For Friday we'll read some material by and about Sherman Alexie. He's a writer and filmmaker, of Spokane and Coeur d'Allene heritage. Very sarcastic at times, but he expresses a viewpoint that has to be acknowledged. And he's funny, very funny.
Start with an interview on artistic and cultural values in his work in the online magazine BookPage. Then read an op ed piece he wrote for The Los Angeles Times, "I Hated Tonto (Still Do)," and his poem "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel," in our textbook Brain Swann, ed., Native American Songs and Poems, pp. 28-29. Bring Swann to class, and we'll compare Alexie's poem to traditional poetry in the book.
17 comments:
So anyways, I like the "I hate Tonto" article, it has a point with how the old indians are half breeds and that he hated Tonto b/c he was a lot like himself. The other article about "ten little indians" was ok but it just seems that its just another story about indians. Kind of like a Gary Paulson novel like the Hatchet or Brians Winter type of book.
The I hate Tonto article is mainly about how American Indians are mistreated and it isn't really about how he "hates" Tonto. Tonto is just one of the main points he has about misrepresenting American Indians. It is an article about how all people represent indians in a negative and offense way and the false beliefs people have.
The article "I Hate Tonto" is mainly about human nature than about Indians. It is human nature to categorize people and place them in groups. For example, Indians in movies are generally portrayed as warriors and are primitive while the "white man" is more civilized. Alexie uses himself as an example of the tendency of human nature. He sees these "half breed" Indians and sees how they are romantized in movies and he wants to be like them. He rejects Tonto because he is looks like him and the Indians that look like him are not the ones that are romantized in the movies. It is human nature to reject the unpopular and not want to be different because sometimes different is not accepted.
I think that the article " I Hate Tonto" was mainly related to people in general and how different groups of people can be stereotyped or falsely betrayed. In the article Sherman discussed how Indians were often misbetrayed in movies. Indians were often made out to be strong, almighty warriors that were always ready for battle. What I took the most from the article "I hate Tonto" I the reason that the author didn't like Tonto. And the reason Sherman didn't like Tonto is b/c Tonto looked so much like himself. I think that the showed that Sherman lexie's self-esteem must have been really low if he hated a person, simply because Tonto was a direct reflection of himself.
I think that the article " I Hate Tonto" was mainly related to people in general and how different groups of people can be stereotyped or falsely betrayed. In the article Sherman discussed how Indians were often misbetrayed in movies. Indians were often made out to be strong, almighty warriors that were always ready for battle. What I took the most from the article "I hate Tonto" I the reason that the author didn't like Tonto. And the reason Sherman didn't like Tonto is b/c Tonto looked so much like himself. I think that the showed that Sherman lexie's self-esteem must have been really low if he hated a person, simply because Tonto was a direct reflection of himself.
I'm not exactly sure what to think about Tonto. It seems that Alexie is just putting himself down by bashing on the way Hollywood interprets Indians. Then again, he is probably just trying to make a point that Indians are misinterpreted by everyone because of the way all of these movies portray them. Either way, I think Alexie hates Tonto because he knows that everyone else hates him. The last thing Alexie probably wants is to be different and say that he likes Tonto since he has had to be different his entire life.
This article is just a complaint/argument about how Indians are treated by the other people in the world. Not so much is he saying that he hates Tonto, he is just using him more or less as a topic for the article. Why would Alexie hate someone who was a reflection of him? Is he not happy with himself?
I think that "I Hate Tonto" is mostly about human nature in general, not about the Native Americans. Alexie refers to teh fact that he resents the way the Indians in movies are portrayed since they are often characterized as totally uncivilized savages. This can be seen with just about any racial group since many groups are racist against others and do not portray them correctly.
The main idea around "I hate tonto-still do" is that cinematic indians are different than blood idians. The author compares himself to tonto and hates himself for it. I think he hates tonto because he is jealous that the public perceives tonto as a better indian that he. The public only sees what is right in front of them- "movies". So, the only type of indian they see is tonto so i could see how he hates himself also because he IS the true indian but America only sees tonto-a "fake" image of him and he hates how he cannot compare to tonto's popularity. The image between Hollywood indians and true indians is blurred and so is the author's emotions when he faces himself.
sherman alexis relates to both indians and no indains becasue the relativiness to both groups. The indians related to his story, and the white men were amazed at the same time.his stories relate to human kind with nateure and the things that surrounded us. Indians were very well known for relating nearly everything to nature.
The article "I Hate Tonto" is mainly about human nature and some about Indians. It is human nautre to put people and places into groups. It is an article about how all people represent indians in a negative and offense way,and the false beliefs people have.
The "I Hate Tonto" article is mostly about how indians are compared to how indians act in the movies. The article is more about how people look at indians, instead about how much he hates Tonto.
In the article titles "I Hate Tonto, " it describes the nature and treatment of the American Indians. It showed how Indians were sterotyped. When the author compares himself to Tonto, he's interpretting that he hates himself. The article also says that Indians from movies aren't even close to being like real Indians.
What i got out of the "I Hate Tonto" article was that people portray other people differently when shown through media. People have their own opinions on what they think how people are. And basically the author is upset becuase he believes that people are portraying Tonto as something that he really isnt and the author believes that it is putting a bad reputation on their culture.
"I Hate Tanto" dealt more with human nature than it did with Indians...It dealt with sterotypes that were portrayed in movies that led to many people having a bad understanding of the native american culture. sherman Alexie was really trying to make the point that although these sterotypes were ignorant, they are just streotypes and people should understand that. Although they might be offense to him, he just laughs at them because of how rediculous they are
I think the "I hate Tonto" article had a lot to do with stereotyping. Since people perceive the way the indians were from the movies and films we watched, they just get there point of view from the movies.
The I hate Tonto indians is about how American Indians are mistreated. They hated Tonto b/c Alexie thought he was alot like himself so he did not like that. He sees these "half breed" Indians and sees how they are romantized in movies and he wants to be like them.
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