Summary/Application - Alexie - Revised

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 more clearly. Some argue that Alexie's tactic is ineffective and leaves his reader with the idea that all Indians actually do act the way that they have been stereotyped in American society. Coulombe agrees with Alexie’s way of communing with his audience and argues that Alexie uses his humor to show how relationships can be strengthened and hindered between characters and how humor can allow them to recognize their problems, grow from them, as well as being able to see the distortions in order to make fun of them. Also, Coulombe argues for Alexie that he 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 the type of emotion that for them in their situation, is easier to make a joke than to feel sorry about their selves. 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 some may not understand the real reason behind his humor, Coulombe finds reason to believe Alexie’s motives for writing with humor is vital to getting his point across to this audience. Coulombe’s main motive is to show how Alexie successfully shows how his ability to write with humor allows different cultures to find enough common ground for understanding of one another.


Frank Ross asked Alexie, during their interview, 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.” Alexie admits that he does like to make his readers laugh and then catch them off guard with a double bind. But as Coulombe notes in his article, “Alexie’s sophisticated use of humor unsettles conventional ways of thinking and compels re-evaluation and growth, which ultimately allows Indian characters to connect to their heritage in novel ways and forces non-Indian readers to reconsiders simplistic generalizations” (Coulombe 95). Even though some of the situations that Alexie writes about in his novel are a bit heavy, by doing this he gives readers from different backgrounds a very real look into the lives of Indians. As he sprinkles humor and wit all over these life-changing situations, Alexie proves that his characters were able to overcome struggle and find humor within their situation.

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”, Alexie 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 not really sure if getting the money and losing a bit of land is going to help him or not help him at all. Here is where the colonization hits hard 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” (Pg. 13). Thomas though, “wants to feel some alliance with past Indians, to share with them a triumph over white dominance (however small)” (Coulombe). 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. He believes that Thomas “is the target of their laughter” (Coulombe). Also, the Indians can hear their ancestors laughing because it is believed that the Indians really can hear their ancestors laughing and talking to them through nature. It is a part of their oral and spiritual culture. Alexie is giving his readers more background to his culture in order to understand it better.

Another short story written by Alexie, “The Fun House”, a simple fart leads to an emotional and chaotic rebirth of Aunt Nezzy. The fart startles a mouse and runs up the pant leg of the aunt, which causes her to freak out and attempt to take her pants off. The husband and son laugh at her as she struggles to fight off the mouse. Though to situation is hysterical, the aunt in no way finds it funny. She curses the son and the husband. She calls out her son for being a jobless, alcoholic. Though the thought of a mother calling out her son seems funny, alcoholism is a huge problem in Indian culture. The aunt eventually storms out of the house and down to the Tshimikain Creek. She jumped in the water, but she did not know how to swim. She begins to float and cleanses herself of her anger, as if being baptized and reborn. She comes back to her home later that night and surprises her husband and her son by putting on a heavy beaded dress that she made. She said, “When a woman comes along who can carry the weight of this dress on her back, then we’ll have found the one who will save us all” (Pg.76). Even though, Nezzy fell the first time she tried to take a step in that dress, she got right back up and took another step. She didn’t fall that time. Eventually she began to dance. She was the one who would save them all. In his article, Coulombe says, “Alexie creates characters who showcase individual strength and ability” (Coulombe). Indeed, this story shows Aunt Nezzy’s strength to not only life up the dress but her is also able to find her own inner-strength.

Coulombe uses these examples to show why he agrees with Alexie’s style of writing with humor. “He uses humor—or his characters use humor—to reveal injustice, protect self-esteem, heal wounds, and create bonds” (Coulombe 94). Though Alexie throws some of his critics for a loop as they claim to find no purpose to his style of writing, it ultimately comes down to catching the attention of his audience. Even if the critics are right, at least his audience is reading his works and subconsciously absorbing his style and laughing along with him.


Work Cited:

Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 2005.

Coulombe, Joseph. “The Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor: Sherman Alexie’s Comic Connections and Disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” American Indian Quarterly 26 (winter 2002) : p. 94-115. Project Muse. Ohio University Lib. Athens, OH.