THE LAYERED LITERARY EXISTENCE OF THE YOUNG ADULT NATIVE AMERICAN MAN
File(s)
Date
2010-04Author
Sorensen, Trenton J.
Advisor(s)
Roth, Christine
Cannon, Liz
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Within Native American literature, young adult Native American men face many
obstacles to success on the journey to a layered existence that straddles the reservation
line. The men face stereotypes, tribal attitudes, poverty, alcoholism, and an overall
mental struggle to survive as Native American men that leaves them wobbling on the
dividing line between two worlds. The men have to overcome the obstacles in order to
achieve a sturdy balance of existence and successfully go back and forth between the
Native world and the outside world. Within Sherman Alexie's texts The Absolutely True
Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and The
Toughest Indian in the World; Alexie's films The Business of Fancydancing and Smoke
Signals; Richard Van Camp's The Lesser Blessed; and James Welch?s Winter in the
Blood, the protagonists struggle to balance their culture with the Western-influenced
outer world. The writers investigate tribal and non-tribal influences and pressures on
their Blackfoot, Dogrib, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene Native American male characters
as well as the inner mental struggles that the protagonists undergo on a path towards a
balanced existence. This layered existence connects with two-spirit identities through
issues of self acceptance and tribal and non-tribal influences on personal identity choices
and classifications, particularly within Alexie's texts and films. Overall, tribal peoples,
as well as surrounding populations, collude to create a hostile environment for Native
American men within the selected texts, and the protagonists are forced to fight for their
own existences and to achieve a life that combines the best of their culture with the
opportunities available off the reservation, albeit at varying levels of balance. Alexie,
Van Camp, and Welch present complex characters who face obstacles that can push them
closer to their Indian heritage or further away in order to gain a sense of belonging and
acceptance, and these colluding forces have to be balanced in order for these young adult
Native American male characters to live a harmonious life within a layered literary
existence.
Subject
Indians of North America intellectual life
American literature Indian authors
Indians in literature
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/47132Description
A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts-English