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Research on Sherman Joseph Alexie
Biography and Context
Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr., born on October 7, 1996, is an American novelist, poet,
filmmaker and short story writer with 25 published books. Sherman was born on the Spokane
Indian Reservation located at Wellpinit, Washington. He has since grown to become one of the
key contributors to Indigenous Nationalism literature. His literature draws from his experiences
combined with ancestry from other several tribes. He has won several awards with The Lone
Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993) saw him win a Hemingway/PEN award for the best
fiction story. His other books have done very well and have contributed to the different awards
that he has been able to receive throughout his career. Outside his career, Sherman Alexie is
known for his love of sports with basketball being his favorite. In the following text about Alexie
Sherman, I will briefly summarize and analyze his works as well as review analysis done by
other authors and critics to better understand how they view the works.
Primary Works
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)
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Out of all the books written by Sherman I have had time to read, I found The Absolutely
True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to be hilarious and have had to read through the book more
than once. The book is written based on Sherman’s high school experiences with a dark humor
which is seen as inappropriate by many. In summary, the book revolves around Junior who lives
on the Spokane Indian Reservation and was born with hydrocephalus. Not only does he suffer
from many health problems, but his large skull, thick glasses, and awkward lisp have also made
him a target of bullying by both teenagers and alike from his tribe. He experiences different
problems such as rejection from girls he likes as well as frustration from the lack of resources in
the reservation. Changing schools from the reservation to a white school did not change anything
and instead led to him facing new threats such as racism.
Alexie has admitted on many occasions that he was afraid to write such a book because it
mirrored the truth about his life. The book went ahead to win the National Book Award in 2007
making it one of the most prestigious prices that he has ever received. I found the book to deliver
a very positive message through the use of humor as well as frustrations that such children go
through in their lives. However, all is not okay with the book as he lies with the most exceptional
one on how he was a fantastic basketball player and hit a winning shot to help his team win a
varsity championship. In truth, he did not make into his high school basketball team. If the book
is to be related entirely to his life and experiences, then it needs to focus on the truth and avoid
making lies to either commend or make a character look better. Otherwise, the story will be
disoriented due to the lack of related ideas that actually made up the author’s life.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
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This book is also set in the Spokane Indian Reservation with a collection of related
stories that feature recurring characters, the lone ranger and Tonto. The book has a collection of
twenty-two stories where the young protagonists struggling with poverty, despair out of
challenges in life and alcoholism. Above all this, they have to come to reality with what being an
Indian means and entails. The stories convey experiences faced by Native Americans by
referring to their Popular American culture. The two characters, the lone ranger and tonto can be
in various aspects be considered as symbols of Native American identity. The two characters are
seen to be working together, but the author envisions them to be at odds with each other. They
resolve their problems using fistfights with one of them happening in “Witnesses, Secret and
Not.” The situation shows a white American and a Native American finally “taking things
