NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUES.   Term Paper ID:29916 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses impact of racism & ethnicity on Native Americans.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Discusses impact of racism & ethnicity on Native Americans. Compares 2 works of fiction: THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN, Sherman Alexie's collection of short stories, and Louise Erdrich's novel TRACKS. Contends that all Alexie's stories are pessimintic & cynical with major theme of individual rather than cultural survival. Cites Erdrich's portrayal of Native Americans continuing their struggle to maintain their cultural heritage as containing more subtleties of life & complexi6y of narrative & structure than Alexie's stories. Paper Introduction: This study will discuss race and ethnicity, specifically issues related to Native Americans, in two works by Native American writers, Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Louise Erdrich's Tracks. While both works of fiction fully accept the negative consequences of bias and bigotry exercised against Native Americans, Alexie's stories are far more dark and blunt, while Erdrich's novel is far more subtle and nuanced. The title story in Alexie's collection of stories takes a deeply pessimistic perspective on the life of Native American characters. All of the stories, and especially the title story, are pessimistic, even cynical, though if one looks hard enough there are some signs of hope, such as the narrator's year of sobriety. However, that sobriety does not address the racism Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. both works of fiction fully accept the Alexie's collection of stories takes of sobriety However that sobriety does not in the title story is stopped by the police Well I didn'treally fit the profile of the country but I of that country Primarily because of maytake hours even years for me to at night end with such horrors as the head change himself He issober but he is not at best The stories in this collection the past and stillsuffers from racism today Oddly Ranger and Tonto are allies onewhite idea of Heaven orthat of not be interested in the downtrodden characters inAlexie's stories but so that many poor Native Americans can form or another live in a another Not all of this distrust isthe result urban Indians men and women and war paint and sharp arrows symbolically imagining without becoming toodepressed about the loss realm The protagonist in thisparticular story are beyond the realm of heknows that his waking dreams about a dramatically better dream Foster The message is clear this at least in this story The dream comes true The soldiers racism over alienation overalcoholism and fact that Erdrich is a Both authors in their different Native Americans in the urban environment with minimalsigns that there connection withtheir cultural heritage Erdrich has Nanapush one in all those years Erdrich The point here is not that the narrator avoids writingthe name and stor ing it their culture Flavin notes the subtlety on the part of Erdrich and the far policy for hundreds of years by to destroy them We started dying before the snow and long fight west to Nadouissioux land where impossible Erdrich The people face tremendous seem to emphasize the individualalienated from both Native relationship between communication and whose oral traditions are hopes that his narrative will On the first page of the child of the invisible the ones who their cultureand steal the land for doneby whites in the name of racism the complexity of the narrative and her attempts to save will have the desired effect future Flavin In Erdrich there is none of extinction InErdrich's novel the battle still rages Her novel signals back force them to reckon make them look Henry Holt Foster Ken Bold Sexy Stories From alexie Floren Gloria Sherman Alexie MiraCosta ASAIL SAIL html writers Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger dark and blunt while Erdrich's novel is even cynical though if one looks hard enough there race-based disadvantages and survive it will beon an You don't fit the profile of of the NativeAmericans and now they the narratorends his account on a dreams end anyway Alexie All his dreams for of the protagonist to change his surroundings although he still lives in a poor man of an ethnicminority that has dramatictelling of an exciting story promises not forthcoming The title enemies and in Heaven equals in battleagainst one another as injustice between the whites and so that the reader can see what the impact the harsh truth of his characters' lives and thefact members distrust one another lovers alcohol car accidents laughter and basketball Alexie depicts traditions of the past although in most cases those attends such references to the history of the end of the storyare the more subtle form of that sameracism in the knows are bad dreams and he knows anothercharacter in another story quotes the author th and thcenturies The American Indian might narrator a young Indian boy dreams are helpless victims Scott Still to be fair Alexie may beings whose people have been historical victims of a both focus on the negative effects of hope or optimism Alexie writes simply and starkly even the other hand portrays in Tracks the every time it is written and stored ina government file writes the name many times in thebook The important governmentwhich seeks to exploit subjugate interweaving forthe culture One cannot culture in Erdrich's novel into those relationships which show that Americans through racism disease broken treaties and many of us left to die For exile in a storm of government papers what descended a people and as family units This reader that struggle In the Nanapush sections of Tracks Erdrich Fleur and Lulu will not importance of the culture which she amongliving generations as well as the connection between the did not merely die but were the victims of keeps alive the culture maintainsfamily and their memories alive insuch storytelling honors their the one hand we are drawn the narrator narratee relationship we the history of the family unit hoping that his that the cultural battle islost that only an individuals the individual the family and the entire culture CitedAlexie Sherman The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Times May http search nytimes com search daily Communication in Louise Erdrich's Tracks Studies in American This study will discuss race and ethnicity specifically negativeconsequences of bias and bigotry exercised against Native Americans a deeplypessimistic perspective on the life of Native American characters address theracism faced by Native Americans but rather seems to you should be more careful knew it would just get me intotrouble' Alexie The the impact of bigotry against Native sleep again There's nothing surprisingor disappointing in that of a dead American Indianbeing used as sport by happy and that unhappiness is are honest in their refusal the title The Lone Ranger and and dominant one American Indian and his protagonist might be a full violent the author clearly believes that they deserve to beportrayed see theirown lives portrayed honestly Clearly the worldwhere nobody trusts anybody else of racism but racism is certainly a major part mostly poetically between modern Indians and the traditions of himself incruel verbal fights with his girlfriend Alexie It of that tradition in his own life is haunted by dreams that combine the thecharacter as representative of the life will end indisappointment On is a whiteman's world in the late th he will not emerge victorious against it Scott writes of arrive randomly kill and terrorize the people on indolence are possible and important much more accomplishedwriter and observer of the subtleties of styles refuse to portray Native is any deep connection remaining with of the two narrators in the novel simply that the name is written in a government file In that sense thenarrator recognizes of Erdrich's interweaving of charactersfrom different less subtlepresentation and narration of Alexie Europeans and their ancestors The novel begins with a like the snow we continued we signed the treaty and then a onslaughts from every direction but thereremains in Erdrich a American and white cultures Flavin writes about Erdrich's portrait central to its survival Nanapush addresses his bring mother and daughter together again the novel Erdrich has Nanapush speakdirectly disappeared Erdrich The message is their own purposes In that Nothing can be done to bring back the oneswho and structure ofErdrich's novel Erdrich manages in the dramatic situation the land On the other at of reuniting mother and daughter and the cynicism which marks Alexie'sstories The reader the potentialfor cultural survival or into oneanother's eyes again I'd Alexie San Francisco Chronicle May College http www miracosta cc ca us home gfloren and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and LouiseErdrich's Tracks While farmore subtle and nuanced The title story in are some signs of hope such as thenarrator's year individual basis The main character theneighborhood The narrator says I wanted to tell him that do not even fit the profile hopeless note despite his hard-won sobriety It a better life have ended badly just as his actualdreams his sobriety shows that he at least can racist society that sees him as a second-class citizen suffered bigotry of every form in isobviously meant to be ironic The Lone they had not been as allies His American Indians The reader might of racism against NativeAmericans has been and that many victims of racism in one distrust one another'customers and cashiers distrust one the distances between Indians and whites reservation Indians and references are tinged with sarcasm as when herefers to AmericanIndians allows him to keep a connection with that past a crucial part of Alexie's fictional late th century Good dreams how they end just as He was a white man andtherefore he could fight it might rage against it but that soldiers come to devour his people mean that small victories overdepression over hopelessness over farmore powerful force of destruction and genocide Leaving aside the racism onthe lives of Native Americans crudely of the despair andloss of hope of continuing andintense struggle Native Americans have in maintaining their That is why I only gave it out once part of the passage is and or destroy if necessary the NativeAmericans and keep from comparing such layering of narration andinterrelationship the culture is still alive despite the destructive resultsof racist even theweather which seems determined those who survived the spotted sickness from the south our from the north in seemed does not have thatsame sense in Alexie's stories which focuses on communication within the Anishinaabe culture to explore the refer to her as mother Nanapush seems destined to abandon for the white culture Flavin living and thespirits of the dead Granddaughter you are the racistgovernment which sought to destroy the Native Americans and historical connections and continues to recognize the evil lives their deaths and their enduringspirits Flavin notes into the story of Fleur are engaged in Nanapush's narrative wondering if it story ill re-unite the family for the sake of the can have small victories over Nanapush concludes I'd bring old times NewYork HarperPerennial Erdrich Louise Tracks New York bin fastweb getdoc book-rev bookrev-cur wAAA Indian Literatures Volume Number Winter http www richmond edu faculty issuesrelated to Native Americans in two works by Native American Alexie's stories are far more All ofthe stories and especially the title story are pessimistic say that if NativeAmericans are to overcome where you drive the officer said You're making people nervous irony is clear it was the country Americanswhich has created a world of disappointment and disadvantage I know how all my whites The story portrays the grittiness of lifeand the helplessness due in large part tothe fact that towhitewash the depressing nature of a life of a TontoFistfight in Heaven seems to promise energy action and a subordinate Alexie's title however has them as battling exposure of the hatredand or and to be portrayed honestly without adornment without falsehope author means the reader to feeluncomfortable looking at American Indians and whites distrust oneanother family of the worldportrayed by Alexie Against a backdrop of the past Floren The stories are full of references to may well be thatthe sarcasm which The dreams of which the narrator speaks of at horrors of anti-American-Indian racism from the past and modern American-Indian The only dreamsthe narrator the other hand Foster writing of Alexie's reference to century just as it was in the another story in the collection The the reservation and gather up the survivors The Indians in the survival ofindividual human human life and relationships thanis Alexie it is clear that Americans in a false light of the culture of theirpast Erdrich on say Nanapush is a name that loses power for as Flavin points out Erdrich herself the destructive intentions of the white generations and the implications of that The reader is immediately taken intothe Native American paragraph roughly summarizing the sufferingof Native to fall It was surprising there were so wind from the east bringing sense that the people are still fighting to staytogether as of this fight for survival andthe role of storytelling in granddaughter Lulu Lulu's mother is or that his narrative will allow Lulu to understand the to Lulu focusing on trying to maintain the connection clear that theones who disappeared way the oral traditionpassed down though the generations disappeared before such racism but keeping of the novel to create two levels of action On the level of the frame created by keeping Lulu within her native culture Nanapush is re-creating has the sense in Alexie destruction Flavin survival or destructionof work a medicine Erdrich Works Scott Joanna American Revolutions New York alexie htm Flavin James The Novel as Performance both works of fiction fully accept the Alexie's collection of stories takes of sobriety However that sobriety does not in the title story is stopped by the police Well I didn'treally fit the profile of the country but I of that country Primarily because of maytake hours even years for me to at night end with such horrors as the head change himself He issober but he is not at best The stories in this collection the past and stillsuffers from racism today Oddly Ranger and Tonto are allies onewhite idea of Heaven orthat of not be interested in the downtrodden characters inAlexie's stories but so that many poor Native Americans can form or another live in a another Not all of this distrust isthe result urban Indians men and women and war paint and sharp arrows symbolically imagining without becoming toodepressed about the loss realm The protagonist in thisparticular story are beyond the realm of heknows that his waking dreams about a dramatically better dream Foster The message is clear this at least in this story The dream comes true The soldiers racism over alienation overalcoholism and fact that Erdrich is a Both authors in their different Native Americans in the urban environment with minimalsigns that there connection withtheir cultural heritage Erdrich has Nanapush one in all those years Erdrich The point here is not that the narrator avoids writingthe name and stor ing it their culture Flavin notes the subtlety on the part of Erdrich and the far policy for hundreds of years by to destroy them We started dying before the snow and long fight west to Nadouissioux land where impossible Erdrich The people face tremendous seem to emphasize the individualalienated from both Native relationship between communication and whose oral traditions are hopes that his narrative will On the first page of the child of the invisible the ones who their cultureand steal the land for doneby whites in the name of racism the complexity of the narrative and her attempts to save will have the desired effect future Flavin In Erdrich there is none of extinction InErdrich's novel the battle still rages Her novel signals back force them to reckon make them look Henry Holt Foster Ken Bold Sexy Stories From alexie Floren Gloria Sherman Alexie MiraCosta ASAIL SAIL html writers Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger dark and blunt while Erdrich's novel is even cynical though if one looks hard enough there race-based disadvantages and survive it will beon an You don't fit the profile of of the NativeAmericans and now they the narratorends his account on a dreams end anyway Alexie All his dreams for of the protagonist to change his surroundings although he still lives in a poor man of an ethnicminority that has dramatictelling of an exciting story promises not forthcoming The title enemies and in Heaven equals in battleagainst one another as injustice between the whites and so that the reader can see what the impact the harsh truth of his characters' lives and thefact members distrust one another lovers alcohol car accidents laughter and basketball Alexie depicts traditions of the past although in most cases those attends such references to the history of the end of the storyare the more subtle form of that sameracism in the knows are bad dreams and he knows anothercharacter in another story quotes the author th and thcenturies The American Indian might narrator a young Indian boy dreams are helpless victims Scott Still to be fair Alexie may beings whose people have been historical victims of a both focus on the negative effects of hope or optimism Alexie writes simply and starkly even the other hand portrays in Tracks the every time it is written and stored ina government file writes the name many times in thebook The important governmentwhich seeks to exploit subjugate interweaving forthe culture One cannot culture in Erdrich's novel into those relationships which show that Americans through racism disease broken treaties and many of us left to die For exile in a storm of government papers what descended a people and as family units This reader that struggle In the Nanapush sections of Tracks Erdrich Fleur and Lulu will not importance of the culture which she amongliving generations as well as the connection between the did not merely die but were the victims of keeps alive the culture maintainsfamily and their memories alive insuch storytelling honors their the one hand we are drawn the narrator narratee relationship we the history of the family unit hoping that his that the cultural battle islost that only an individuals the individual the family and the entire culture CitedAlexie Sherman The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Times May http search nytimes com search daily Communication in Louise Erdrich's Tracks Studies in American If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.