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The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie A Book Sense 76 Selection ISBN: 0-8021-3800-4 / ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-3800-2 US $14.00 - 5 1/2 x 8 1/4, 256 pp - Apr. 2001 |
Questions about the book:
1) Throughout these stories, Alexie questions the meaning of authenticity, especially as regards race. Both Mary Lynn in “Assimilation” and the protagonist of the titular story have encounters with Indians they consider more “authentic” than themselves; how are they defining authenticity? Do you agree with their definitions?
2) Many of the characters in these stories have a romantic vision of Indianness; for those who live in the city or are married to white people—like Mary Lynn in “Assimilation” and Edgar in “Class”—that romanticism is tempered with guilt: guilt that they have left the reservation, guilt that they have sought partners outside their race, even guilt that they view those who have remained on the reservation (or who appear closer to their ideal version of Indianness) with a mixture of awe and longing. Why do you think these characters have such difficulties with their own definitions of themselves, and why do you think it matters to them so?
3) Alexie’s characters question the origins of romantic love, especially those characters in interracial relationships. Roman in “Saint Junior” thinks, “of course you chose who you loved” (page 178). Do you agree with this, or do you think we have no control over the people with whom we fall in love?
4) Alexie and his characters are continually asking—implicitly and explicitly—what makes an Indian an Indian: is it wearing your hair a certain way? Living on the reservation? Speaking a certain way? Do you think Alexie offers any definite answers? How have his characters redefined, maintained, or created their own version of Indianness, especially those so far removed from their ancestors’ traditions? Do you think Alexie believes race is a contrivance? Why or why not?
5) Alexie uses salmon, a traditional staple for many of his characters, to symbolize different things throughout these stories. How is salmon significant to these characters and their lives? How does Alexie use salmon to connote something greater and less defined? (Consider how the protagonist in “The Toughest Indian in the World” smells like salmon after his sexual encounter with the fighter, or how the inevitable dinner table culture clash between father and daughter in “Indian Country” is temporarily held at bay by the arrival of the salmon the father has ordered.)
6) Discuss how Alexie plays with the meaning and connotations of the word “tribe.” Grace, “a Mohawk Indian from the island of Manhattan” in “Saint Junior” muses “that she’d realized she was more Spokane than anything else” [page 161]. What do you think Alexie is saying about the definitions, the cultural and racial boundaries, of a “tribe”? How do the characters—both Indian and White—in these stories define tribes, and do they all associate with one? How does Alexie define a tribe, besides racially? (Consider Alex Weber in “Saint Junior,” whom Grace leaves “with the rest of his tribe.” [page 185]) Besides their Indian tribes, what other tribes do Alexie’s characters claim membership in?
7) Etta Joseph, the heroine in “Dear John Wayne” tells her interviewer “In order to survive, to thrive, I have to be white fifty-seven minutes of every hour.” [page 194] What does it mean to “be white” in these characters’ lives? How is it different from “being Indian”? Do you think the characters have mastered “being white” better or more comprehensively than they have “being Indian”? What do you think Alexie is saying about the way Indians have been forced to suppress their identities to survive in a white-dominated world?
8) Consider the concept of “tradition” as Alexie applies it throughout these stories. The protagonist of “One Good Man” talks about his and his wife’s “nontraditional arrangement” with their son “strange when measured by white standards, but…very traditional by Indian standards” [page 217]. What traditions do these characters mourn for? What are the new traditions they have formed, and how have they developed? How do you think Alexie feels about traditions in general? Can traditions, even the harmful ones, be valuable? Are there any traditions in these characters’ lives—and in your life—that you consider destructive?
9) Alexie, through his characters, explores many different kinds of love in these stories—love between two people, between a person and his people and culture, between child and parent. Do you think Alexie ever implies that one form of love is more contrived than another? Is there a model of “pure” love he presents within this book? How do the characters’ love for others change throughout their individual stories? (Consider “One Good Man”’s protagonist’s changing relationship with his reservation, his child, his people, and his father.
10) Many of the Indian characters in their lives find themselves—sometimes inexplicably—in relationships with white people, about which they feel conflicted (think of Mary Lynn in “Assimilation” or Edgar in “Class”). To their surprise, though, they find that their relationships with Indians are often no easier. Besides racial differences, what other factors create rifts and distances between Alexie’s characters?
11) “The Sin Eaters” is a nightmare vision of a nameless power using the blood of Indians to save the world from annihilation. Many of the soldiers who round up the Indians are ethnic (black, Indian), although the doctors and leaders who make the decisions are clearly Northern European. The unnamed power views its Indian captives as a crucial part of its own survival, going so far as to force procreation between the captives. What do you think Alexie is saying about the dominant culture and its relationship to people of different cultures and races? Although the Sin Eaters is a thinly-veiled comment on race relations in America at their worst, do you think Alexie's attitudes are completely negative? Do you think his view of race is black and white, or does it defy easy categorization?
12) Consider the stories taken as a whole and compare them with Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, or Native Son by Richard Wright, both of which are stories of outsiders trying to live in a world where they are not wanted, not thought of, until it’s convenient for the leading culture. Do you think they are an accurate depiction of race relations in America? Do you think Sherman Alexie and Ralph Ellison are contributing to the same discussion of race even though they are focused on different ethnicities at different times periods?
Further Reading:
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday; Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; Native Son by Richard Wright; Typical American by Gish Jen; Middleman and other Stories by Bharatti Mukherjee; Drown by Junot Diaz; Out of the Woods by Chris Offutt.