Stereotypes In Sherman Alexis

The movie Glory can be described as a classic “underdog story.” It is a true story about a group of African American soldiers known as the 54th Massachusetts Regiment who faced constant prejudice and resentment by white soldiers and officers throughout the Union. However, under the leadership of Colonel Robert Shaw, they were able to prove themselves as a formidable fighting force at the battle of Fort Wagner. Although the 54th Regiment suffered heavy casualties they showed the Union that African American soldiers could be just as effective as white soldiers. While the movie Glory did paint an accurate picture of the Civil War, the 54th Regiment, and the Battle of Fort Wagner, it did have its fair share of stereotypes.

Stereotypes come about from ignorance, stupidity, and insensitivity. Two characters, Joe and Red are so unbelievably racist that they hallucinate a “Big Indian” and try to get rid of him. Therefore, they prove themselves to be racist by believing preconceptions without any other information about the group of minority. Stereotypes are always going to be around, especially if two people like Joe and Red think they can get away with their behaviour. People will be continuing to take a step backwards if the false information about a culture is going to affect their judgement. In the short story, “A Seat In The Garden,” Thomas King attests to the fact that Joe and Red are held hostage by their own prejudices and stereotypes of Indigenous people.

The danger of a single story is that they let the powerful downgrade the weaker because they create stereotypes, they can hurt the people, and no one gets represented from the culture.

Stereotypes are oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person, group or thing. Obnoxious, narcissistic, rebellious, emotionless, unloyal, out of control and up to no good… are a few wide number of stereotypes that are accredited to teenage boys nowadays. Stereotypes are everywhere: social media, television, magazines, etc… Stereotyping a person or a group of people in a negative manner has a long lasting effect on those who experience the prejudice. Stereotyping causes many misconceptions about teenage boys. This could be seen throughout the novel, Holes, the author, Louis Sachar, endorses and challenges the teenage boy stereotypes by the diversity of the characters’ persona, actions and characteristics. The book Holes follows the tale of

Stereotype; a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. In the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, and in the short story, “Geeks Bearing Gifts”, written by Ron Koertge, stereotypes are defied by ordinary people. In The Outsiders, Johnny Cade and Darry Curtis face many struggles throughout their lives. Their town in separated into two: the rich and dangerous Socs, and the quiet, tough Greasers. For them, living dangerously is a reality. As a result of their lifestyle, Johnny has become fearful and Darry is considered the toughest man in the gang. In “Geeks Bearing Gifts” aspiring journalist, Renee, interviews her fellow classmates who are classified as “outcasts.” After meeting several students, she realizes her assumptions were incorrect about them. After reading both of these stories, the reader learns that our thoughts about others often revolve around stereotypes and assumptions, but most of these ideas that we have about other people are proven wrong.

Growing up as a Native American boy on a reservation, Sherman Alexie was not expected to succeed outside of his reservation home. The expectations for Native American children were not very high, but Alexie burst out of the stereotype and expectations put by white men. Young Native Americans were not expected to overcome their stereotypes and were forced to succumb to low levels of reading and writing “he was expected to fail in a non-Indian world” (Alexie 3), but Alexie was born with a passion for reading and writing, so much so that he taught himself to read at age three by simply looking at images in Marvel comics and piecing the words and pictures together. No young Native American had made it out of his reservation to become a successful writer like he did. This fabricates a clear ethos for Alexie, he is a perfect underdog in an imperfect world.

Michael was every woman’s dream guy. His was hair black and had extremely short hair with a fade. His eyes were a crystal blue as clear as water. His lips were a perfect shape just about as plump and juicy as a ripe plum. His shirt was stretched so far you could see his biceps and pecs through anything. Tattoos were his addiction. He was walking proof of that. On his left arm was a memorial of all the family that was called home, as well as the name of his mom, Queen Amanda. The tattoos didn’t stop there on his neck there was a pair of lips, and on his right hand he had a tattoo that described his upbringing “Texas made” and “One deep.” His tattoos went on further than that, but the one that stood out the most was the year he blessed this world with his appearance, across his chest, “Established 1991.” The freckles all over his face were like seeds to the apple. The glow beaming from his skin was something like rich ,creamy caramel. Not to mention the shine coming from the bling on his ears was like getting blinded by the sun. Besides all the looks, Michael has the personalities and the

In a powerful experiment we were able to see through the eyes of a kindergarten children prejudice dynamics. In a famous experience by Jane Elliot she separated her class between blue-eyed and brown-eyed students. Professor Elliot had separated her students by making one eye group inferior to the other making them have certain benefits and better treatment than the other group of students. Eventually, the students were switched the following day. This experiment have showed this group of kindergarten students how colors and discrimination affected the minority population. After this successful experiment with the kindergarten student’s professor Jane Elliot had done many other experiments using adults using the a similar technique blue-eyed

In the short novel The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton, many 1960s stereotypes are used which separate the characters by where they live, how they dress, and how they act, but Hinton quickly gave characters who did not abide or fit these stereotypes. This showed that no matter your hair, dress, home, hobbies, or financial situation, everyone will always be different, but that doesn’t mean no two people cannot become friends. The stereotypes that follow you do not determine your personality or actions, only you.

Sherman Alexie choose to reflect on his experience through the education system with the purpose of highlighting the mistreatment of Native American both inside and outside their own culture in “Indian Education”. This was accomplished through the structure of the narrative and use of techniques throughout it. For example, Alexie structures his writing into short, segmented parts based on his level of education going from the first grade to post-graduation. This type of structure allows for a fast-paced narrative where only the most impactful moments of Alexie’s education are shown. Moments such as him being ostracized by those at his reservation because he, “kissed the white girl, I felt the good-byes I was saying to my entire tribe”(Alexie par. 43) or when he overcame his bully and “the little warrior in me roared to life and knocked Frenchy to the ground” (Alexie par. 4) all demonstrated how his culture affected his life. Furthermore, Alexie uses a combination of dark humor and irony throughout the narrative in order to help explain his purpose. In the eighth grade, Alexie makes fun of the bulimic girls in his school by saying “Give me your lunch if you’re just going to throw it up”(Alexie par.51) when the irony of the situation is that Alexie is starving because he lives in poverty while these girls are wasting their food by throwing it up. Sherman Alexie's way of storytelling through short, fast-paced, segmented parts intertwined with dark humor and irony helps achieve his purpose for writing the narrative which was that Native Americans were not only persecuted outside of their culture, but

Jumping into a burning building is one of the things that the boys from the “Greaser Gang” would do for each other. When the main character, Ponyboy, jumps into a burning church to save children from the flames, his two gang members and family, Johnny and Dally, jump in after him to help get the children out and ensure that he can get out. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton shows two main themes. These themes show many examples of stereotyping could lead to misjudgment of people and to be loyal to the people around you, especially the ones close to you.

Sherman Alexie speaks about how native americans relate to their history by shifting from the present to the past, using the same speaker for both settings. The short story is told by victor, who remembers a time he and two other boys on his reservation got high. Throughout the story the boys have visions that entail the three of them playing roles of indians throughout history. First victor is seen stealing a horse, Alexie writes: “ crawling more quickly now, i make my way to the corral, right between the legs of a young boy asleep on his feet, he was supposed to keep watch for men like me” (15) this shift from the present to the past introduces both the concept of time, and specifically history, to the story. After the vision about victor, junior sees thomas dancing. “I dance one step and my sister rises from the ash. I dance another and a buffalo crashes down from the sky onto a log cabin in nebraska. With

We have all seen them in TV shows, movies, and music videos from the day. Greasers were heavily stereotyped gang members in the 40s and 50s that were known for their greased hair, switchblades, and leather jackets. How many of those are inaccurate, for greasers are not the only group that have been wrongfully stereotyped. One fictional greaser that has been stereotyped is Ponyboy, the fourteen year old narrator and main character of the popular novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Ponyboy is wrongfully stereotyped to be dumb, rough, and a criminal as are the rest of the greasers.

It is an inherent part of human nature to develop opinions or judgements about certain people, places, and events that occur in everyday life. The process of observing, analyzing, and drawing conclusions seems to be almost instinctual for human beings. However, while forming opinions about others can frequently be beneficial to one’s decision making, there is a fine line between harmless judgements and potentially dangerous stereotypes. In the novel Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie, the characters are existing during a period of great tension invoked by a serial killer. Due to the scalpless state of these murdered white males, citizens are quick to assume that the serial killer must be an Indian. On the other hand, the novel Gone Girl by

Diversity always flourishes when people do not stereotype each other, but do meaningful actions in life. In The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, the author explores qualities of characters in society when challenged greatly and what happens when the general population stereotypes. The book starts out with conflicts between Greasers, who are in poverty, and Socs, who rich and spoiled. Both classes believe the stereotypes against one another, and the characters soon come to realize that not all of them are true, and that all people have their own problems. This all starts happening after Johnny, a suspicious and scared Greaser kills a Soc who was drowning Ponyboy, the main character and narrator of the story, in a fountain.