Research paper
"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"
and "Smoke Signals"
What does it mean to be an Indian? First of all you have to be a warrior and to look like a warrior, to look "stoic", secondly you have to be connected with Mother Earth by understanding the sound of nature and what it wants to say, then you necessarily have to have visions, to ride horses and to hunt buffalos. This is what most of the people think when they say "Indian". But Sherman Alexie ,in his volume "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" and then the movie Smoke Signals based on one story from this volume- Thus Is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona- try to present the image of the real Indian in the real life and work against this "formerly-held stereotypes to form a new, uniquely Spokane identity" all these in a humorous, ironic manner.
Sherman Alexie at the Texas Book Festival, Austin,...
English: American author, poet and filmmaker Sherm...
Sherman AlexieAlexie, in his volume tries to reinvent the way back to tradition of the modern Indians. They are people with double identity who don't know how to report themselves to their traditions, how to react towards it, what is important and what is less important. Sometimes, in most of the cases, they make fun of their history and traditions and realize that now ,they are totally different and that they have to live in the real life although sometimes we sense a feeling of melancholy towards the past, because then ,the Indians had a role, a purpose, now , they have nothing "it is too late to be warriors in the old way. All horses are gone". Now they have only stereotypes to face, alcohol to survive and broken dreams ."Alexie's characters confront the dilemma of how to be "real Indians,"...