Sherman Alexie on humor and colonization

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.

Alexie's stories exude humor before many serious political situations. For example, when Alexie starts to talk about Victor's dad and how he was trying to "make a statement" at Woodstalk and be a hippie when all the hippies are trying to look like him, he pokes fun at Victor's dad while starting to run into the controversial political topics like the Vietnam War and discrimination. Another example would be Victor's relationship with Thomas. Thomas does things his own way. He tells his stories because he thinks that is what he is meant to do. In the second story "A Drug Called Tradition", Victor and Junior make fun of Thomas for being strange, but then they let him join the group. Alexie pokes fun at Thomas in several stories and brings out his humor, while there is the underlying issue of Indians being made fun of for being different like in "Amusements". Alexie allows humor to lighten certain situations while subtly bringing up more controversial issues. In my opinion, Alexie makes Thomas a character that should have to prove himself because he is different which is an issue Alexie notes in the video with Frank Ross when he says that as Indians " we try to prove that we are a part of American culture" and maybe Thomas is that symbolic character who is always treated like he needs to prove something because he is different.

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.

In Alexie's last story we read Victor looks back on when him and his friends celebrated the 4th of July. Thomas questions why they are even acknowledging this holiday when their people fought against the independence of their colonizers. I think this is interesting because Victor writes Thomas off and by doing so he shows how easy it is for generations to write off their own culture in order to take part in a more "popularized" one. This shows serious colonization in Victor, he is assimilating to another culture without thinking; without thinking about how other cultures have affected his own life. It seems a bit deep to take all of this from some kids setting off fireworks, but colonization happens in little steps like these.