Identity

Identity is something that has been discussed throughout the class, especially pertaining to those that have crossed some kind of border. The feeling of being lost, floating in a world that has been immersed with thoughts, traditions, rules, and other things unknown to the individual or individuals in question. Where is the safe haven or is there one? For many of the characters, there is never again going to be a place that is truly home, the characters are broken and hopeless in a strange world that they can’t or won’t adapt to because adapting is accepting the things that were never asked for in the first place, things that leave the characters vulnerable in a strange and unnatural world, a world that isn’t theirs.

The characters all try to find their own identity through their changing world. For example, in Ceremony, Tayo resorts to using the traditional ways of Native American healing and visits a medicine man. He also find his happiness in nature, back in the place that his people originally lived. In Sherman Alexie’s short stories the characters identity with alcohol and the remembrance of the old traditions, such as the boys in his story “A Drug Called Tradition.” The characters are not drinking alcohol, but instead have visions induced by some other drug that is not mentioned. In a way, the boys are partaking in a tradition of their tribe from long ago and visualize themselves being warriors in the old sense, which is impossible for them to achieve in the present day. Another way that the characters of his stories identity with their tribe is through story-telling, which Thomas Builds-the-Fire does throughout his whole life, but his people stopped listening to him, which almost seems to say that nobody identifies with the old ways of their people anymore because of things that stand in their way.

The theme of Alcohol in Alexie's short stories

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie has some interesting themes that are addressed. One of the more obvious themes is that of the role of alcohol among Native Americans. In his introduction to the collection of short stories, Alexie says that he doesn’t address the issue of alcohol because he is trying to be stereotypical, but he is rather taking his own experiences and using them in his stories. The debate about stereotyping Native Americans as drunks has been around for ages, but it originates from somewhere. Alexie himself says that his own childhood is filled with alcoholic parents. Luckily, his mother quit drinking, but his father didn’t.
His stories defy the stereotypical view in a sense because many of the stories contain characters that overcome the need to drink. For instance, in “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation” the two main characters do not drink alcohol anymore; in it’s place they drink Pepsi. Adrian and Victor are sitting on the porch watching the reservation. Although the two main characters are not drunk, the story dwells into the youth of the reservation and one particular basketball player who is thought to have been the best ever on the reservation. The two go so far as thinking of him as a hero because of his basketball skills, but sadly the potential of the basketball player is never met because he starts drinking. The way that Adrian and Victor talk about the youth shows the harshness of the reservation. They discuss whether the boy will make it or not in a nonchalant kind of way making it sound like this happens all the time. Nobody does anything about it either and lets the youth partake in drinking alcohol. This shows the hopelessness that the Indian population feels towards their situation, but there are a small number that do make it out, such as Alexie himself.