytelling that gradually healed him.  Later on, perhaps his progress is evident: “The sickness had receded into a shadow behind him, something he saw only out of the corners of his eyes, over his shoulder. “(Silko 96)      

  When it comes to language’s ability to decolonize, Silko could very well be the poster child for conveying this in such a way that evokes empathy. Bird identifies Silko’s authorship strategies in Ceremony, like the narrative’s nonlinear timeline, sentence structure, sentence fragments, spoken speech, etc.  Such literary tactics construct the novel’s major theme of interconnectedness. Bird even dissects a few sentences from Ceremony; she concludes that “the subordinate clause is dependent on the sentence in the same way that meaning is also dependent on the story that is to follow” (Bird 3) and that “sentences often begin with conjunctions.” (Bird 3)  

  Indeed, Bird stresses Silko’s demonstration of how every segment contributes to the whole. On a small scale, Silko represents this in the grammar, the diction, the choppy storyline; when examining from the literal to the metaphorical, however, Silko’s play with such literary devices assembles a model for the Indians’ dearly valued theory of life.  Just as every unit of life is carefully spun into the earth’s web, as the idea of circularity is often described, Silko strings every word of her book similarly.

Also, unmentioned in, but closely linked to, Bird’s assessment, one way in which Silko exercises literary, yet harmonic, segmentation is found in the novel’s balance of prose and poetry.   Bird did cite, though, that “Tayo’s story is set against a mythic mirror that provides a connection between the worlds that are being ongoingly constructed in the novel as well as providing for the construction of the novel itself.”(3)  Perhaps, a noticeable pattern in Ceremony is that most of the mystical material is presented in verse. By noting this, it could be said that each deposit of poetry is like a bit of “ceremony,” traditional and remedial, which parallels spiritual reality with material reality.  One of the many examples of poetry being placed to reflect on, or respond to, Tayo’s mortal narrative is prominent in the story of Pa’caya’nyi, a “medicine man” whose witchery conned people into abandoning their mother corn; this resulted in mother corn abandoning the land, taking the plants, grass, and rain clouds with her, which consequently left everyone to endure a drought.  As the course of the poem entails the people’s quest to reclaim mother corn and the rain, Tayo similarly feels culpable for the drought on his own reservation.  In a way, when viewing the poetic inserts as ceremonial episodes, each piece of “ceremony” is necessary to the cosmos, as each piece of poetry is vital to the overall stasis of the book. 

Lastly, Bird explains that she gains a “liberating recognition” from Ceremony: "Only in the moments when we are able to name the source of our deepest pain can we truly be said to be free of the burdens they represent. (Bird 2)"  In Ceremony, Silko identifies these burdens, which just may provide the same “liberating recognition” for other native readers.  Furthermore, because the text is in a language that both the colonized and the colonizers can read, it leaves every reader to “see the world differently:” 

  This is not, after all, a native language text accessible to only those who speak in a particular native language, but is given novelistic form in a work that is written in the English language and is available to all, native and non-native alike, who speak in this language. (Bird 4)     

 By publishing Ceremony, Silko published the mass sentiment of her people, thus freeing their minds, and maybe even the “white man’s,” from “hegemonic discourse,” and entering them into the process of decolonization.  And, Silko achieved this all through her manipulation of language.

Works Cited:

Bird, Gloria. “Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's ‘Ceremony’” Wicazo Sa Review, 9, 2 (Autumn, 1993) : 1-8.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.

Coulombe Summary

Many of Alexie’s critics claim that his application of humor entertains Indian stereotypes, suggesting that he neglects his responsibility to shed his people in a positive, genuine light.  Coulombe counters such evaluations by arguing that, through humor, Alexie is able to surface factors of oppression, remediate pain, and fuse mentalities from culture to culture.  Very significantly, such objectives are met as the role of humor alternates throughout his work.  It is noted that this constant shift induces a character-reader interaction, where “contrary powers” are evident in Alexie’s widely identifiable characters.  However, even though such “cross-cultural humor” can connect the minds of various backgrounds, it can, likewise, create distance between them.  Coulombe draws a parallel between Alexie’s humor and that of his heritage, as the shifting role of humor is a traditional feature in Indian laughter.  Alexie’s humor is thought to be iconic of the mythical Indian character, Trickster, whose wit was known to bring the community together.  However, Alexie promotes a shared understanding and respect among diverse groups by facilitating an open area where he invites all to reconsider outdated clichés; with this, he reflects on the past, responds to the present, and writes the future.  Coulombe mentions some critics’ struggle to identify Alexie’s aim in his satire, and asserts that the reader is required to approach such instances with analysis--because the usual “moral-of-the-story” is not necessarily made explicit in Alexie text.  When approaching poignant realities with laughter, Alexie encourages the reader to assess the conditions which permit such sad and sardonic humor, perhaps suggesting that today’s reality is warped and in dire need of repair.  In its many contexts, Alexie demonstrates how the individual uses humor as a defense mechanism for reality, a tool of denial, of personal withdrawal, but also an instrument of personal strength.  Most importantly, because humor exists in all cultures, it stands as the “great unifier,” the ultimate purpose for Alexie’s jokes. 

Alexie Response

Frank Ross asked Alexie about the political nature of his writing, quoting him as saying he does not like to beat readers over the head with it. Alexie replied: “I like to make them laugh first, then beat them over the head . . . when they are defenseless.” Describe some examples from the stories that demonstrate this tactic. Choose one example to focus on and explain how the humor and political point work together as in the above quote.

From a mother sharing secrets with her son about drunken nights in between the sheets with his father, to a smashed Indian placed on a roller coaster by his laughing friends, Alexie preludes deeper messages with his own element of humor.  Very notably, in “A Drug Called Tradition,” Alexie offers the reader Victor’s firsthand comical, yet grave, experience tripping on psychedelic mushrooms.  As the drug is often rumored to induce spiritual effects, Victor incorporates his own Indian ethnicity when inviting peer Thomas Builds-the-fire to join: “It’ll be very fucking Indian.  Spiritual shit, you know?”(14)  Although Victor’s description of his trip humorously begins with a conversation he shares with a talking horse named Flight, he eventually encounters some painful thoughts in their concrete form: “They’re all gone, my tribe is gone.  Those blankets they gave us, infected with smallpox, have killed us.  I’m the last, the very last, and I’m sick too.”(17)  He is convinced of his own infection of smallpox until he conducts a Ghost Dance to bring back the deceased members of his tribe; and, as his “blisters heal” and “muscles stretch, expand,” a bit of his contempt for the colonizer’s is revealed: “The buffalo come to join us and their hooves shake the earth, knock all the white people from their beds, send their plates crashing to the floor.”(17)  His vision of the whites ended with him and his tribe dancing on the shore as “all the white hands waved good-bye” and returned to Europe. 

What was originally introduced as an amusing bit about kids and their hallucinogens might have exposed a mass notion (maybe grudge is a better word?) of an Indian nation.  Junior explained to them the concept of skeletons: “Your past is a skeleton walking one step beside you, and your future is a skeleton walking one step in front of you.” (21)  Junior also emphasized that skeletons have the power to entrap the mind, yet the ability for them to be evil is completely an individual’s choice.  As the components of such skeletons, as Junior says, are “memories, dreams, and voices,” Victor’s trip is characterized by his confrontation with his skeletons. 

On whiteness, Indian identity and colonialism, Alexie says, “What is colonialism but the breeding out of existence of the colonized? The most dangerous thing for Indians, then, now and forever is that we love our colonizers. And we do.” He goes on to say, and I paraphrase, that Indian identity now is mostly a matter of cultural difference; that culture is received knowledge, because the authentic practitioners are gone. The culture is all adopted culture, not innate. Colonization is complete. Think about how what he is discussing plays out in his stories. Choose one (a different one than for the first question) and discuss how a story represents the characters' relationship to the tribe's past and to the colonizing culture.

In “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangeled Banner’ At Woodstock,” Alexie offers a few examples, some obviously negative, of the Indians’ ultimate adoption of white culture.  “My father was the perfect hippie, since all the hippies were trying to be Indians,”—a first line that indicates an Indian’s opportunity to parallel with modern American culture. Especially because the “Make Love Not War” crowd is a youthful one, Victor’s father’s enticement with Jimi Hendrix, and embracement of society’s new cultural wave signifies a loss of “authentic practitioners.”  Instead of reserving certain aspects of his native culture to himself, he meshed it with the colonizers, as the hippies were compelled by Native American fashion.  Victor imagines his father doing so: “I dreamed my father dancing with all these skinny hippie women, smoking a few joints, dropping acid, laughing when the rain fell.” (31) Chances are, if the traditional elders were alive to witness this, they would have probably not approved such a cultural compromise. 

Alexie also touches on a change in Indian family structure; When Victor tells of his father’s leave from him and his mother, he notes how such paternal actions were the emulation of the white family: “On a reservation, Indian men who abandon their children are treated worse than white fathers who do the same thing.  It’s because white men have been doing that forever and Indian men have just learned how.  That’s how assimilation can work.” (34)