Postcolonial Analysis of This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona by Sherman Alexie

 

In Sherman Alexie’s This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona, we see the daily struggles of Native Americans in terms of dealing with a cultural lag. This cultural lag is the result of the complex history of Native American ethnic groups with mainstream America; a consequence of the European immigrants invading their land and the British colonialists complicating their survival, which happened during the American Revolution war.

The short story is set in a reservation for Native Americans and we have two major characters Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Victor represents the modern youth of Native America that has arisen from trying to assimilate themselves into the mainstream America and in the process losing their indigenous culture. Thomas represents the old ways of the Native Americans who are in touch with their traditions and spirituality. Native American culture is rooted in oral traditions and the modern world in the literary. Alexie thus gives importance to storytelling and bases Thomas’ character on this.“Thomas was a storyteller that nobody wanted to listen to”. In several instances we see people in his surrounding finding him strange and not wanting to be around him.Here identity of the Native American is questioned because of its conflicting nature. Storytelling is an essential cornerstone in these indigenous people’s lives, by rejecting  Thomas the community is alienating their own culture.

Alexie uses hyperbolic, stereotypical views of American Indians with “Thomas, that crazy Indian storyteller with ratty old braids and broken teeth” . It serves as a critique of contemporary stereotypical assumptions about American Indians. Victor comes across as the modern stoic who is heavily influenced by the dominant culture and finds his own culture old and demeaning. They are both contrasting personalities, utilized to show the diversity in the community and to try and break the stereotype ,boosting a critique of the stereotypical and shallow image created by the Euro American society.

The story clearly shows the divide of ethnic group from the mainstream America. In the airplane when Thomas says "Sounds like you all got a lot in common with Indians," referring to how the government “screwed” them over and nobody laughs when the statement was meant to be a joke, it shows how equality among the “whites” and the “Indians” is an issue. In the same scenario we see Victor being skeptical about how the “white woman”  spoke to them only because they shared a plane together and would not have conversed with them otherwise when he says "Yeah, but everybody talks to everybody on airplanes,". It also implies how they usually do not come in contact with the mainstream American population as they live on the reservation completely cut off from the rest of the “white” people.

 Thomas, recalls how at the age of ten he says “It’s strange how us Indians celebrate the Fourth of July. It ain’t like it was our independence everybody was fighting for” is a comment that the white conquest and the history of white suppression of Native Americans. It emphasizes how their situation was compromised after the American Revolution. The whole situation put them at a disadvantage, losing land and their culture was never intact after the American Independence.

How to Write the Great American Indian Novel by Sherman Alexie: A Postcolonial Reading

“In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written,all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts.”

The Native American experience explored through postcolonial theory can become problematic for various reasons, the most prominent being that as an indigenous, displaced population they have never witnessed a post-colonial era. They cannot, as a colonised population, boast of a national movement, culture or space. The recent emergence of a genre of literature titled “Native American Literature” is witness to the fact of their continued oppression.

 The poem “How to Write the Great American Novel” by Sherman Alexie can be considered symbolic of a displaced peoples’ unconscious search for a material representation, a symbol of the integration and the unity of the Native American culture and its people. The poem begins with a powerful imagery. Alexie describes the Native Americans as ‘tragic’. They are tragic, their history is tragic. This is not only because they have been exploited, their lands stolen and their people killed, their image itself has been murdered. They have been defined through postcolonial representations, their image created in terms ascertained by the colonial, deprived of their power to (re) define themselves. This has caused the mass production of stereotypes relating to Native Americans, especially in and through popular culture. This is exactly what Alexie expresses when he talks of sensitive heroes that must be half-bred, necessarily from a tribe that herds and breeds horses; their women beautiful and exotic comparable only to the great plains of America herself. He also explicitly expresses his attempt at exposing this tendency of the coloniser to stereotype beautifully in the lines-

  "If the interior Indian is male, then he must be a warrior, especially if he is inside a white man."

We also witness, in the poem, the construction of the natives of America the same way the Orient has been constructed. As students of postcolonial literatures this is an eye-opener. The construction of the unknown red skinned Indians as similar to the the construction of the Orient as effeminate and a place of spirituality, mysticism and sexual exoticism. This further increases what Homi Bhaba has termed ambiguity. When the west claims that the east is exotic, mysterious and sensual and when they themselves turn around and constructed similar representations for the indigenous inhabitants of a country which is, geographically and otherwise, located very much in the West, the subject positions of the east and west and their binary fail to hold stable positions.

The next part of the poem reveals to the reader that these constructed images are not reality. Murder, suicide, rape, alcoholism, these are the realities. Taking a cue from Franz Fanon’s work on postcolonial identities in “Black Skin, White Masks”, these social issues facing the Natives can be considered a result of the trauma of said inability to define their own identities.This has further lead to an inability to form a stable identity of the ‘Native American’ leading to a disintegration of their identity and culture. This confused identity can also be the result of hybridity at play. The Native American is both the oppressed and living among, sympathising with and being interpolated into the ideologies of those that oppress him/her. This plight of the half-breed that Alexie constantly brings to the reader’s attention is not just ideological or figurative. 

The half breed that Alexie writes of is very much a physical reality as well. The Native Americans are minorities in their own land, a culture that is slowly dying out, a ‘breed’ of people going extinct, hence, half-breed. Though Alexie calls for forgiveness and understanding (what choice have they now?), it is in a tone one cant help but read remorsefully. This is largely due to the closing lines that follow which tell us that the great American Indian novel will only achieve ‘Greatness’ when a white person writes it, writes it because the Native will be no more. It expresses the gripping fear of the Native American people, that their identity will be completely wiped out, figuratively and otherwise, and they will no longer be the ‘Natives’ of America, their land.

Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko

Traditionally, Native American culture is oral, and everything from biology to

history to morality in medicine is passed on in the form of stories.

This mode of storytelling is presented in the Ceremony in the form of poems,

both framing the main narrative and are interspersed throughout. These stories are

basically traditional Pueblo stories are usually known to be out of context in regard to

the novel. Toys tales only reflects the traditional stories, and is also considered to be

original. Along with the arrangement of the prose and poem passages, it can be

clearly understood as Silko’s personal intervention in the communal process of

storytelling. The stories teach Tayo that he is not alone, both because he has shared

stories with a community as a whole and also because the content of the ancient

stories remind him that others before him have had similar experience he isn’t the

only person alone, and there is always hope for renewal. It can seen that Ceremony

presents an attempt to contend with the reality of a mixed cultural landscape in a way

that which shows the way Native American culture is going to persist, even though it

changes. Tayo himself gets embodied between the contact of Native Americans and

white cultures, as he shows mixed racial heritage through his green eyes. However,

the relationship between white and Native American cultures is completely shifted in

Ceremony when Betonie reveals that whites are an invention of Native Americans. In

this particular revelation, although they are still considered as a primary destructive

force, white people are basically a part of Native American culture and traditions.

Auntie represents those who simply follow the dictates of traditions, as she mistrusts

any form of an interracial relationship. On the other side Josiah represents those who

belief in the spirit of traditions, such as when there is path of interbreed Mexican and

Hereford cattle to create a herd that will be both hardy and productive. Many of the

traditional stories and ceremonies revolve around ensuring an adequate amount of

rainfall happens. Over here the primary signal of the spirits’ displeasure with

something the people has done is a drought, and one of the major feats of a

destructive spirit is the creation of a drought. However, as Josiah tells too when he is

a child, everything existing around has both its pros and its cons. Small amount of

rainfall can be disastrous as well as too much of rainfall also, Philippine jungle

teaches this to Tayo. Tayo committed a blunder when he forgets the lesson and,

ends up cursing the rain the midst of a flood. Have no clue whether Tayo’s curse was

to be held responsible for the drought on the reservation, it would be good for his

health as well as for that of his community that he learns through his ceremony to

respect the patterns of nature. Once he does that, the rain returns. Silko’s use of

poetry invokes the rhythmic, communal patterns of storytelling of the Native

Americans, while her user of prose belongs to a particular Western narrative

tradition. By the combination of both in her novel, Silko portrays that the form as well

as the content of the story is about the mixing of the two cultures. White and Native

American cultures end up clashing with each other and more often than they

complementing each other, but the prose and poetry come together very easily. Just

as whites are said to be an invention of Native American witchcraft, so is a Western

form of storytelling is shown to be contained within a Native American form of

storytelling. Every year, the white mayor and council of Gallup organize a

Ceremonial. Gallup Ceremonial portrays the ways in which whites misunderstand the

Native American tradition and appropriate it for their own purposes. The town of

Gallup at best ignores and at worst promotes the racist mistreatment of Native

Americans in particular, portrays the ways in which whites are eager to appreciate

the Native American artifacts, but they don’t want to interfere with the ongoing lives

                                                Celestial Music

                                                                                    -Louise Elisabeth Gluck                              

All the way through the poem, the speaker expresses her view on the differences between her friend and herself, where she initiates by stating that her friend actually believes in heaven and she does not, as they have been brought up with different settings and background altogether with varying ethnicity and this hints that the speaker is diasporic in nature. Also she insinuates that those who believe in heaven and gods and other such supernatural elements are afraid and timid to an ideal superior force and by saying that she tries to be hegemonic subtly through the control of exposure and education. Yet, she is friends with her. Her views clearly portray her defence mechanism as she is trying to create an identity for herself and setting up a mark. She is also being called as a child for having such an anomalous belief system.  The speaker also winces that the caterpillar is being taken over by ants whereas the so called spirited strong friend according to her opinion and says that the natural events should take place in order to balance the natural world and also environment’s equilibrium.

It's reasonable that the friend’s conviction lends a hand to face reality. Also we clearly can observe that the difference in faith between the speaker and her friend, when the friend is able to sense and listen to the “celestial music”, whereas the speaker sees more of natural yet beautiful things and elements like the snow and clouds for which she says that they resemble to the “brides” who leap to a greater height. But finally in reality both of them come together and watch the sunset despite their differing perspectives. This can be a metaphor for the colonized and the colonizers but both working towards a progressive state. Finally the circle drawn around the dead caterpillar which is in the dirt and the dead caterpillar itself stands for the borders and the path of life being the central and primal element in this poem. This poem is not determining to put in the picture that the readers should believe that no matter what we choose to accept, the world we live in is a beautiful place and two differently opinionated people can be at serene with each other and also in the beauty and nature of the world despite the differences in believing where such beauty came from and justifying and actualizing.

Cherokee Rose - A poem by Marc McCord

Cherokee Rose

A poem by Marc  McCord

Seven petals for seven tribes
growing on the trail where they cried.
Center of gold for the land white men stole.
Four thousand of my ancestors died.

The trail was long, the journey harsh
crossing a thousand miles of mountain and marsh
and in the place where proud people those
cried the tears that watered Cherokee Rose.

Oh Spirit Wolf, oh Spirit Owl
hear the winter winds that howl.
Oh Spirit Eagle, oh Spirit Deer
why did so many have to die here?

One nation prospered, one nation fell.
One went to heaven, one was sent to hell.
Cherokee Rose that blooms in spring
reminds us of the songs they sing.

White petals, a sign of those tears
that still wet the ground after a hundred fifty years
remind us all of what was lost
from proud people who bore the ultimate cost.

Seven petals for seven tribes
growing on the trail where they cried.
Center of gold for the land white men stole.
Four thousand of my ancestors died.

"The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors." This was said by the Chief of Plenty Coups, from the tribe- Crow. Though this wasn’t from the Cherokee tribe, it was a feeling shared by all the tribes who were tortured by the “white man”.

Native Americans were oppressed right from the time that they were discovered by Columbus. Bearing in mind that Native Americans were strict practioners of maintaining peace and harmony makes their tales of oppression reach the depths of despair. 1838 saw the worst of all tragic events that Native Americans had gone through- the trail of tears.  Since the white man looked at the tribes, especially the five civilised tribes, as a threat towards their rule, they forced the Natives off their homelands to far away reservations. The federal government forced them to march up to eight hundred miles from their homelands to the "Indian Territory", today known as Oklahoma. This anguishing march was termed as the trail of tears.

In order to do justice to this poem it becomes crucial to know the legend of the Cherokee Rose. When the Trail of Tears began the mothers in the Cherokee tribe were lamenting and crying so much that they were unable to help their own children survive this journey. Seeing this elders of the tribe prayed for any sign that would uplift the mother’s spirits and provide them with strength. They say that the next day beautiful rose began to grow at every spot that a tear fell from the mothers. The rose was white for their tears and had a gold center which represented all the gold taken from their Cherokee lands. There were also seven leaves on each and every stem for all the seven Cherokee clans. Even today we can see the wild Cherokee Rose grow on the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern Oklahoma.

The poet Marc McCord himself has a lineage of Native Texan of Scottish, Eastern Band Cherokee and Lipan Apache. He has said that he is proud of his ancestry. Even though he wrote this poem a long, long time after the actual event, it captures the soul of a Cherokee in the march.

The literature of Native Americans has majorly been oral, through prayers and poems. They did have very written and documented shreds of literature but the proper structure of writing took place only later on. The poem very directly talks about the devastation of the tribes who were chased away from their very own land.  The first two stanzas talk about the legend of the Cherokee legend and how the white man plundered the wealth of the tribes. The poem then slowly moves towards invoking all the natural spirits that the tribes believed in. The poem is written in the present and is remembering the sacrifices and fights of the Cherokees. Though through a post colonial analysis we can point out how this poem wasn’t written in the tribal language and instead in English, we must realise the difficulties it would take to learn and authentically incorporate it after so many decades. Nu na hi du na tlo hi hu I (the tribal language) this is the cry of the trail of tears. The existence of these flowers even today marks the importance of the tradition and cultural beliefs of the Native Americans till date. It is looked at with reverence and keeps the spirit alive. It is a constant reminder of how the people were oppressed as well as suppressed. Though the colonial rule of the white man slowly eroded, it still prevails widely. We can see that even today they suffer from milder forms of colonialism and they still have to fight for their survival. They are forced to behave in accordance to the counter population and that’s how their individual identity has been fading.

Time has passed but this legend remains to stay in the minds of even the new and younger generations and this poem is evidence of such a culture and tradition.

The Native American poet dreams of the past because of his inability to live in a hostile American environment. For Indians, being born and raised in the reservations, the American society becomes a place of dislocation and exile.

Ortiz criticizes features of European civilization brought to his native land by the invaders: “street’s gray with cement / glaring glass and oil wind”, he weeps for aggressive attempts of the colonizers to destroy the nature and cause damage to the plant, animal and human worlds. In this context, Ortiz compares the materialistic values of the colonizers with the moral ethics of the Indian ancestors. According to him, the basic problem that the modern world encounters is to be found in America’s isolation from Mother Earth and from fellow human beings. Ortiz also attacks the American urge for domination which is rooted in the American mentality.

 This corrupt ethics, in Ortiz’s view, would lead to the destruction of America and the world. Observing the exploitation and destruction of Indian territories for a long time by American capitalists just to achieve profit, Ortiz longs for a pre-colonial past where his indigenous people lived in harmony with nature. On this basis, Ortiz’s poetry, serves to deliver context as well as an understanding of the racism that exists against Indians, the constant burden by commercial America to exploit the remaining Indian lands, and the role that many Indian cultures could fill in saving the people and the land if allowed. In The Indians Won, Ortiz overlooks his feelings of nostalgia for a long lost past and discusses the plight of the Indians who were isolated for a long time in reservations. Ortiz points out that even when his own people were released they felt they were being imprisoned by the modern and materialistic American society.

These Native Americans long to return to their land as they feel the American colonizers do not feel the connection to their land, the way they do. The compare all things modern as killing of the natural beauty that has been provided to us but mother earth. The land is being neglected which should be the basic source for all human life. It is all seen as polluting and disturbing the ecology. The writer just wishes to return to a see the forest and clean river and not the city lights that seem to rapidly be replacing it all. He wishes to return to as simpler time before they were ever colonized. The recalling of the frontier experience in Native American poetry is often associated with feelings of nostalgia for a pre-colonized paradise, a Utopian homeland which exists only in the imagination of the Native American poet.