Sherman Alexie Research Paper

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Sherman Alexie is an award winning poet, short story writer, novelist, and performer. He has published 24 books. He has also recently published the 20th Anniversary edition of his classic book of stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington, on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Alexie left the reservation 1994 and lives in Seattle with his family. He considers himself both a Native and a white American. He states in an interview with Bill Moyers that he “” This kind of satirical response come naturally to Alexie. Sherman Alexie has always used laughter as a way to work through the pain of what it is like to grow up as a Native American in the United States. Readers often are unsure whether to laugh or cry when they look at his works because of the truth behind the comedy. However, Alexie does this on purpose; he wants his readers to dig into their own hearts and question their views on society both past and present.…show more content…
Their past is riddled with pain and suffering of small pox, the Trail of Tears, and the forced settlement on reservations. Despite a more than difficult past, the Native American communities have maintained a sense of humor, often about these very events. It seems that the humor allows them, especially Alexie, to deal with the past without sinking into the melancholy that has controlled the issues they joke about. It also allows the cultures to maintain an identity with themselves and other tribes. For example, two tribes that may have been bitter enemies in the past, will now tease each other about their past rivalry. In Sherman Alexie's works, humor plays a very important role throughout the entire

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