In Indian Education and This is what It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona Sherman Alexie’s main character Victor realizes that to survive in the modern, or white man’s world, it’s safer to hide who you are traditionally.
In Indian Education Victor deals with white
teachers trying to teach him respect the entire time he lives on the
reservation. When he successfully defends himself against the boy Frenchy, he
is taken to the Principals office, all the way chanting the mantra of the
Native American Brave “It’ a good day to die.”(172) Implying that Alexie believes that if Native
Americans try to defend themselves outright against the government they will
only be punished more harshly.
Later
when Victor is in the second grade Betty Towle, his missionary teacher
attempted to humiliate him by giving him a spelling test designed for kids in
junior high. When Victor succeeded she
made him eat it, telling him “You’ll learn respect.”(173) Showing that if you fight
them outright you will be punished. She
then sent a letter home with him to her parents saying that he needed to cut
off his braids or he couldn’t come to class.
The next day his parents came to talk to her, but essentially he said
they were just showing their braids back to her, dragging them across the desk,
to which the teacher scoffs “Indians ,indians, indians,” lower case, implying
that are not even worthy of capitalization. His parents wear their tradition on
their sleeve they are discriminated against.
When
Victor is in seventh grade kisses a white girl through her basement
window. He says he “felt the good-byes I
was saying to my entire tribe,” implying that he knew when he entered into the relationship
with white society he knew he would no longer be able to wear his tradition
outwardly.
In This is What it Means to Say Phoenix,
Arizona Victor’s relationship with Thomas Builds-The-Fire is a
representation of Victor’s relationship with his own tradition. Victor starts off being friends with Thomas,
even sharing a bike with him when they were 10, even calling him cousin, but as
the story progresses their relationship turns sour, they even get into a fist
fight. While Thomas does end up helping
Victor retrieve his father’s remains Victor admits that at the end of the
journey he can’t be friends with Thomas. “Victor knew that he couldn’t really
be friends with Thomas, even after all had happened,”(74) symbolizing Victor
being too afraid to let his tradition show.
I think you brought up an interesting point about assimilation. The anecdotes you reference in the text highlight the inner conflict of the character as part of his identity is given up for the sake of fitting in. One of your chosen quotes that stuck out to me was Victor’s reaction after he kisses a white girl: he “felt the good-byes I was saying to my entire tribe.” Up until this point, we see a lot of the difficulties Victor goes through trying to fit into the white world, whereas here we also gain insight into Victor’s thoughts concerning the consequences of his possible assimilation. What is his idea of assimilation? Can you have both parts of yourself or do you have to sacrifice a part of you? Perhaps, Victor seems to share a similar notion to that of the narrator in Invisible Man in which he suggests to play by the rules but to hold onto your individual identity and tradition. I think whether or not you think Victor would agree depends on your interpretation of the final parting between Thomas and Victor, which you also brought up in your post. Victor claims they can never be friends, yet he agrees to listen to Thomas’ story. If you interpret the ending as hopeful, then perhaps Victor will also be reminded of the meaning of his tradition and simultaneously hold on to at least a part of his culture in the process of assimilation.
ReplyDeleteThought I like where you are heading with your thesis, I think it's entirely possible that Thomas -Builds-A-Fire represents the opposite of your thesis. He, and perhaps only he, is the unchanging in the story. He represents tradition and not assimilating. His story telling shows us that he is a traditional Indian who will not change. And he is doing fairly well for himself seeing as he was able to pay for the trip for Viktor. Great idea none-the-less.
ReplyDeleteThe beautiful contrast of Victor's inner conflict is well described in both of your choices. I found in having read these stories, the same intrigue and poetic dissatisfaction that Victor finds in his own social growth. Regardless of what he chooses, Victor finds himself at a loss. On the one hand, Victor may assimilate more into the 'white man's' culture but at the cost of his own culture. On the other hand, if Victor doesn't assimilate and fully embraces the richness of his heritage, he finds himself with the conundrum of the tribe's societal problems.
ReplyDeleteIn a way Victor represents the duality found in us all. We all want to be part of something more vast and more involved than ourselves but wonder what the cost of this kind of social contract will cost us. As every culture has a right-of-passage so does that right-of-passage represent the casting-off of the old and the embracing and putting-on of the new, which means this transition must cost us something that we have to throw away.
The main idea of the blog was giving up the tradition in order to succeed in outside reservation society. (The incorporation of the cartoon at the beginning was a very cool way of opening the topic!!!)
ReplyDeleteTwo stories were used to convey the thesis.
In Indian Education the parallel was the visit to the principal’s office “implying that Alexie believes that if Native Americans try to defend themselves outright against the government they will only be punished more harshly.”; and the 2nd grade teacher’s obnoxious behavior “Showing that if you fight them outright you will be punished.” From this first story I didn’t see any implication to the thesis though. Even the 7th grade example with kissing the girl “implying that he knew when he entered into the relationship with white society he knew he would no longer be able to wear his tradition outwardly”, but this doesn’t exactly say that he wanted to succeed that’s why he kissed the girl, i.e. he didn’t used the girl as a stepping stone for his goal, which is the idea that thesis presents.
In This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona both boys were good friends when younger, as they had no choice but to live with their traditions and within their culture. The relationship deviates as they grow up, since Thomas stays maintains the customs by telling his stories (as known telling stories is a big part in native American culture) and Victor resents it, which can be considered the opposite of embracing the local traditions. "“Victor knew that he couldn’t really be friends with Thomas, even after all had happened,”(74) symbolizing Victor being too afraid to let his tradition show." This does convey the idea, I just feel that there was a potential to punch this topic as great as the start up with the cartoon.
I really enjoyed the cartoon at the beginning of the blog! It was a great link to the topics discussed in your blog. It is a sad truth that many Native Americans have been unable to hold on to their traditions. It was interesting when you talked about Victor kissing the white and, “how he felt the good-byes.” It had not occurred to me until I read your blog that the kiss may not have signified a relationship with a girl but it signified his relationship with all of white society. It was as if he could not be a part of both his traditions and white society, it had to be one or the other.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, in This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona, a similar issue arises that you discussed. Victor asks Thomas to go on a journey with him and although they were quite successful, at the end, their relationship was unable to change. I enjoyed how you connected Thomas with the Native American traditions, so that it implied that Victor finally acknowledged his culture but recognized it was too late to assimilate with it after rejecting it for so long. Your blog was really insightful and entertaining!
That cartoon says more truth about the Redskins controversy than I think anybody could ever try to do with words.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that is what Sherman Alexie was trying to say about assimilation. If he were, wouldn't he be contradicting himself by getting these stories that are enlightening and educational in regards to what it means and it is like to be a modern-day Native American published?
On pg. 74 in "Phoenix, Arizona", Victor is ashamed of himself because he realizes that he is becoming like his father. His current position and status in the tribe is hollow, without meaning or solidarity, as all he has in common with his "friends" are alcohol and the false promises and rewards available to Native Americans who make no waves on the reservation, depending on their tribal government.
Is it possible to maintain the beliefs of two different cultures? As you point out in your blog, assimilating to white culture is the safer option. Those that stay loyal to the Native America traditions seem to end up en route to self-destruction – i.e. alcoholism and violence. However, while Victor understands this, he also seems to rebel against it. Regardless of whether Victor acts like a Native American or a white boy, he ends up getting punished. As you point out, Victor succeeds in passing a spelling test designed for junior high students and is still punished. Victor doesn’t accept this. It is clear that as much as Victor wants the privileges of a white man, he resents them just as much.
ReplyDeleteVictor’s resistance is most prominent in Indian Education. At the end of first grade, as he’s being dragged to the principal’s office, he chants, “it’s a good day to die” (172). Victor doesn’t regret staying true to his warrior instincts; he embraces them. At the end of second grade, when his teacher calls him an “indian” as if it is an insult, Victor owns up to his heritage saying, “Yes, I am. I am Indian. Indian I am” (173). He is proud of his culture despite the problems it causes him. In sixth grade Victor learned to “always throw the first punch” (176). Victor wants to stand up for himself, even in a culture that wants him to be invisible. He doesn’t want to end up like his parents, but he doesn’t want to give in to white men either.
I enjoyed your blog and I feel your thesis was particularly strong. It is concise and does a great job at summarizing, what I think is, the main theme in Alexie’s short stories. I feel that you make an excellent point in your support for the general theme of hiding tradition in order to survive in modern society by providing substantial evidence from Indian Education. However, I feel that in This is what It means to Say Phoenix, Arizona, Victor is not necessarily afraid to display his tradition, but rather he is fighting tradition. Thomas can be considered a symbol for tradition and throughout the story Victor fights him, whether physically or simply by choosing not to listen to his stories. I feel that while Victor is fighting his tradition in the story, hope is not completely lost. When Victor agrees to listen to one of Thomas’ stories, he is in theory giving tradition a chance.
ReplyDeleteI think you've made a number of great points here, but I disagree with your thesis to a certain extent. I think that, rather than hiding his tradition, Victor's story was more a struggle between either becoming assimilated into White American culture or remaining an Indian, and thus remaining--and potentially stagnating--on the reservation. In "Indian Education," Victor's connection to his Indian culture weakens over the years. When he gets into his fight with Frenchy and is sent to the principal's office, he chants, "It's a good day to die," not because Alexie is making a statement against the American government, but because, to Victor--thus, to Alexie--it is better to die as a warrior, or an Indian in this case, than to live as a white man.
ReplyDeleteThere is, of course a major shift toward the end of his schooling, and you hit the nail on the head by bringing up Victor kissing the white girl. I think, though, that rather than simply having to hide his Indian heritage, Alexie was saying that Victor was giving it up entirely by becoming a part of white society.
I think these essays were not simply critiques of white society. I think they were comments on both white and Indian societies, and how they interact with and respond to one another. After all, Alexie writes some rather disparaging things about Indians as well. He describes almost all of them as drunks who can't amount to much at all.
I feel that both Alexie and Victor were willing to embrace white society, because they saw very little of value in Indian life and traditions.
I really liked this blog entry, I especially liked how you mentioned young Victor's war chant on the way to the principal's office. I was interested by the "warrior" theme throughout all of Alexie's stories. I think you accurately portrayed the struggle that exists in Victor between maintaining the old warrior tradition of Native Americans, and assimilation in modern U.S. culture. I would like to hear more of your thoughts about what being a warrior means to Victor, and whether the warrior tradition is obsolete in this day in age, or if it still have some value. I think that these old traditions and mentalities still have their use today, but I am curious to hear what you think. All in all, solid blog entry
ReplyDeleteI really liked your analysis. I really liked your comparison between the relationship that Thomas Builds-The-Fire and Victor and Victor's own relationship with his Native American heritage and tradition. It had never occurred to me before when I was reading that there could be a comparison between them. I also agree with your statement about when Victor enters a relationship with the white girl.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you about the use of the battle chant. However, I also saw it as a way that he holds onto his traditions as well. When he says that, I saw it as him entering into a "battle" between the white culture and the Native American culture. He follows the white culture, his action of going to the principle's office, but also holds onto his Native American culture, which is saying the battle chant.
Also, great use of the cartoon at the beginning of your blog!