Alexie Vividly Evokes the Fragility of the Tribal World
Storytelling has long been an American Indian tradition. From the book “Buried Roots and
Indestructible Seeds: The Survival of American Indian Life in Story, History,
and Spirit”, authors Lindquist and Zinger recant hosts of stories with comic
and tragic themes. Exploring and
discovering an “imagination of meaning.. the use of storytelling to interpret
events, to seek meaning in the chaos of life, or to create understanding of the
happenings of history. So every act of making a story, in its creation of
meaning, is an act of survival.” (Lindquist 4). The Lone
Ranger and Tonto FistFight in Heaven, by author Sherman Alexie, gives us a glimpse
into the bleak perspective of American Indian life. Alexie fills us with many emotions that vividly
evoke a sense of fragility of the tribal world as seen through the character’s eyes,
and the tone it takes through their various touts of humor.
In one passage a character named Junior reminisces of times
“back when there was good fry bread to be eaten at the powwow, before all the
old women died and took their recipes with them.. Sometimes it feels like our
tribe is dying a piece of fry bread at a time.” He gives a clearer indication
of the current status of reservation life when he continues on to describe Norma
as always trying to save the tribe, “like a lifeguard, watching out for those
of us that were so close to drowning” and was painted in this light many times
by Alexie. (Alexia 199).
We gain a great deal of insight through Alexie’s
characterization of Norma as a stoic yet flighty character, through which we grasp
this sense of tribal frailty through the broken and shared relationship of the
characters Norma and James Many Horses, in the story “The Approximate Size of
My Favorite Tumor”. James Many Horses
has a jovial reputation and an incessant tendency to cope with pain by making jokes
of the harsh reality of death. James
Many Horses tells us the story of how he has to come to be dying with cancer in
the form of several large baseball-sized tumor, prefaced with his angering of
his wife through joking about his death. She leaves him for a few months because of his
joking. He moves on through treatment for a few months, getting in touch with
his pain, making jokes to the doctor, saying sometimes he laughs because that’s
all two people have in common, and sometimes because you’d rather cry. In the story, James Many Horses comes to tell
us the story about his wife Norma, whom upon losing her mother in the story,
becomes filled with a sense of deeper tribal sorrow, compelling her to visit
elders at retirement homes, and as they passed, succumbing to weeping violently
and throwing books and furniture. Norma is quoted as stating “Every one of our
elders who dies takes a piece of our past away, and that hurts because I don’t
know how much of a future we have.” (Alexie 167). Junior Many Horses sits at his death table
writing letters from his death bed under a false name, James Many Horses III, making
a passing joke that there is a certain dignity to any kind of fake tradition, a
clear indicator that he was joking about not having a heritage, nor offspring,
making vivid for us this frailty through his lack and therefore loss of
identity, a form of extinction. He and
Norma joked about having children, but did not.
Upon her return, James Many Horses and wife Norma discuss briefly her
whereabouts, and her reasons for returning.
After some beating around the bush, and James’s really sort of pressing
the point on her reasons, jokingly delivering us into the reality she has
returned to help him die the right way.
James was agreeable with this.
She leaves off saying, “And maybe because making fry bread and helping
people die are the last two things Indians are good at.” To which they
laughed. It was a comically relieved
resolution, inevitably leaving behind widowed Norma, with no parents and no
children, in search of the next Indian to help die.
"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven" Alexie Sherman, 1993.
"Buried Roots and Indestructible Roots" Lindquist, 1993.
P.S. I would like to offer my humble apology for the delay in presenting this to my peers. I have had the flu for the past week. I appreciate any feedback. Sincerely, James Gifford
I truly love the way you describe Norma and use textual evidence to define the way she is characterized. You really do a great job of showing fragility within the reservation.
ReplyDeleteNorma is truly an implicit character. We have to collect her thoughts, actions, and experiences, and organize them in order to figure her out.
You used the word "stoic" and I definitely have heard that word, but was not quite sure of it's true definition. Merrian Webster Dictionary defines it as "one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain".
I would have to disagree with that adjective. Stoic should maybe be replaced with bold. She definitely withstands some trials and tribulations, but I see a stoic person more of one that does not identify with their feelings. They almost ignore what they feel. If she were to have ignored what she felt, would she have ever left her husband in a time of despair, and would she of ever come back? I see someone that is stoic not even leaving in the first place. They almost do not care, and it is obvious Norma cares about quite a lot of things. (elders, fybread, feelings, etc.)
Do you think that maybe denial would have been a better word? A woman of denial is not willing to accept the truth. I think Norma hides from the truth, as well as her husband, deep down, I feel she may might up on a stoic front, but I think she is just denying her true feelings instead of not considering them.
Thanks for the comment Veronica. I see your point. Perhaps I should have chosen a better word than stoic to go with flighty, or perhaps done a better job illustrating how her stoic sense and flightiness were reflective of an underlying instinct to abandon their unfortunate tribal disposition.
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