Alexie Questions

Frank Ross asked Alexie about the political nature of his writing, quoting him as saying he does not like to beat readers over the head with it. Alexie replied: “I like to make them laugh first, then beat them over the head . . . when they are defenseless.” Describe some examples from the stories that demonstrate this tactic. Choose one example to focus on and explain how the humor and political point work together as in the above quote.

In “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” Alexie describes how humor can make connections and also can create barrios. In the second story, “A Drug called Tradition”, Junior is complaining to Thomas how he never has anything in his refrigerator and then a moment later Thomas opens the refrigerator and sits down inside it. This is Alexie allowing the reader to laugh first. Alexie then gives an example of how the government will just pay off the Indians so they can use their land to extend their businesses. But Thomas, the man who received the money is okay with getting the money and losing a bit of land. But that is where the colonization hits hard, but without even making a sound. The Indians do not even understand what they are conforming to. Since their elders are no longer there anymore to talk to them in order to remind them of the sacredness of the land, then all things will soon be forgotten. “When Indians make lots of money from corporations that way, we can all hear our ancestors laughing in the trees. But we never can tell whether they’re laughing at the Indians or the whites. I think they’re laughing at pretty much everybody.” Another character, Victor, say’s this statement that means that the ancestors are watching as the new generation is giving into the American culture of expansion and growth. That was the beating over the head part. Alexie does not leave the reader in this way though because Junior then asks about magic mushrooms.


On whiteness, Indian identity and colonialism, Alexie says, “What is colonialism but the breeding out of existence of the colonized? The most dangerous thing for Indians, then, now and forever is that we love our colonizers. And we do.” He goes on to say, and I paraphrase, that Indian identity now is mostly a matter of cultural difference; that culture is received knowledge, because the authentic practitioners are gone. The culture is all adopted culture, not innate. Colonization is complete. Think about how what he is discussing plays out in his stories. Choose one (a different one than for the first question) and discuss how a story represents the characters' relationship to the tribe's past and to the colonizing culture.

When reading the third story, "Because my father always said he was the only Indian who saw Jimi Hendrix play "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock," Alexie describes the difference between Indian lovemaking and white lovemaking. He said that he used to stay up and listen to his parents love making in the night, while listening the Jimi Hendrix. He said he would talk with his white friends about their parents and if they could hear them making love. The white friends said, "the can't even imagine the own parents getting it on." (Alexie 30) It was like the white people were ashamed of letting their children know what they were doing when in bed together. But for Alexie, the lovemaking sounds cancelled out the sounds of fighting.