Phase 1: Prompt 3

            When I came to Texas Tech University in the summer of 2009 for Red Raider Orientation, I was given the class novel and was told I needed to read it before school started. We never ended up using the novel for anything in particular, however, I did read and enjoy the book. The book was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Now I have read two of his novels. Sherman Alexie confesses that there is some autobiographical nature in the introduction of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.  I think maybe what Alexie meant by reservation realism, is that it has the potential to be true. The stories have concepts that any Indian could have experienced or can relate to by living or growing up on the reservation.

         In his introduction Alexie writes, “When I write about the destructive effects of alcohol on Indians, I am not writing out of a literary stance or a colonized mind’s need to reinforce stereotypes. I am writing autobiography” (xix). The main character in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold or Junior, has a father that is an alcoholic. Victor’s father in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, is also struggles with drinking. Victor shows the alcoholism in his family by saying, “I was conceived one of those drunken nights, half of me formed by my father’s whiskey sperm, the other half formed by my mother’s vodka egg. I was born a goofy reservation mixed drink, and my father needed me just as much as he needed every other kind of drink” (27).

         The game of basketball is present in both The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. Alexie himself also played basketball, “But I missed those fucking free throws, clanging the ball off the rim twice” (xxi).  Arnold eventually plays varsity basketball for Rearden High School, a school of rich white people that he transfers to. The only other Indian at the school was the mascot. In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, eleventh grade happens and, “Last night I missed two free throws which would have won the game against the best team in the state. The farm town high school I play for is nicknamed the “Indians,” and I’m probably the only Indian to ever play for a team with such a mascot” (179).

         Alexie mentions in his introduction to The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven that, ‘”Indian Education” is a true (and truer) account of my public school days” (xx). However as I read about Indian boarding schools in the mid-1900s, Alexie’s experience seemed different than most of the experiences I read about. According to the California Indian Education Organization’s webpage, Indian students were forced to wear the same clothes as white people and cut their hair. However in “Indian Education” of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, there is not any mention of the assimilation that was the main objective of the U.S. government at the time. Alexie and the Victor graduate from farm town high schools. In “Indian Education” Victor says, “I walk down the aisle, valedictorian of this farm town high school, and my cap doesn’t fit because I’ve grown my hair longer than it’s ever been” (179). So obviously his hair was not cut and he was not apart of this before and after boarding school portraits. And not a thing was mentioned about high school Indian basketball heroes. But maybe this is a part of the reservation realism…it’s possible, just not typical.

http://www.californiaindianeducation.org/indian_boarding_schools/

P.S. sorry for the mega early post...just wanted to knock this out before tests start next week...but this is phase 1 so don't feel like you need to comment on this now.