Joseph Mervis

Dr. Brideau

Writing the Essay

12 September 2017

In Indian Education, Sherman Alexie recounts the experiences of Victor as a Spokane/

Couer DAlene Indian attending school. He details experiences from first through twelfth

grade, both in a school on his reservation and in a predominantly white high school outside of

the reservation. Victor is tormented by his classmates and teachers and grapples with his

identity as a Native American in the world outside his tribe. Alexie argues that Native

Americans feel a need to suppress their cultural identity due to xenophobic pressures, leading

to a loss of self.

Victor experiences xenophobic views from not only his classmates but also powerful

adults in his life. He recounts multiple experiences of being shamed or punished by teachers

simply because of his ethnicity. He documents the irony that when reporting crimes committed

by minorities, their ethnicity is almost always reported, but when reporting crimes committed

by white people, their ethnicities seem to be unimportant. His dream in which a beautiful white

girl laughs at his name represents the shame he feels for his own cultural identity. His recount

of a fellow tribe members suicide hints that the conformity prescribed for Native Americans

can lead to not only a loss of cultural identity but also personal identity, and in some cases, the

will to live.
Joseph Mervis

Dr. Kate Brideau

Writing the Essay

23 September 2017

An Indian Education

In Indian Education, writer Sherman Alexie details a year-by-year account of his

schooling as a Spokane/Coeur dAlene Indian. Written through the lens of a character named

Victor, Alexies semi-fictional account follows Victor from first to twelfth grade. His experiences

extend to schooling not only on the reservation but also to a predominantly white high school

outside of the reservation. Victor is tormented by his classmates, teachers, and almost

everyone he meets as he grapples with his identity as a Native American. Alexie argues that

Native Americans feel a need to suppress their identity due to racial and cultural tension,

leading to a loss of self.

Alexie organizes the piece into sections based on what year of schooling Victor is going

through. He follows a similar structure throughout each section as he presents what appear to

be seemingly insignificant snapshots of that year. Alexies text is purposefully vague and

ambiguous, allowing the reader to formulate his or her own opinion of Victors experience and

its implications. However, each section ends in an impactful statement, triggering the reader to

reexamine the seemingly simple story for a bigger, underlying issue.

Throughout Victors journey, he experiences cultural tension within his tribe and racial

tension from those outside of the reservation. The irony of Alexie titling the excerpt Indian

Education lies in the realization that the piece focuses very little on education. It instead

focuses on the moments of tension that Victor experiences and how they shape him over time.

This tension prevents him from enjoying a typical education, which is supposed to be a right

for all citizens, while instead having to figure out at such young ages where he fits in the social

strata of his tribe and community.

 Alexei uses many of Victors interactions with his teachers on the reservation to paint a

picture of the Native American lifestyle from the white perspective. He details the hatred and

abuse Victor suers at the hands of his white teachers. In the second grade, Ms. Towle forces

him to eat paper after he passes a junior high spelling test she gave him out of spite. She

ironically justifies the act of a grown woman forcing a child to ingest paper by arguing that it

will help him learn respect. Throughout his early schooling years, it is evident that many of the

white teachers show little to no respect for the Native American students under their tutelage.

This creates not only a toxic learning environment but also a toxic environment for self-

discovery and growth, both crucial for children at these ages.

Ms. Towle continues to exemplify her lack of respect when during a parent-teacher

conference, she uses Victors own identity as a slur against him. She said it without

capitalization. She called me indian, indian, indian. And I said, Yes, I am. I am Indian. Indian,

I am. By referring to Victor as an indian without capitalization, Ms. Towle turn his identity

into an improper noun and attempts to use it as a slur by making it devoid of importance.

Alexei contrasts Ms. Towles use of Victors identity as a derogatory word with Victors

ownership of his identity as a proper noun. By retorting that he is Indian with capitalization,

Victor fights against his teacher and attempts to take back his identity, a fight that no six or

seven year old should have to put up. His punishment for being Native American continues at

the hands of his white teachers for years, and despite being far removed from his schooling

days, Alexei writes that he is still waiting for it to end.

Alexei also uses Victors interactions with his classmates and family members on the

reservation to paint his own picture of the Native American lifestyle. Victors classmates abuse

him while using self-deprecation by mocking traditional Native American names to make

insults. They call Victor Junior Falls Down, Bloody Nose, and Still-His-Lunch as they

steal his glasses, trip him, throw snowballs, and push him into the ground until he can no

longer breathe. When he cries after suering this abuse, the other children on the reservation
display both their cruelty and their animosity towards white outsiders when they nickname him,

Cries-Like-a-White-Boy, despite never actually seeing a white boy cry.

Alexei examines the choices that Native American youth feel they are forced to make

and how Victor diers from that path. In the fifth grade, Victor experiences the beauty of

possibility as he plays basketball. Meanwhile, his cousin experiences his own beauty by

sning rubber cement and playing on a merry-go-round. Alexei laments, Oh, do you

remember those sweet, almost innocent choices that the Indian boys were forced to make?

The irony in this statement comes from referring to playing basketball and sning rubber

cement both as sweet and innocent. However, the deeper meaning in the passage can be

found from the use of the word forced. These boys come from the same background and

society and yet feel forced to make choices and experience beauty in completely dierent

ways. This presents the idea that there is some aspect of Native American life so terrible that it

begs to be escaped from, even if it is a momentary escape through the high of rubber cement.

It also begs the question of why Victor feels he needs to make the dierent choice and part

with the ways of the other Native Americans, why he is able to escape from the life to a world

of possibility, and whether or not he will be able to remain there.

Victor describes the turmoil his family experiences on the reservation, such as the year

his father drank a gallon of vodka a day and his mother started hundreds of quilts but never

finished them, both while weeping constantly. He would return home and hear their Indian

tears. By calling them Indian tears, Victor attributes their sadness to the harsh realities of

their lives as Indians. He also asserts that these tears are dierent from others, for they are

from a sadness only Indians have to experience. He escapes from this reality by looking in the

mirror and creating a new persona for himself. Doctor Victor, I called myself, invented an

education, and talked to my reflection. Victor felt the need not only to invent an education,

because he never receives a proper one, but also to invent another identity. He longed to

disassociated himself from the sadness that was the life of a Native American.

 Victor's desire to disassociate himself manifests in his thoughts about getting away and

straying from tradition. In such a thought, he sees himself kissing a white girl, and through that

act he symbolically says goodbye to his entire tribe and his Native American identity. He says

that he held his lips tight, explaining the intensity of his desire to get away. However, he

describes the kiss as dry, clumsy, and ultimately stupid, a sentiment that echoes how he

feels his escape from the community would truly turn out to be.

Alexie constructs many of the sections to overshadow the personal accomplishments

of Victor, detailing how so many positive moments in his life were ruined by hatred and tension.

After playing an intense game of basketball, Victor faints during a slow song at the school

dance. However, he experiences discrimination once again as a Chicano teacher makes

comments attributing his fainting to intoxication, as he believes Indian kids start drinking at a

young age. This discrimination overshadows the success of Victors basketball game and his

experience at the dance, both rites of passage during a school career. Similarly, by describing

how the newspaper prints Victors graduation picture alongside that of his classmates back on

the reservation, Alexei shows how even the act of him graduating is overshadowed. Many of

the Native American students on the reservation graduated without the ability to read or with

attendance degrees. By comparing Victors graduation to those with substandard abilities, it

further overshadows and undermines an important milestone in his development.

However, the most important moment of overshadowing comes from the juxtaposition

of Victor receiving his drivers license on the same day Wally Jim killed himself by driving his

car into a tree. When Native Americans were asked why Jim might have killed himself, Alexie

states that they will not answer as they see the history of [their] tribe in [their] eyes, taste

failure in the tap water, and shake with old tears. By listing these reasons, Alexei

acknowledges that Victor understands why someone in the Native American experience would

want to end their own life. Their history of being abused and mistreated, their failure to make

progress for themselves, and the old tears that shake within all Native Americans, especially

Victors own family, reverberate through his mind as he too ponders whether life is still worth
living. Believe me, everything looks like a noose if you stare at it long enough. Victor states

that by staring at something long enough, such as acts of hatred against Native Americans or

even his own reflection, they can all feel like threats of their own demise.

Alexie constructs his narrative as a sort of fable, carrying larger meanings hidden within

the details of each account. He attempts to convey to the reader the intensity of the Native

Americans' struggles. He implores the reader to care about this uniquely Native American

experience. However, his story also sheds a light on the the universal struggle that so many

ethnic groups and cultures feel as they are pressured to assimilate and find their place in an

ever-imposing society. There are Victors all around us, as Mexican children are chased around

American playgrounds with threats of deportation, as Muslim children are met at school with

shouts to Make America Great Again, and as a child who immigrated illegally at a young age

wakes up in the morning wondering if she will have to be sent back to a country she has never

known. These children all grow up in a world that feels it would be more convenient if they just

went somewhere else. Go ahead and tell them none of this is supposed to hurt them very

much.
 Joseph Mervis

Dr. Kate Brideau

Writing the Essay

23 September 2017

An Indian Education

In Indian Education, writer Sherman Alexie details a year-by-year account of his

schooling as a Spokane/Coeur dAlene Indian. Written through the lens of a character named

Victor, Alexies semi-fictional account follows Victor from first to twelfth grade. His experiences
at
extend to schooling not only on the reservation but also to a predominantly white high school

outside of the reservation. Victor is tormented by his classmates, teachers, and almost

everyone he meets as he grapples with his identity as a Native American. Alexie argues that

Native Americans feel a need to suppress their identity due to racial and cultural tension,

leading to a loss of self.

Alexie organizes the piece into sections based on what year of schooling Victor is going

through. He follows a similar structure throughout each section as he presents what appear to
is this
description be seemingly insignificant snapshots of that year. Alexies text is purposefully vague and
necessary to
your larger ambiguous, allowing the reader to formulate his or her own opinion of Victors experience and
argument?
its implications. However, each section ends in an impactful statement, triggering the reader to

reexamine the seemingly simple story for a bigger, underlying issue.

nicely stated Throughout Victors journey, he experiences cultural tension within his tribe and racial

tension from those outside of the reservation. The irony of Alexie titling the excerpt Indian

Education lies in the realization that the piece focuses very little on education. It instead

focuses on the moments of tension that Victor experiences and how they shape him over time.

This tension prevents him from enjoying a typical education, which is supposed to be a right

for all citizens, while instead having to figure out at such young ages where he fits in the social

strata of his tribe and community.

 Alexei uses many of Victors interactions with his teachers on the reservation to paint a

picture of the Native American lifestyle from the white perspective. He details the hatred and
for instance,
abuse Victor suers at the hands of his white teachers. In the second grade, Ms. Towle forces
citation?
him to eat paper after he passes a junior high spelling test she gave him out of spite. She

ironically justifies the act of a grown woman forcing a child to ingest paper by arguing that it

will help him learn respect. Throughout his early schooling years, it is evident that many of the

white teachers show little to no respect for the Native American students under their tutelage.

This creates not only a toxic learning environment but also a toxic environment for self-

discovery and growth, both crucial for children at these ages.

Ms. Towle continues to exemplify her lack of respect when during a parent-teacher

conference, she uses Victors own identity as a slur against him. She said it without

capitalization. She called me indian, indian, indian. And I said, Yes, I am. I am Indian. Indian,
citation?
s
I am. By referring to Victor as an indian without capitalization, Ms. Towle turn his identity

into an improper noun and attempts to use it as a slur by making it devoid of importance.
you may not
need to te$ your Alexei contrasts Ms. Towles use of Victors identity as a derogatory word with Victors
reader this,
since you show ownership of his identity as a proper noun. By retorting that he is Indian with capitalization,
it to the Victor fights against his teacher and attempts to take back his identity, a fight that no six or
surrounding
sentences seven year old should have to put up. His punishment for being Native American continues at

the hands of his white teachers for years, and despite being far removed from his schooling

days, Alexei writes that he is still waiting for it to end.

Alexei also uses Victors interactions with his classmates and family members on the

reservation to paint his own picture of the Native American lifestyle. Victors classmates abuse
Its not quite
self- him while using self-deprecation by mocking traditional Native American names to make
deprecation, is
it? Perhaps insults. They call Victor Junior Falls Down, Bloody Nose, and Still-His-Lunch as they
cultural self-
deprecation? steal his glasses, trip him, throw snowballs, and push him into the ground until he can no
longer breathe. When he cries after suering this abuse, the other children on the reservation
 display both their cruelty and their animosity towards white outsiders when they nickname him,
citation?
Cries-Like-a-White-Boy, despite never actually seeing a white boy cry.

Alexei examines the choices that Native American youth feel they are forced to make

and how Victor diers from that path. In the fifth grade, Victor experiences the beauty of

possibility as he plays basketball. Meanwhile, his cousin experiences his own beauty by

sning rubber cement and playing on a merry-go-round. Alexei laments, Oh, do you
citation?
remember those sweet, almost innocent choices that the Indian boys were forced to make?

The irony in this statement comes from referring to playing basketball and sning rubber

nice! cement both as sweet and innocent. However, the deeper meaning in the passage can be

found from the use of the word forced. These boys come from the same background and

society and yet feel forced to make choices and experience beauty in completely dierent

ways. This presents the idea that there is some aspect of Native American life so terrible that it

begs to be escaped from, even if it is a momentary escape through the high of rubber cement.

It also begs the question of why Victor feels he needs to make the dierent choice and part

with the ways of the other Native Americans, why he is able to escape from the life to a world

of possibility, and whether or not he will be able to remain there.

Victor describes the turmoil his family experiences on the reservation, such as the year

his father drank a gallon of vodka a day and his mother started hundreds of quilts but never

finished them, both while weeping constantly. He would return home and hear their Indian
citation?
tears. By calling them Indian tears, Victor attributes their sadness to the harsh realities of

their lives asIndians. He also asserts that these tears are dierent from others, for they are
Native Americans
from a sadness only Indians have to experience. He escapes from this reality by looking in the

mirror and creating a new persona for himself. Doctor Victor, I called myself, invented an
citation?
education, and talked to my reflection. Victor felt the need not only to invent an education,

because he never receives a proper one, but also to invent another identity. He longed to

disassociated himself from the sadness that was the life of a Native American.

he graduated as valedictorian !om

the farm town high school, are you
sure he never receives a proper
education?
 Is this to be understood in the same way he
imagined himself to be a doctor?

Victor's desire to disassociate himself manifests in his thoughts about getting away and

straying from tradition. In such a thought, he sees himself kissing a white girl, and through that

act he symbolically says goodbye to his entire tribe and his Native American identity. He says

that he held his lips tight, explaining the intensity of his desire to get away. However, he
citation?
describes the kiss as dry, clumsy, and ultimately stupid, a sentiment that echoes how he

feels his escape from the community would truly turn out to be.

Alexie constructs many of the sections to overshadow the personal accomplishments

of Victor, detailing how so many positive moments in his life were ruined by hatred and tension.

After playing an intense game of basketball, Victor faints during a slow song at the school

dance. However, he experiences discrimination once again as a Chicano teacher makes

comments attributing his fainting to intoxication, as he believes Indian kids start drinking at a
citation?
young age. This discrimination overshadows the success of Victors basketball game and his

experience at the dance, both rites of passage during a school career. Similarly, by describing

how the newspaper prints Victors graduation picture alongside that of his classmates back on

the reservation, Alexei shows how even the act of him graduating is overshadowed. Many of

the Native American students on the reservation graduated without the ability to read or with

attendance degrees. By comparing Victors graduation to those with substandard abilities, it

further overshadows and undermines an important milestone in his development.

However, the most important moment of overshadowing comes from the juxtaposition

of Victor receiving his drivers license on the same day Wally Jim killed himself by driving his

car into a tree. When Native Americans were asked why Jim might have killed himself, Alexie

states that they will not answer as they see the history of [their] tribe in [their] eyes, taste
citation?
failure in the tap water, and shake with old tears. By listing these reasons, Alexei

acknowledges that Victor understands why someone in the Native American experience would

want to end their own life. Their history of being abused and mistreated, their failure to make

progress for themselves, and the old tears that shake within all Native Americans, especially

Victors own family, reverberate through his mind as he too ponders whether life is still worth
 citation?
living. Believe me, everything looks like a noose if you stare at it long enough. Victor states

that by staring at something long enough, such as acts of hatred against Native Americans or

even his own reflection, they can all feel like threats of their own demise.

Alexie constructs his narrative as a sort of fable, carrying larger meanings hidden within

the details of each account. He attempts to convey to the reader the intensity of the Native

Americans' struggles. He implores the reader to care about this uniquely Native American

experience. However, his story also sheds a light on the the universal struggle that so many

ethnic groups and cultures feel as they are pressured to assimilate and find their place in an

ever-imposing society. There are Victors all around us, as Mexican children are chased around

American playgrounds with threats of deportation, as Muslim children are met at school with

shouts to Make America Great Again, and as a child who immigrated illegally at a young age

wakes up in the morning wondering if she will have to be sent back to a country she has never

known. These children all grow up in a world that feels it would be more convenient if they just

went somewhere else. Go ahead and tell them none of this is supposed to hurt them very

much.
Joey,
Nicely done. You have some great details and analysis drawn from Alexies piece, and you bridge that analysis
into more contemporary political issues to argue that the issues Alexie raises are still very relevant today even
outside the Native American community.

I think the challenge for revision is going to be brevity, and focusing your reader on your analysis earlier. The
paper begins as primarily description of Alexies piece, but I think it would be better to give your reader a
sense of why they are reading this description. That is, what will they gain by reading about this essay? Are
they just reading about the tension in Native American youth? Or are they reading something about the more
general issues you raise at the end about prejudice and alienation among American youth? Try to focus your
reader by giving them a sense of whats at stake from the beginning.

As it stands this paper is a bit long, and editing may be dicult because a good deal of your description and
analysis is compelling. However, I would urge you to go through this anyways and ask yourself if each scene
you cover is necessary to the larger argument youre making. How much detail from Victors life does your
reader need in order to grasp the key points you want them to walk away with? Cutting out detail that isnt
necessary will help strengthen your message as wellnot just cut down on the page count.

Finally, if youre foregrounding this broader point that incorporates Dreamers, Muslims, etc., you may want
to ask yourself how closely you want to draw parallels between Victors experiences and those contemporary
experiences. For instance, does the discussion of Victors parents necessarily translate, given that most devout
Muslims dont drink alcohol, and most immigrants are hard working? If not, does your reader need to know
about his parents?
kcb
 Works Cited

Alexei, Sherman. Indian Education. The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose,

edited by Laura Buzzard, Don LePan, Nora Ruddock, and Alexandria Stuart, Broadview

Press, 2016, 125-127.

For texts with three or more authors/ editors you can shorten the list by using the
abbreviation et al., that is:
edited by Laura Buzzard, et al., Broadview Press
 Mapping

I. What does natural mean?

A. No working definition

1. Judges need one for challenged food claims

B. People want word to describe something not contaminated by humanity

1. Can also be used for many rhetorical uses

a) Vaccines

b) Gay marriage

c) DNR

d) Natural birth

2. Moral standard, set of values to aspire to

II. Finding a definition

A. One answer - nature consists of everything in the world except humans and what we
make or did

B. Absence of human intervention

C. Applied to humans, can mean tradition

D. Naturalistic fallacy

1. Whatever is (in nature) is what ought to be (in human behavior)

2. Cherry-picking what models/morals in nature to follow

3. Like bible, nature can be ransacked for any justification

III. Probably impossible to find natural in the food industry

A. Nature is everything

B. Nothing left we havent touched

IV. Nature is over, search for values elsewhere

 OUTLINE 1

Z) Thoughts about whites/white worlds

p. 106 - Hated white world, evident in description of his missionary teachers

Y) What white world thought of Native American (and non-white thought)

106 - HER god would never forgive Victor for drawing of her on a broom

106 - Hatred and abuse, given spelling test for junior high in 2nd grade, passed, made

him eat paper to learn respect

106 - She said it without capitalization. She called me indian, indian, indian. And I

said, Yes I am. I am Indian. Indian, I am. - Contrast of her using his identity as a derogatory

word, improper noun and his ownership of this identity as a proper noun.

106 - For drawing inappropriate picture, Mrs. Schluter made him stand alone in corner,

facing wall. Still waiting for punishment to end. Structure, maybe end paragraph

108 - Newspaper report about white girl raped by foster parent hit papers, never said

they were white, so Victor assumes people thought Indians being Indians

109 - Discrimination even from non-whites as Chicano teacher says sterotype about

Indians starting drinking at young age.

X) Native American lifestyle

p. 105 - Native American self-deprecation as they mock traditional names to make

insults, called Victor Junior Falls Down, Bloody Nose Steal-His Lunch as they pushed him

into the snow until he couldnt breathe, stole his glasses, tripped him, through snowballs

Cries-Like-a-White-Boy, even though never seen white boy cry

107 - Contrasts choices he made and what other Indian boys felt need to make. When

he played basketball, saw math and geometry, felt it was beautiful. Other Native Americans

snied rubber cement and that was their form of beauty. Both felt need based on the society

they came from. Oh, do you remember those sweet, almost innocent choices that the Indian

boys were forced to make? Not sweet or innocent. Forced?

 OUTLINE 2

107 - Describes year father drank gallon of vodka a day and mother started quilts but

never finished. He heard their Indian tears (disassocation) and looked in the mirror. Doctor

Victor, I called myself, invented an education, talked to my reflection. Had to invent not only an

education, because never received a proper one, but also another identity. Felt need to

disassociate from the sadness that was life of Indian.

p. 106 - Even from young age, imitate Crazy Horse, feel need to be someone

else, to be warrioor.

110 - When graduate, Alexei says kids on reservation Smile for the photographer as

they look back toward tradition. Contrast of them looking back instead of looking forward

towards their futures shows they really have no future. They will simply fall back on tradition, do

what has always been done.

110 - Why organize reunion, his graudating class meets every weekend at Powwow

Tavern, shows his desire not to look back to move forward. Reveals his desire to get away.

W) Desire to get away

108 - Dream about kissing white girl, saying goodbye to entire tribe. showed he felt

need to escape. Held his lips tight, called it Dry, clumsy, and ultimately stupid - also shows

how he feels escape would actually turn out to be. saying goodbye to [his] tribe, to all the

Indian girls and women [he] might have loved, to all the Indian men who might have called [him]

cousin, even brother.

Overshadow

109 - Discrimination even from non-whites as Chicano teacher says sterotype about

Indians starting drinking at young age. But also beings trend of Alexei showing how positive

moments in his life were overshadowed by hatred and tension. This discrimnation and fainting

from after game overshadows the dance to a slow song, one of the rites of passage at a school

dance.

 OUTLINE 3

110 - Pictures ran alongside each other of graduation in school newspaper,

overshadows his graduation by comaparing it to those who graduated without ability to read or

just because of attendance.

109 - Overshadows his passing and receiving drivers license by sory of Wally Jim

killing himself, driving car into tree.

Loss of self

109 - White people didnt know why. Indians wouldnt answer as they saw the history

of our tribe in our eyes, taste failure in the tap water, and shake with old tears. He understood.

Believe me, everything looks like a noose if you stare at it long enough. Stare in the mirror

long enough at himself, stop recognizing himself, and feels like this process is actually killing

him.

CONCLUSION: Parable/fable (message is transferrable). Why should reader care?

 Mervis 1

Joseph Mervis

Dr. Kate Brideau

Writing the Essay

1 October 2017

An Indian Education

Since the day it was founded, America has been a country made up of and created by

immigrants. One would assume modern day America would therefore embrace immigrants

and all peoples who are dierent. However, widespread xenophobia has taken over many

parts of America, accompanied by prejudice and alienation that penetrate deep within society.

Many immigrants, foreigners, or people deemed somehow dierent now live in a state of

constant fear, as marches and rallies across the country threaten their very existence. Growing

up in a country so hostile to dierence, one cannot overlook the eect this tension has on

children within these seemingly unwelcome cultures. In Indian Education, writer Sherman

Alexie details a year-by-year account of his schooling as a Spokane/Coeur dAlene Indian.

Written through the lens of a character named Victor, Alexies semi-fictional account follows

Victor from first to twelfth grade. His experiences extend to schooling not only on the

reservation but also at a predominantly white high school outside of the reservation. Victor is

tormented by his classmates, teachers, and almost everyone he meets as he grapples with his

identity as a Native American. Alexie argues that Native Americans feel a need to suppress

their identity due to racial and cultural tension, leading to a loss of self.

Throughout Victors journey, he experiences cultural tension within his tribe and racial

tension from those outside of the reservation. The irony of Alexie titling the excerpt Indian

Education lies in the realization that the piece focuses very little on education. It instead

focuses on the moments of tension that Victor experiences and how they shape him over time.

This tension prevents him from enjoying a typical education, which is supposed to be a right

for all citizens, while instead having to figure out at such young ages where he fits in the social

strata of his tribe and community.

 Mervis 2

Alexie uses many of Victors interactions with his teachers on the reservation to paint a

picture of the Native American lifestyle from the white perspective. He details the hatred and

abuse Victor suers at the hands of his white teachers. In the second grade, for instance, Ms.

Towle forces him to eat paper after he passes a junior high spelling test she gave him out of

spite (Alexie 373). Throughout his early schooling years, it is evident that many of the white

teachers show little to no respect for the Native American students under their tutelage. This

creates not only a toxic learning environment but also a toxic environment for self-discovery

and growth, both crucial for children at these ages.

Ms. Towle continues to exemplify her lack of respect when during a parent-teacher

conference, she uses Victors own identity as a slur against him. She said it without

capitalization. She called me indian, indian, indian. And I said, Yes, I am. I am Indian. Indian,

I am (Alexie 373). By referring to Victor as an indian without capitalization, Ms. Towle turn

his identity into an improper noun and attempts to use it as a slur by making it devoid of

importance. By retorting that he is Indian with capitalization, Victor fights against his teacher

and attempts to take back his identity, a fight that no six or seven year old should have to put

up. His punishment for being Native American continues at the hands of his white teachers for

years, and despite being far removed from his schooling days, Alexie writes that he is still

waiting for it to end.

Alexie also uses Victors interactions with his classmates and family members on the

reservation to paint his own picture of the Native American lifestyle. Victors classmates abuse

him while calling him names like Junior Falls Down, Bloody Nose, and Steal-His-

Lunch (Alexie 372). Alexie details the cultural self-deprecation within the tribe as the other

students mock traditional Native American names to make insults.

Alexie examines the choices that Native American youth feel they are forced to make

and how Victor diers from that path. In the fifth grade, Victor experiences the beauty of

possibility as he plays basketball. Meanwhile, his cousin experiences his own beauty by

sning rubber cement and playing on a merry-go-round. Alexei laments, Oh, do you
 Mervis 3

remember those sweet, almost innocent choices that the Indian boys were forced to

make? (Alexie 374). The irony in this statement comes from referring to playing basketball and

sning rubber cement both as sweet and innocent. These boys come from the same

background and society and yet feel forced to make choices and experience beauty in

completely dierent ways. This presents the idea that there is some aspect of Native American

life so terrible that it begs to be escaped from, even if it is a momentary escape through the

high of rubber cement.

Victor's desire to disassociate himself manifests in his thoughts about getting away and

straying from tradition. In the fourth grade, he attempts to escape his own reality by looking in

the mirror and creating a new persona for himself. Doctor Victor, I called myself, invented an

education, and talked to my reflection (Alexie 374). Victor felt the need to invent another

identity, revealing his longing to disassociate himself from the sadness of his own life. In the

seventh grade, he kisses a white girl, and through that act he symbolically says goodbye to his

entire tribe and his Native American identity. He says that he held his lips tight, explaining the

intensity of his desire to get away. However, he describes the kiss as dry, clumsy, and

ultimately stupid, a sentiment that echoes how he feels his escape from the community would

truly turn out to be (Alexie 375).

Alexie constructs many of the sections to overshadow the personal accomplishments

of Victor, detailing how so many positive moments in his life were ruined by hatred and tension.

After playing an intense game of basketball, Victor faints during a slow song at the school

dance. However, he experiences discrimination once again as a Chicano teacher makes

comments attributing his fainting to intoxication, as he believes Indian kids start drinking at a

young age (Alexie 376). This discrimination overshadows the success of Victors basketball

game and his experience at the dance, both rites of passage during a school career. Similarly,

by describing how the newspaper prints Victors graduation picture alongside that of his

classmates back on the reservation, Alexie shows how even the act of him graduating is

overshadowed (Alexie 377). Many of the Native American students on the reservation
 Mervis 4

graduated without the ability to read or with attendance degrees. By comparing Victors

graduation to those with substandard abilities, it further overshadows and undermines an

important milestone in his development.

However, the most important moment of overshadowing comes from the juxtaposition

of Victor receiving his drivers license on the same day Wally Jim killed himself by driving his

car into a tree. When Native Americans are asked why Jim might have killed himself, Alexie

states that they will not answer as they see the history of [their] tribe in [their] eyes, taste

failure in the tap water, and shake with old tears (Alexie 376). Alexie acknowledges that Victor

understands why someone in the Native American experience would want to end their own life.

Their history of being abused and mistreated, their failure to make progress for themselves,

and the old tears that shake within all Native Americans, especially Victors own family,

reverberate through his mind as he too ponders whether life is still worth living. Believe me,

everything looks like a noose if you stare at it long enough (Alexie 376). Victor states that by

staring at something long enough, such as acts of hatred against Native Americans or even his

own reflection, they can all feel like threats of his own demise.

Alexie constructs his narrative as a sort of fable, carrying larger meanings hidden within

the details of each account. He attempts to convey to the reader the intensity of the Native

Americans' struggles. He implores the reader to care about this uniquely Native American

experience. However, his story also sheds a light on the universal struggle that so many ethnic

groups and cultures feel as they are pressured to assimilate and find their place in an ever-

imposing society. There are Victors all around us, as Mexican children are chased around

American playgrounds with threats of deportation, as Muslim children are met at school with

shouts to Make America Great Again, and as a dreamer who immigrated illegally at a young

age wakes up in the morning wondering if she will have to be sent back to a country she has

never known. These children all grow up in a world that feels it would be more convenient if

they just went somewhere else. Go ahead and tell them none of this is supposed to hurt them

very much.
 Mervis 5

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. Indian Education. The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose,

edited by Laura Buzzard, et al., Broadview Press, 2016, 372-377.

 Mervis 1

Joseph Mervis

Dr. Kate Brideau

Writing the Essay

1 October 2017

Reflection

While working on the close-reading assignment, there were plenty of moments in which

problems arose and my weaknesses were highlighted. However, there were a few moments

where I felt myself able to celebrate small victories. I felt like one of the main aspects that

worked well in this assignment was the close reading itself and the analysis of the text. I feel

like this actually has a lot to do with classwork for my major, as a huge part of our program is

trying to extract meaning from text and understand the purpose of every nuance. Because of

this, I never felt there was a shortage of commentary to make. I actually found one of the

hardest aspects to be the opposite, distilling the piece down to only include the most relevant

pieces of text to my argument. I felt happy with my voice and tone in the piece, hopefully

doing the story justice. I also felt like I did a good job of making an argument about Alexies

experience and connecting it to what we are experiencing today.

My main struggle with this paper, as has been my struggle with almost all papers, was

always staying relevant to my argument. Many of my papers are plagued by superfluous

writing or, in most cases, too much plot. Including too much plot has always been one of my

main issues. I always find myself trying to use too much plot. It is hard for me to justify using

plot and telling the story while always remaining relevant to my argument. Also, I always

struggle with word choice and simplicity. I somehow always seem to want to use six words

where one will do. This problem was highlighted for me when we had our lesson on the use of

metaphors and sentence structure earlier in the semester.

I think I was able to overcome some of my struggles with including too much plot in my

journey from the rough draft to the final draft. Much of this came from the commentary from

Dr. Brideau and my workshopping group. I also went through the paper and examined each
 Mervis 2

piece of text to ask, Does this help my argument? In some cases I asked, Is this strong

enough in helping my argument? If the answer to either one of those questions was no, I

deleted that piece. I also worked to overcome the issue of superfluous text by trying to avoid

metaphors and by varying sentence structure.

For the next paper, I am looking forward to working on always staying relevant to the

argument. Now that I have evolved in being able to form stronger and more succinct

arguments, I feel like my papers can be more successful and compelling if I really hone in on

those arguments and avoid excess. I would also like to work on having a rough draft for my

rough draft. I think I could have fixed a lot of problems in my rough draft if I had a screening

process in place before I had to turn it in. I would like to complete the next paper two days

before the deadline, so I can have one day to step away from it and the next to return with

fresh eyes and fix as many problems as I can.