Introduction:
For my project on the literature of a traditionally underrepresented group I choose to focus on American Indian literature. Initially, this might not seem like an underrepresented group. The Native American theme is very popular in children’s books and there are many award winning children’s novels with an Indian theme. Yet, in a flashback to the insider/outside debate, the story of American Indians is still underrepresented. In African American literature, or Asian American literature, the author usually belongs to that cultural group. Yet with Native American literature the author is very rarely native. In 1995 98.5% of children’s books with an Indian theme were written by non-native authors. This outsider approach has created a homogenous view of American Indians. In 1994 out of 70 books published, only 31 specified a certain Indian nation. When they did specify, more often than not it was Navajo or Cherokee. As a result, children are often left with a very outdated picture of who the American Indian is. They see them stereotyped and permanently stuck in the past, wearing feathers in their hair and painting their faces to go to war. The picture of the contemporary Indian is lost in most current children’s literature. In the three books that I have reviewed the main character is Indian, but each has an individual tribe name identified and none of them are what is considered a “mainstream” tribe name like the Cherokee. While factually correct literature about American Indians from the past is important, it is also vital that children realize that Indians are not just something in our past. All the books I looked at are set in contemporary times and each chooses to grapple with the stereotypes of the contemporary American Indian in their own unique and authentic way. One of the authors chose to buck the stereotype that all modern Indians are poor and alcoholics. The other two authors chose to deal with some of the difficult issues surrounding current Native culture. Each of the authors is an insider to their own story and they each give us their tales with style. Most importantly, the protagonists in each story are able to offer the reader a “window and a mirror” with characters that the reader can really imagine instead of the image of the fanciful Indian in the woods or prairies of long ago America.
Professional Resource:
Knoeller, Christian P., and Gail Zdilla. "A First Opinion: Breaking Down Stereotypes of Contemporary. A Second Reaction: A Strong Adolescent Voice Reflects American
Indian Life" Rev. of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. First Opinions, Second Reactions Sept. 2008: 25-28.
This review consisted of two separate “looks” at the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. The reviewers were college English professors, not necessarily experts in the field of Native American literature, but credentials beyond that were not provided. The “first opinion” primarily discussed the multiple social issued raised in Sherman Alexie’s work. It provided an in-depth look at some of the themes explored in the novel, including social acceptance, alcoholism, and death. Knoeller also spends time discusses the cartoons that are included in the novel and while he provides brief titles of the various cartoons, without having read the book it would be difficult to ascertain their value or what they added to the reading of the novel. Nevertheless, Knoeller seems to have captured the spirit of the novel when he describes it as having, “playful illustrations, disarmingly candid narrator, and pitch-perfect humor.”
The “second reaction” of this review focused on how this novel could be used in a school setting as an accompaniment to learning about Native Americans. Zdilla almost immediately raises the concern discussed in the introduction of this paper, that children in schools today do not spend nearly enough time learning about the contemporary American Indian. The review discusses how this novel will appeal to young readers because many of the situations will appear familiar to them even if the protagonist does not have all of the same experiences. This too reflects the “mirror and window” analogy. Zdilla raised the idea that reluctant readers may use the cartoon illustrations to be drawn further into the text and this is an interesting idea. When considering whether this novel would be a good addition to your classroom experience, Zdilla’s closing comments are a vital thought to remember. “Junior’s voice will stay with adolescent readers and help them understand the reservation experience, haunted by alcohol abuse and oppression but rich in family love, and know something about what it feels like to be American Indian in a White world.” In order to help give students a different perspective on their world, one of the goals of multicultural literature, Zdilla seems to argue that Part-Time Indian would be a way to achieve this.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Review of American Indian Literature
Book Reviews:
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. Rain is Not My Indian Name. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Rain didn’t know the evening that she and her best friend Galen snuck out to celebrate New Year’s Eve alone that it would be the last night she saw him alive. It wasn’t her fault that he died, but Galen’s mother doesn’t seem to want to forgive her so Rain decides to lock herself away in her own world of hurt and guilt. It isn’t until her aunt decides to start an Indian Camp in her hometown that Rain must come out and make a stand. The city council is not sure whether to give Rain’s aunt funding for her camp and Galen’s mother is absolutely against it, especially since Rain herself is not planning on joining the camp. But Rain is more interested in her photography than studying her native heritage. Smith artfully weaves the story of Rain’s torn feelings about not participating in Indian camp well with her guilt and sadness over Galen’s death. Rain is a “mixed blood” Indian, so while she identifies with her Indian roots, it is not the only thing that defines her. Her brother’s hair is blonde and does not look Indian at all, while Rain has darker hair. Still, she is often approached by people who claim that she doesn’t “seem Indian.” Smith presents an image of how one can be Indian while living in the suburbs instead of on a reservation. Her family is broken up but that’s because her mother died several years ago and her father is in the military, not because of alcohol or drug abuse. While it was sometimes difficult to connect with the parade of characters marching in and out of this novel, Smith seemed to be trying to explicitly paint Rain as a normal suburban girl dealing primarily with the death of her best friend and the drama at home after Rain’s brother finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant. Although her aunt’s Indian camp is part of the novel, Smith chose not to make being Indian a conflicted part of Rain’s identity. In doing so, she was able to focus more fully on developing the other parts of Rain’s character.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown
and Company, 2007.
Junior has a problem. He is too skinny, his head is too big, and he has a list of medical problems longer than his size 11 feet. Unfortunately, that isn’t his biggest problem. Junior has decided to transfer from his school on the rez to the Reardan Public School- and turning your back on your people to go to the white school is just something you don’t do if you want to have any friends left. But Junior wants to be a cartoonist, and he knows he has to leave the rez to find hope outside of the troubles with abuse and alcohol that are unfortunately all too common on the rez. To help show Junior’s skill as an artist, Ellen Forney has illustrated the novel with cartoons that Junior has created that are both hilarious and at the same time poignantly paint the picture of the struggles of a young boy dealing with poverty and with what it means to be Indian. One cartoon lists: Why I Actually Miss a Lot of School, with reasons like no money, wakes and funerals, and couldn’t find a ride. Readers will delight in finding each new cartoon which adds a powerful additional dimension to the telling of Junior’s story. Every day is a struggle for Junior to make his way twenty miles down the road to the white school. While Junior didn’t ever seem to fit in on the rez, at least they all looked the same as him. Now he has to deal with fitting in at the white school. To help, he joins the basketball team and befriends the prettiest girl in school, a slightly improbable turn of events. But his troubles aren’t over yet because his new basketball team is scheduled to play his old basketball team from the rez this year. Alexie is not afraid to grapple with many of the problems currently plaguing Indian families in contemporary times- from alcohol and drug misuse, to abuse, to death. Yet he does it so skillfully that instead of having the reader look down upon Junior’s community, they are hopeful for the future. This mix of hope and trouble and nothing but the brutal truth was masterfully blended to leave the reader not sure whether to laugh or cry. One thing is for sure, Sherman Alexie has created a must read novel for readers of any age.
Van Camp, Richard. The Lesser Blessed. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntrye, 1996.
High school senior Larry narrates this moving tale of love, loss, and what friendship really means. Larry is a Dogrib Indian who lives with his single mother in a small community in northern Canada. While not always popular, he pays attention in school and seems to be a good student until he meets Johnny Beck, a rebel who doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything. Larry is immediately drawn to this freewheeling lifestyle because he seems anything but; he’s skinny, nervous, and deathly afraid of girls. Yet the two of them bond and Larry gradually sinks into the life of a hard partier. Van Camp is not one to shy away from explicit sexual scenes and drug use, which might not make this appropriate for younger readers, but at the same time they seem absolutely necessary to convey the story that he is trying to tell. They are used not in a way that condones such behavior, but they to help illuminate the true human condition through the moments of clarity Larry has about his childhood while he is high. While Van Camp traditionally writes novels for an adult audience, his first foray into young adult fiction has an appeal that will reach out to both adolescents and adults alike. The language is almost lyrical at times and it jumps off the page and deep into your psyche. At one point Larry and Johnny are high and stumbling down the street late at night when they see two drunken brothers fighting with each other over nothing. Larry turns to Johnny and says, "They're ghosts Johnny. Nobody's told them they died. Nobody's told them they're dead.” These haunting insights into the effects of drugs and alcohol on a person are sprinkled throughout the tale, whether Larry is really aware of it or not. This story will keep you up late at night burrowed under your covers due to Van Camp’s tremendous power as a story teller. His haunting tale does not end once you have finished the last page but sticks to your soul, just like Larry’s childhood terrors have stuck to his.
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. Rain is Not My Indian Name. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Rain didn’t know the evening that she and her best friend Galen snuck out to celebrate New Year’s Eve alone that it would be the last night she saw him alive. It wasn’t her fault that he died, but Galen’s mother doesn’t seem to want to forgive her so Rain decides to lock herself away in her own world of hurt and guilt. It isn’t until her aunt decides to start an Indian Camp in her hometown that Rain must come out and make a stand. The city council is not sure whether to give Rain’s aunt funding for her camp and Galen’s mother is absolutely against it, especially since Rain herself is not planning on joining the camp. But Rain is more interested in her photography than studying her native heritage. Smith artfully weaves the story of Rain’s torn feelings about not participating in Indian camp well with her guilt and sadness over Galen’s death. Rain is a “mixed blood” Indian, so while she identifies with her Indian roots, it is not the only thing that defines her. Her brother’s hair is blonde and does not look Indian at all, while Rain has darker hair. Still, she is often approached by people who claim that she doesn’t “seem Indian.” Smith presents an image of how one can be Indian while living in the suburbs instead of on a reservation. Her family is broken up but that’s because her mother died several years ago and her father is in the military, not because of alcohol or drug abuse. While it was sometimes difficult to connect with the parade of characters marching in and out of this novel, Smith seemed to be trying to explicitly paint Rain as a normal suburban girl dealing primarily with the death of her best friend and the drama at home after Rain’s brother finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant. Although her aunt’s Indian camp is part of the novel, Smith chose not to make being Indian a conflicted part of Rain’s identity. In doing so, she was able to focus more fully on developing the other parts of Rain’s character.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown
and Company, 2007.
Junior has a problem. He is too skinny, his head is too big, and he has a list of medical problems longer than his size 11 feet. Unfortunately, that isn’t his biggest problem. Junior has decided to transfer from his school on the rez to the Reardan Public School- and turning your back on your people to go to the white school is just something you don’t do if you want to have any friends left. But Junior wants to be a cartoonist, and he knows he has to leave the rez to find hope outside of the troubles with abuse and alcohol that are unfortunately all too common on the rez. To help show Junior’s skill as an artist, Ellen Forney has illustrated the novel with cartoons that Junior has created that are both hilarious and at the same time poignantly paint the picture of the struggles of a young boy dealing with poverty and with what it means to be Indian. One cartoon lists: Why I Actually Miss a Lot of School, with reasons like no money, wakes and funerals, and couldn’t find a ride. Readers will delight in finding each new cartoon which adds a powerful additional dimension to the telling of Junior’s story. Every day is a struggle for Junior to make his way twenty miles down the road to the white school. While Junior didn’t ever seem to fit in on the rez, at least they all looked the same as him. Now he has to deal with fitting in at the white school. To help, he joins the basketball team and befriends the prettiest girl in school, a slightly improbable turn of events. But his troubles aren’t over yet because his new basketball team is scheduled to play his old basketball team from the rez this year. Alexie is not afraid to grapple with many of the problems currently plaguing Indian families in contemporary times- from alcohol and drug misuse, to abuse, to death. Yet he does it so skillfully that instead of having the reader look down upon Junior’s community, they are hopeful for the future. This mix of hope and trouble and nothing but the brutal truth was masterfully blended to leave the reader not sure whether to laugh or cry. One thing is for sure, Sherman Alexie has created a must read novel for readers of any age.
Van Camp, Richard. The Lesser Blessed. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntrye, 1996.
High school senior Larry narrates this moving tale of love, loss, and what friendship really means. Larry is a Dogrib Indian who lives with his single mother in a small community in northern Canada. While not always popular, he pays attention in school and seems to be a good student until he meets Johnny Beck, a rebel who doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything. Larry is immediately drawn to this freewheeling lifestyle because he seems anything but; he’s skinny, nervous, and deathly afraid of girls. Yet the two of them bond and Larry gradually sinks into the life of a hard partier. Van Camp is not one to shy away from explicit sexual scenes and drug use, which might not make this appropriate for younger readers, but at the same time they seem absolutely necessary to convey the story that he is trying to tell. They are used not in a way that condones such behavior, but they to help illuminate the true human condition through the moments of clarity Larry has about his childhood while he is high. While Van Camp traditionally writes novels for an adult audience, his first foray into young adult fiction has an appeal that will reach out to both adolescents and adults alike. The language is almost lyrical at times and it jumps off the page and deep into your psyche. At one point Larry and Johnny are high and stumbling down the street late at night when they see two drunken brothers fighting with each other over nothing. Larry turns to Johnny and says, "They're ghosts Johnny. Nobody's told them they died. Nobody's told them they're dead.” These haunting insights into the effects of drugs and alcohol on a person are sprinkled throughout the tale, whether Larry is really aware of it or not. This story will keep you up late at night burrowed under your covers due to Van Camp’s tremendous power as a story teller. His haunting tale does not end once you have finished the last page but sticks to your soul, just like Larry’s childhood terrors have stuck to his.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Religion in children's texts
First of all, I would like to thank Ilyssa and Mallory for sharing with us in class their Jewish heritage last week. It made me realize how very little that I knew about this culture/faith. Why is it that we seem to learn so little about different religions? Religion has caused more conflict and war over the history of humankind than just about anything else- so why have we not yet realized that we should encourage people to have more than just a rudimentary understanding of world religions other than their own. Knowledge can lead to understanding. While I was raised Catholic, I have struggled with my own faith and I think there is still so much more I could learn. We briefly hit on various religions in Habibi and then in Closet Catholic but under the multicultural umbrella you could explore so many different religions. This does not need to be a taboo topic in schools. While we discussed some of the issues surrounding Habibi, that does not mean that there are other books that could be used as well. Closet Catholic presented two different faiths and I think most of the class agreed they did not find it offensive. It would be interesting to find books representing even more faith communities in children's literature. This would provide a safe environment to learn about different religions and open a communication in the classroom about beliefs that are universal. This provides another look at the term multicultural.
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