The theme of Alcoholism in Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation Wellpinit, Washington. He learned to read at age three, and was reading books such as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath at age five. As a teenager, he decided to attend high school in Reardan, Washington. As it says on his website, ShermanAlexie.com, he was "the only Indian...except for the school mascot." At Reardan, he was a good student and athlete, becoming a star on the basketball team. After graduation, he attended Gonzaga University in Spokane on a scholarship. Unfortunately it was at this time that he began to have troubles with alcohol, which may help to explain why this theme is prominent in several of his stories. After two years there, he transferred to Washington State University. Eventually he stumbled onto a poetry workshop at WSU, and with the encouragement of his teacher, excelled at writing. He then decided to make writing his new career choice. Shortly after graduating from WSU, he received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship in 1991 and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 1992. Not long after, two of his poetry collections, The Business of Fancydanc
ing and I Would Steal Horses were published. After these were published, he immediately gave up drinking. His first collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, was published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1993. For his collection he received a PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction, and was awarded a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award. Reservation Blues was published in 1995, and Indian Killer followed in 1996. Both have won numerous awards. Most book critics enjoyed Indian Killer, but more than a few did not. Rosemary Canfield says “Indian Killer is perceptive, well-crafted, and suspenseful; unfortunately, it does not offer much hope for the establishment of a peaceful, multicultural society. According to a New York Times book review, The Rocky Mountain News said that Alexie’s "general depiction of most whites in this book is revolting -- crude, bigoted, pompous, cowardly caricatures. " According to the author, it was the most controversial of his books, and for that reason did not sell as well as some of the others, but it was also the most important to him. The book, despite its criticism for being too tragic, too controversial or too dark, has won some awards, such as the New York Times Notable Book award, and the People Magazine: Best of Pages award. The theme of alcoholism can be found in certain places in the book. The main character, John Smith, is afraid of the lure that alcohol and booze have on so many members of the Indian community. It is for this reason that he has shunned alcohol throughout his life, and throughout the book refuses to drink. He never goes out to drink with the few friends that he has, or with coworkers after a hard day’s work at the construction site. Conversely, Reggie Polatkin drinks often and gets drunk often. Reggie is an angry and cynical
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Approximate Word count = 1246
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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