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Ten Little Indians
Ten Little Indians
In the book Ten Little Indians, Sherman Alexie uses symbols such as travel in order to show how native Americans handle their identity, ultimately illustrating how native Americans overcome new societal norms while still keeping their cultural identity.
Shermans uses travel in the chapter “Flight Patterns” to show how long distance travel affects native americans cultural identity. For example William travels through flight for his work bringing him further away from his native american heritage and his family. Because William decides to use flight as his means for travel, consequently it shows how he has to overcome the distance traveling brings him away from what he knows in order to not bring him away from his culture. Therefore showing how travel affects native americans life style and how they will be able to overcome that problem. To continue, Sherman uses “Flight Patterns” again in order to show how people with different cultural identities come to understand each other. William, after getting off a flight, takes a taxi with a Sikh man wearing a turban driving it. William after 9/11 had to overcome his fear of travel and now that he's sitting in this taxi he believes the driver is a terrorist. Throughout the drive he gets to know the driver better and starts to understand the trouble he faces due to his culture. Because William gets to know the Sikh man better, consequently he begins to connect how troubling the man's culture is with the trouble William faces from his culture. Thus showing how during travel many misunderstand each other's cultural identity and how these people can overcome that by helping each other understand and connecting with each other.
Sherman continues to use travel in chapter “Layers League” to show how native americans continue to practice their culture while still being involved in other societal norms. For example, in “Layers League” Richard is a native american lawyer who travels around through the city to play basketball with other successful lawyer native americans. Because he uses travel to connect with other native americans whilst being a lawyer in America's different cultural and societal norms, consequently it shows how travel helps native Americans connect with their culture while contributing to modern societal jobs. Therefore showing why travel is an important aspect and acts as a gateway for people to connect with others of the same backgrounds and beliefs. To go on, Sherman continues to use “Lawyers League” in order to show how native americans can overcome far distances of travel in order to connect with other native identities. Richard has to travel far distances in order to pursue his job as a lawyer, doing so takes him away from his cultural places. Because Richard travels so far from his native city, consequently it helps him reconnect with others of his culture by participating in the lawyers league. Therefore showing how native americans can reconnect with others and overcome their long distance travels by spending time with each other.
In conclusion, in the book Ten Little Indians, Sherman Alexie uses travel as a symbol in order to show how native Americans overcome their distance from their cultural and societal norms by connecting with others or each other to accept social norms of other places whilst continuing their practice of their own cultural norms.
Flight
Flight
In the novel Flight, Sherman Alexie uses imagery and symbolism in order to convey in detail how the events of violence written in the novel lead up to Zits’s personalities like anger and betrayal to change based on what he saw, ultimately illustrating that people's viewpoints can be changed by experiencing another person's perspectives.
For example, Sherman Alexie uses imagery to show how violence was able to contribute to the changing of Zits’s perspectives. For example, when Zits sees violence he is seeing it through a man's eyes who commanded the hunting, fighting, and capturing of native Americans and separating peoples families. Because Zits sees this violence and pain that he is creating for other people to feel through another person's body, consequently it shows how Zits reacts to the violence he was going to enact on himself in his actual body. Therefore showing how perspectives can change after a person experiences the actions for the first time. Sherman Alxie continues to use imagery to show the up close first person perspective of killing a human being to show Zits’s change in perspective of the scarcity of human life. To show, when Zits becomes a native american child, he is tasked by his father to kill an American soldier with a stone for revenge. Because Zits experiences the actions taken in order to take a human life, consequently it shows the change Zits has when he experiences the taking of life for the first time. Thus experiencing the actions that are needed to take then to actually go through with the killing of a person contributes to Zits’s viewpoints of him taking life through his own body.
To continue, Sherman uses imagery to show the violence committed on people but he also uses symbolism. First, sheman uses symbolism about wanting to belong. In the novel, Zits is wanting to be a part of a family and have a sense of belonging, and justice is able to use this in order to convince zits to do violent things. Because Zits longs for a sense of belonging . consequently he is more vulnerable to be convinced to do things he normally wouldn't do in order to feel included. Therefore showing that a person's need for belonging can be a cause for future violence. Sherman also uses symbolism through identity to show violence made in the novel. To show, in the novel Zits experiences many different view points when he is traveling through bodies and he experiences many different identities that play a big role on who is committing violence. Because Sherman uses many different identities in Zits experiences, consequently it shows who is committing violence and for what reasons. Thus showing how different identities can change a person through appearances or actions.
In the Novel Sherman Alexie uses both imagery and symbolism to show how violence leads to character development. These elements show in what ways violence is able to occur in order to eventually change its mind about what's right and wrong and who to trust and not. Finally showing that a person doesn't know what another has been through without knowing what they feel.
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