Sherman Alexie Use Humor In The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian

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The Native American humor presented in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Smoke Signals and the interview with Sherman Alexie was used to deconstruct negative Native American stereotypes implemented by mainstream North America. Based on the interview with Sherman Alexie, the stereotype that is commonly projected toward Native Americans is that they are “Alcoholics”. Humor can interpreted in the book as means of fading the unpleasant reality of the constant poverty that Indians have to withstand. In the film, humor was portrayed with different Native American expressions. Although Native American humor is used to cope and belittle it is also a way of showing the world what its people have to endure thus by articulating the fact that in order to avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy one has to be “stoic and scary”. Consequently the humor used by Sherman Alexie about certain stereotypes is a way of coping with how the world represents them. Body The majority of the time the reconstruction of stereotypes occur with the usage of humor such as that of the stereotype of alcoholism among Native American communities. In the interview with Sherman Alexie, Sherman jokes a little about the fact that…show more content…
In film victor tells Thomas to get rid of his suite, braided hair and that naïve smile that Thomas holds. Victor believed that Indians weren’t supposed to wear suits nor supposed to wear their hair braided because it’s supposed to be free like the wind. Victor believed that if one is stoic and scary nobody would take advantage of them and so they wouldn’t have to be part of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Soon afterwards the humor is presented in the film after Thomas changes out of his suit. He definitely changes out of his suit by wearing a “super fry bread” shirt and trying his hardest to look stoic but as he starts walking he can’t help but
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