| Sherman Alexie is a rising star in the constellation of American literature. Young, daring, full of imagination, and extremely humorous, he is well liked by many readers and critics. Yet, other critics accuse him of confirming and strengthening whites'"Vanishing Noble Savage"stereotype about Indians and of depicting over-exaggerated despair on reservations. Alexie's depiction of positive Indian images and syncretism in racial relations refutes such accusation. Alexie's four novels all deal with racial relations, and taken as a whole, the themes of these novels form a perfect circle, going through oppression, confrontation, passive merging, and pointing toward syncretism.Chapter One deals with pan-Indianism, interracial coalition, and racial oppression. Alexie appropriates the"Ghost Dance", pertaining to the Lakota Sioux, to create pan-Indianism. He insists that the 1890 event, in which more than 200 Lakota Sioux were killed by the US military at Wounded Knee Creek, involves every Indian tribe. Thereby, Alexie generalizes the history of one specific Indian tribe and achieves pan-Indianism. In the novel that this chapter analyses, Reservation Blues (1995), members of the Spokane, Flathead, and Lakota form the pan-Indian coalition. Alexie also forms the interracial coalition between African Americans and Native Americans by magically bringing the famous African American Blues musician Robert Johnson, who died in 1938, to the Spokane Indian Reservation. As for the Indian-white relationship, Alexie suggests the racial complementarity pattern, in which the two races coexist as equal entities that complement each other. However, this ideal pattern meets with severe challenge from harsh reality. Whites now oppress and exploit Indians in new ways. In Reservation Blues, the oppression and exploitation are manifest when the white music agency Cavalry Records denies"Coyote Springs", a band formed by the Indian youth, the opportunity for progress by refusing to sign a contract with them and by hiring and profiting from the white groupies who form a simulated Indian band.Chapter Two analyses the confrontation between Indians and whites. The racial hatred infused by the white radio host, the usurpation of Indian cultural heritage by white academia, the distortion of Indians and Indian culture by white writers infuriate the Indian youth, who are trying hard to find their cultural roots and to form their ethnic identities, and lead them to confront the whites. In Indian Killer, the confrontation falls into three categories: violence, verbal challenge, and organized demonstration. The Indian youth are obviously influenced by Indian nationalism (or separatism/indigenism). It seems that the two sides are equal in power, but actually the whites have got the upper hand, for they have control over the electronic and print media and the academia. The efforts of the Indian youth have not caused drastic change. Alexie then seeks to cause the whites to disappear through the"Ghost Dance". It can be seen that though confrontation does not resolve racial problems, it voices protest of, and shows some power from, the weak.Chapter Three expounds the pattern of an Indian adolescent's passive merging into the mainstream society. The result of careful analysis shows that violence, war, hatred, and anger cannot solve racial problems and that people on both sides need to forsake hatred and cherish forgiveness. Only in this way can the Indians and whites stop antagonism and achieve merging. This chapter, within the framework of the Bildungsroman, or initiation stories, studies the initiation pattern of the protagonist in the novel Flight: time traveling, body shifting, introspecting, experiencing epiphanies, and finally coming to terms with mainstream society, with some lucky benevolence from the whites. The author of this dissertation finds some divergence between this pattern and the paradigms formulated by a previous scholar, who argues that the European Bildungsroman often follows a linear development and culminates in the inception of the initiate into the society and that the American initiation story usually assumes a circular structure and ends with the initiate's failure to merge into society. Flight presents a circular pattern and the successful initiation of the protagonist, which is different from the previous pattern. The author of this dissertation believes that the initiation pattern is influenced by the novelist's attitude and that the successful initiation of a minority protagonist requires two conditions: a friendly mainstream society and the healthy ethnic identity of the initiate.Chapter Four discusses the active merging of Indians into the mainstream society. Through the analysis of the protagonist in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, who actively crosses the racial and political border, this chapter concludes that diligence, intelligence, and perseverance help an Indian gain foothold in the mainstream society. Indians should know their traditions well (they should also know that traditions should evolve as times change instead of remaining the same all the time) and should have the capability to survive in the mainstream society. Adventurous spirit, ambitions, and perseverance, together with the traditional belief that the whole tribe is a family who should care about one another, produce the new Indian image, who can nullify the stereotypes that whites have of American Indians. The new Indian is one who can freely cross the political border between the Indian and the white worlds. Alexie deconstructs the stereotypes of Indians and reconstructs the image of a new Indian, who is intelligent, diligent, enduring, and excellent in sports. The sport of basketball, in particular, plays an important role in this process. It is an important device to empower the protagonist, helping him gain recognition from the white society and form a healthy ethnic identity, solidifying tribal connections, and hence presenting a new Indian image.In short, Alexie's themes evolve from oppression (frustration on the Indians'part) to confrontation to passive merging to active merging, thus forming a complete circle, and accomplishing the goal of syncretism.
|
PDF Full Text Request