Summary/Application - Alexie

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. Critics 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 in a way to show connections between characters and how humor can better fasten a relationship together. Also, Coulombe argues for Alexie in the way 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 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. Coulombe’s main motive is to show how Alexie successfully shows how his sill for writing 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 to reconsider 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 smothers humor and wit all over these life-changing situations, Alexie opens up a universal world for all nationalities to be able to forget about common Indian stereotypes.

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 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.

In “The Approximate Size of my favorite Tumor”, Alexie proves how humor can be a good thing and a bad thing when dealing with relationships. Just the title gets the reader ready for something humorous because honestly, who really has a “favorite tumor”? Though it is a bit shocking to find that Jimmy really does have cancer, he is able to find humor in his situation. The biggest example that Alexie establishes Jimmys’ humor as bad is that he may be covering up his fear. In real life people have very different ways of handling their insecurities and their fears. In this case, Jimmy seems to show that if he is laughing about his tumor more than worrying about it, maybe his time would be better well spent while still alive. Alexie uses his tactic of making his reader laugh by using Jimmy as a positive and funny guy, who is possibly just trying to cover up his real emotions. The relationship between Jimmy and his wife, though, proves that humor can also be beneficial. Jimmy and his wife, Norma laughs together and Raymond has no idea what they are laughing about. That little joke gives them both something in common. Something in common brings the couple closer together. Humor can be used differently to evoke a different reaction in the reader and sometimes also allows the author secretly let out a few insecurities of his own as well.

Coulombe uses these examples in his article to show the true meaning as to 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.