Three Essays on Literary Works

Indian Tales, People of Darkness, and the poems and stories in The Business of Fancydancing provide us with fiction focusing on American Indians and their way of life. In doing so, they open the world of the American Indian to us in a much more engaging way than scholarly and factual articles on Indian culture. Though such articles often provide factual information on American Indian culture, in fiction like these three books we are able to become more enmeshed in the American Indian way of thinking and living.

In Indian Tales, we are treated to the tales of Bear, his wife Antelope, and their son Fox as they travel to visit relatives. We see the camaraderie of American Indians in the journey of Bear and his family. We see this through a description of the games played by the family with the Flints that also shows the hospitality that infuses American Indian relations with each other. When they play a game, the Flint Chief tells them "You are the visitors, you start hiding them" (Angulo 26). We also see into the roles of women, like Loon Woman being a medicine doctor and Antelope's skills at weaving, which Doctor Loon appraises as "pretty" compared to the "rough stuff" for fishing she weaves (Angulo 97).

In Alexie's stories and poems, we see the pain, anger, and self-destructive behavior that often pervade the lives of American Indians who live on reservations. In "Special Delivery," Simon knocks over utility pokes and Thoma

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er and self-destructive behavior. Of these three works, I most enjoyed Fancydancing and least enjoyed Indian Tales. Body The stories and poems in Fancydancing not only entertained me more than the other works, but they also provided me with deeper understanding of the harsh realities of reservation life on American Indians. Basically separated into a microcosm of society on the reservation, many turn to alcohol and crazy behavior, like Thomas Builds-a-Fire's antics or those of Simon as he dispenses philosophy and wisdom from his seat at the bar. In "Special Delivery," Thomas Builds-A-Fire describes the limits of life on a reservation, a truth taught to him by Simon, "If there's a tree in the distance and you run to get there, run across the grass with all your heart, and you make it and touch the tree, press your face against the bark, then it is all true. But if you stumble and lose your way, move to the city and buy a VCR and watch cowboy movies all the time, then nothing is true" (Alexie 47). I liked Hillerman's mystery novel as well, particularly the often amusing and bemused demeanor of Sergeant Jim Chee as he learns more about the differences between American Indians and white Americans. As he solves his case, Chee is

Category: Literature - T