Coulombe Summary

Alexie uses humor in his writings not to make fun of his culture and the people in it, but so that his audience can connect and understand him and his characters more clearly. Critics argue that Alexie's tactic is ineffective and leaves his reader with the idea that all Indians actually do act the way in which they have been stereotyped in white American society. Coulombe argues that Alexie uses his humor in a way to show connections between characters and how humor can cover up sadness. Also, Coulombe argues that Alexie uses humor as a way to distract his readers from true reality of the hard lives in which he writes about, especially in his book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. By writing in a “joking manner”, Alexie allows his characters to show that for them, it is easier to make a joke than to feel sorry about themselves and their situation. In this sense, Alexie is using his jokes to lighten the weight of the heavy truth about the struggles that Indians have had to suffer through. Possibly, Alexie is saying that laughing and humor was the only thing that saw the Indians through the rough times. Though critics may not understand the real reason behind his stereotypical humor, Coulombe finds reason to believe Alexie’s motives for writing with humor is vital to getting his point across to this audience.