Sherman Alexie: The American, The New Man

The odds were against Sherman Alexie on that day in October 1966. Not only was he born a minority, but he was also hydrocephalic. At the age of 6 months, he had a brain operation, but was not expected to live. Though he pulled through, doctors predicted he would be severely mentally retarded. Fortunately, they were wrong, but he did suffer through seizures and wet his bed throughout his childhood ("What" 1).

Plenty of teenagers read books every day for entertainment and for school. But they don’t just read for amusement or that they need it for their classwork, they read because it is what they go to when things turn rough. Like what people said, books are a powerful thing, it can be hopeful and scary. Sherman Alexie is a wonderful writer, poet, and has published plenty of novels and short stories. Sherman Alexie’s purpose of writing is to give teenagers hope that things would work out alright, although it might be rough from time to time, and he also uses humor to entertain his readers. He provides teenagers things that they can relate to, and he addresses many crucial issues in his works. He uses numerous amount of stylistic techniques in his

SHERMAN, William Tecumseh (1820-91). Ranked second only to General Ulysses S. Grant as the greatest Northern commander in the American Civil War, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was a master of modern warfare. Like Grant, Sherman was born in Ohio when it was a frontier state. He was named Tecumseh for the Shawnee Indian chief who had terrorized that region a few years earlier.

They decided to be united with their fellow american and in 1778, they made the Articles of Confederation, whereby they assented to depend and completely rely on the association of their outside relations to a relentless select few geniuses, which is known as the Congress of the United States. They have said that the adaptations of the Constitution will does not exist anymore; the guaranteed benefits of the States in the United State will be lost due to abuse of power. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self protection, and that the Federal Government will have transformed into their worst and biggest enemy. Sectional premium and disdain will add to the unsettling impact, and all trust of cure is rendered vain, by the way that prestigious feeling at our starting the North has contributed an uncommon political fumble with the guaranteeing of more stirred up religious conviction. On the fourth day of March next, this get-together will assume liability for

America’s Revolution gave birth to real applications of Enlightenment ideals, and in doing so spurred movements of independence and democracy around the world during the same time period and into the future. “Three major events of the American Revolution had great influence on Europe: Signing the Declaration of Independence, Implementing the ideas of Enlightenment, Forming the U.S constitution” (ADD SOURCE). In the years following the American Revolution, France fell into their own revolution, which Thomas Jefferson said “[The French Revolution] has been awakened by our [American] revolution” (Strayer 784). On the dawning of the French Revolution, a Paris newspaper announced that the United States was “the hope and model of the human race” (Dunn). Because the French were our allies in our revolution against Britain, many of their leaders had a very intimate experience with our ideals of freedom and political representation. They brought back the ideas they heard and witnessed and used them to shape their own revolution against King Louis XVI, and they were the most important parts of the revolution the French people built. “The French

Sherman Alexie may write boring and uninteresting characters, but the dreams in Reservation Blues are stellar. The dreams help the reader understand and connect what he is trying to write. With all the sentences in his book that say some version of “the horses screamed” and all the dreams about the cavalrymen killing horses and Indians, it is not hard to make the connections Alexie is trying to make. The horses are the Indians, and they are being killed by the white man. This also goes hand in hand with Alexie’s view of “nothing good happens on a reservation and life is just like the negative stereotypes.” The dreams he writes are mainly a snapshot of what he believes about the connection between reservation life and white America.

Every day, people wake up oblivious to the different events that could have transpired had they not made a specific choice somewhere in their past; these choices are in complete control of those people, but there are something they cannot control, like how they were raised or the social class they were born into. For author Sherman Alexie childhood was rough, he grew up fighting to become better than the world that encompassed him as a child. Out of reasons of class and environment, people are set up to fail and overlooked as they learn and progress as a person just like Sherman

The birth of a nation does not happen overnight nor with one word. One can clearly see how words and ideas have an impact on people’s thoughts and writing by examining “The Declaration of Independence” and Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.” Basically, the two documents echo principles stated in John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government,” and share a style of expressing their feelings on national issues; the authors examine and give reasons for colonial problems with the government and offer a solution. The tone and audience might vary, but the overall message is similar in its principles, showing the impact Locke and Paine had on such a vital document in our history as the “Declaration of Independence”.

On Christmas day, a thirteen-year-old boy opens a gift from his mom. With excitement and joy the boy receives his first guitar, an Ibanez electric. The boy plugs the new guitar into a solid state Marshall amplifier and makes noise. Not knowing any chords or how to play, that moment of creating sounds and feedback on his own. He formed a passion and love of the instrument for many years to come. The music of Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones filled his head. He wanted to be like the masters, so he practiced every day and took lessons when he could. With persistence and love for music, the boy learned chords and scales and started to create music of his own. Guitar changed his life and made his hard upbringing better. The struggles, his mom had raising a kid on her own. Working two jobs and being a single mom made her happy knowing her son had a hobby and a love for music. Of course hearing loud guitar playing at 3 am at night can be aggravating at times. The mom knew she had created a brighter and a more artistic life for her son. For that, the boy is forever grateful for his mother and what she

This diary described an Indian boy was born with epilepsy and hydrocephalus. Doctors also predicted he would have a several mental problems. However, he was fortunately able to like a “normal” life as other people. He grew up in an unfair society, and full of discriminate and violent. He drew many pictures for his experience and memory and wanted to break the “Reds and Whites” boundary. Despite the tribe could not understand his action, he never gave up and changed his life.

Sherman Alexie’s novel Flight is narrated by Zits, a fifteen year old half-Indian, half-Irish boy who travels through time and the bodies of distinct characters after an attempt to shoot people at a bank in redemption to his late mother and runaway father. This novel demonstrates the theme of identity, which is, according to Zack, the self-categorization of a person in connection with race, ethnicity, or gender. One can employ aspects of theoretical explanations from Thinking About Race by Naomi Zack to analyze chapter one of Flight. In her book, Zack discusses the concept of race and racial issues by making use of philosophical methods to many situations. Moreover, in chapter eight, she outlines and explains racial and ethnic identities, and the differences between identification and identity. Zack’s also explains the concept of authenticity in section B of this chapter.

Sherman Alexie, the author of “The Unauthorized Autobiography of Me” should be considered an authentic Native American and be put into a high school because he doesn’t use cliches or false representations, like the author N. Scott Momaday does, while writing about modern day events of being a Native American.

In “Letters from an American Farmer,” written by de Crevecoeur, he discusses what life and society in America was like back then. He also talks about the process of becoming an American and defines what it means to have that title. A statement has been made that the general description of “the idea” of an American de Crevecoeur gives throughout his letter is still true today. This is relatively true except for some elements in modern America that make this statement partially not true. Religion, opportunities, being a free country, and life in general are all topics and components in the passage that qualify this statement. They all contribute to the fact that present America is still somewhat the same to what was said by de Crevecoeur in the early times. America is still a diverse and free country and has opportunities to be seeked by its citizens. Although this is true, America has changed, proving it is false as well. Our country has become even more diverse with way more nationalities than just European and does not have equal opportunities. Overall, the author’s description of early America is similar to today, however, there are significant aspects to consider that make the statement not entirely true.

Throughout this period of around thirty years the American political spectrum began to change. John Quincy Adams even said in his own personal journal that change was happening. He talks about the breaking down of the party system. His whole entry has a bleak outlook for the future of America. He says, “...The depression of manufactures, the restless turbulence and jealousies, the Missouri slave question, the deficiencies of the revenue to be supplied, the rankling passions and ambitious projects of individuals, mingling with everything, presented a prospect of the future which I freely acknowledged was to me appalling.” He talks about how the self made man is a detriment for the future of the United

The year is 1789. You’re walking around Philadelphia on a hot summer day. Women are wearing dresses with many frilly layers that stretch all the way down to their toes. Long-haired men are riding their horses down the streets. Many children are running around with giggles coming across their faces. You are from Europe and this is your first time in the city and you’re absolutely exhausted. You don’t know your way around or where you’re going at all. You’re so tired and hungry that you burst through the doors of the closest building that you see, hoping that you come to find a restaurant. When you walk in, there are old men filling the seats at every table. On the center table, you begin to a large document that starts with, “We the People”. You begin to remember hearing ideas from famous philosophers back home that sound oddly familiar to that of this certain document. Then, you begin to wonder, how have European philosophers inspired this and how can it change history forever? Well, The European Enlightenment was a time where philosophers began to ponder upon the ideas of democracies and how freedom and equality could change the world for the better. The American Revolution was sparked by the ideas of The Enlightenment, and that was only the beginning of America’s fight for a democracy, all thanks to the ideas of the European Enlightenment. The European Enlightenment helped to shape the world’s society in political, social, and historical ways.