reservation life in litreature
Ask someone what comes to mind when they think of an Indian reservation and you might get anything from tribal dances with feathery headdresses, and teepees to buffalo running wild, Indians on horseback, the Calvary chasing close behind with their guns blazing. That was mostly due to the cinematic depiction in the 1950’s and 1960’s. That image changed in recent years to a more sympathetic feeling toward Native Americans. How Native American culture is perceived may have changed, but to those that live on a reservation life may have not changed as much as a person might see form television. Native American authors have shown this for a few years. Two of the more prominent Native American authors in the last twenty years are Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie. The way they portray life on a reservation have some distinct similarities, along with a few contrasts. Erdrich and Alexie both paint reservation life as one that is not concerned with the daily hustle and bustle that is normally associated with life in a big city. The life that they describe more closely resembles one of a small town, or rural country community. However Erdrich and Alexie's depiction of characters is suggestive of the pre
Erdrich in The Red Convertible and Alexie in This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona each address issues of gender and cultural roles among contemporary Native American populations. Both authors indicate how the Native American of today has been forcibly separated from the land and thought of his ancestors and what a devastating effect this has had on Native American society. In both cases, the writers speak from a position inside that society. Both writers express a sense of continuing loss in the Native American community and indirectly lay blame for this with the federal government and the institutions it has created for the administration and control of Indian affairs, with the land embodying both the traditions of the past and the culture of people. The main characters of Eldrich’s The Red Convertible can be paralleled to the main characters in Alexie’s This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona. In The Red Convertible two brothers, Lyman and Henry Junior have an adventurous youth driving in a car without the restricting parents that people of some other cultures may have had. In This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona, the two main characters, Victor and Thomas Builds-The-Fire have an adventure on a road trip to recover the ashes of victor’s father. In both stories the lack of money is evident. When Lyman and Henry purchase the car, Lyman said that they had just enough money for gas to get back home. When Victor’s father dies, Victor goes to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to get money to help bring his father home. The BIA stated that they could only afford to give one hundred dollars. Thomas steps in and covers some of the cost of the trip to get Victors father. Endrich gives the unique pe
Some topics in this essay:
Native American,
Native Americans,
Victor Thomas,
Life Literature,
Chicken Alaska,
Erdrich Alexie,
Lyman Henry,
Smoke Signals,
Indian Affairs,
Phoenix Arizona,
native american,
main characters,
means phoenix,
means phoenix arizona,
phoenix arizona,
lyman henry,
red convertible,
reservation life,
native americans,
native american authors,
victor thomas,
meet woman,
native american population,
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Approximate Word count = 1165
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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