Illuminating Irony Technology on Sherman Alexies Reservation - Literature Essay Samples

Sherman Alexies Native American characters in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven are modern Indians who are often fixated on the glories of their past. In their modernization, one of the most blatant attacks on their pride and respect for their traditional ways comes from the technology around them. In perhaps Alexies subtlest use of irony, technology manifests itself throughout his book, highlighting the tremendous gap between Indians now and Indians before the time of reservations. Indeed, the technology itself TV, radio, even traffic signals serves as a reminder of the outside influence oozing in, and its inevitable use by Native Americans is another sign of their surrender. Alexie uses technology in his book to highlight such instances of irony.Television is perhaps the most often used example of technology in The Lone Ranger and Tonto, coming into most of the characters’ lives indirectly. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find any character interacting wi th the TV for longer than a sentence, yet its presence is undeniable; it gives all of the characters a connection to the outside world. Few Indians in the book venture beyond the reservation, yet none are totally clueless about outside society in general or, more specifically, about how that society sees them. References to Indians in popular culture, like comparisons to Tonto (155, 164), are made frequently to highlight the large gap between how Indians are perceived and how they really act. Most interestingly, it also gives these characters a window through which to see their own world. A young Victor sees a fistfight between his uncles like a hurricane on the news and sees himself as one of the crazy people who tie themselves to the trees on the beach (2) so they can feel the force of the hurricane firsthand (2). He also finds hollowness in the saying at least weve got each other (4) during a particularly giftless Christmas, finding the expression meaningless because hes heard it before on the old Christmas movies they watched on television (5). The events unfolding on television give these characters another backdrop against which to situate their lives, making their problems seem a little less daunting and a little more universal.Televisions main role in the book is more direct: while it appears in the book passively, it is often followed by a frightening or violent event. A family is quietly watching television in The Fun House right before a mouse runs up a womans leg (76); a character casually mentions he doesnt watch TV anymore because it exploded and left a hole in the wall (p 114); in one especially unsettling paragraph, a character dreamed about television and woke up crying (108). Alexie uses this narrative technique to quite literally show the negative impact of television, or technology in general, on these characters. The television, a symbol of sedentary and passive involvement, contrasts the punch of these events in an ironic way that Alexie is fond of.Music plays a large role on Alexies reservation, with characters often alluding to old native songs and drums (165). More pertinently, modern music is just as important to some of these characters, particularly to Victor and his father in the story Because My Father Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play The Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock. It is this modern music that allows these characters to interact and use technology, finding new meaning in it. Victor observes that his father would play the tape of the performance until it wore down (26). These characters are finding solace and pleasure in new, modern things, only to have them slowly disappear. While the tape itself is not why Victors father enjoys the music, it is a rather impermanent medium that is relatively unfamiliar to Native Americans and their relation to music. Later, Victor listens to the performance again and finds that the reverberation came to mean something (28): in particular, it mean t a closer relationship to his father. Both found pleasure in this foreign recording in a purely sonic way. The irony here is that the actual meaning of The Star-Spangled Banner, a song about America becoming stronger through war, would not appeal to any Native American. But Jimis guitar is an unrefined, piercingly removed rendition of the song, and it invokes happy memories in Victors father, reminding Victor of the bonds they share.The broken traffic signal in the story The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesnt Flash Red Anymore is a more specific example of technology in the reservation, but it effectively illustrates how Indians would ideally like to treat such a thing: with apathy or contempt. In the story, two characters are sitting on a porch watching the reservation, and Victors friend Adrian ironically mentions that the broken signal could cause an accident (48). The two friends are doing what they do best: reminiscing, joking with each other, and quietly passing th e day away. It is in this state that this sort of technology is especially jarring and unnecessary to them; the traffic signal is broken and meaningless, a symbol of white attempts to intervene. The road was fine before it was installed.Another specific yet meaningful instance of technology is the train in the story A Train Is An Order of Occurrence Designed To Lead to Some Result. The train is the catalyst to Samuel Builds-the-Fires barrage of modernity during his days as a working man. Even in the admittedly obtuse story title, we see a train as some sort of charging and the inevitable series of events that will cause something to happen, so we as readers wait for it to show up. What ultimately happens is perhaps Alexies most direct use of technology harming Native Americans: a train comes and runs over a willfully surrendered Samuel. Samuel was drunk and suicidal; the train was merely doing what it was made for. The two of them together make up this bizarre, unsettling event. Ale xie highlights the blind, mechanical fury of technology by coupling it with the humanistic and flawed nature of Samuel, who represents all Native Americans: whimsical, impulsive and curious. He shows, quite starkly, that these two things together do not produce a happy result.Alexie uses technology to create irony because it represents modernity. It is something that permeates every aspect of life, yet it couldnt be further from Native American tradition. It works so well for him because Indians use this technology and it interacts with them; it is one aspect of the newer way of life that they simultaneously resent and resign themselves to. No matter how hard these characters work to keep their pride and traditions strong, the very real image of a Native American family huddled around the TV set undoes that work. Not coincidentally, Alexie has come to the forefront about his own personal resentment of technology: in recent interviews, he has blasted the Kindle and other eBooks, call ing them an easily pirated device and humorously noting that one could fall into the hands of the government (and saying, as an Indian, he has plenty of reasons to fear the U.S. government). More seriously, Alexie laments the loss of community-based celebrations of books, mentioning how much he enjoys traveling from bookstore to bookstore but noting that demand has since been squelched due to the digitization of both books and their marketing. Deep down, this use of technology in his books to highlight irony stems from a hatred of what this technology has done not only for the Native American way of life, but for life in general. It has reduced personal communication and desensitized people to the benefits of hard work and individual perseverance.

The Hippocratic Oath And Euthanasia - 2151 Words

Euthanasia was first introduced in ancient Greece and Rome around the fifth century B.C. 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Invictus Essay - 699 Words

Analysis of Invictus Poetries are the many ways that people can express their feeling and emotion. They are the manifest of everything that the authors contribute into. In Poetry, whether its sadness or happiness, they are the nature of the authors soul and body. In the poem Invictus meaning unconquerable in Latin, the author William Ernest Henley wrote this poem in a life and death situation. Henley wrote this poem during his time in the hospital, being treated of tuberculosis as well as having his foot amputated. The poem describes the unwavering and unconquerable soul that one possesses during the time of death. When facing death, one needs courage and a stone hard soul in order to guide them through the remaining time of their life.†¦show more content†¦Looms but the Horror of the shade† This two line justifies the path that is beyond wrath and tears which clearly describes hell itself. This path which many people have crossed did not waver nor frighten the narrato r’s soul at all. â€Å"And yet the menace of the years, Finds, and shall find, me unafraid†. The narrator did not fear death at all instead he describes it as merely a place where he belongs after life. And yet again, he describes his undefeated and unconquerable soul that he cannot be perished merely with the sight of death itself. In the last stanza â€Å"It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll.† This describes the unconcern of the narrow and difficulty needs to pass the gate of hell. No matter how sinful the person have been stated in the book of sins, your unconquerable souls will guide you through and that’s why you made it and you’re standing here today. â€Å"I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.† In these two lines describes the fate that is in your own hand and nobody else. 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Amanda in The Glass Menagerie Essay Example For Students

Amanda in The Glass Menagerie Essay Characters, like the fruit that make a tree a fruit tree make a play, a novel, or even a sit-com. A characters personality can determine what path a story line might travel, or be used to guide a story down the correct path. Characters traits can also be called upon to give a story depth and meaning. Traits can be used to take away form the story or used to bring the story out like a bright shade of lip liner brings out a set of lips. I would like to look at the traits both good and bad, of Amanda in Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie. Amandas character is full of paradox, which supplies her with many good, and bad traits. All of her gains and falls play off of one another making her a good character that adds to the story, and if you ask the right person might even be the story her self. Amanda is from Blue Mountain, where she lived on a time of gentlemen callers. She was a married woman, but was abandoned by her husband. Amanda is stuck between a world of illusion and reality, which is what causes most or at least the bad traits that I pick out to talk about. Amanda lives a very boring and empty life. She uses her alternate world to help make her life better. She slips back and forth through the whole story. She demonstrates one example of using her alternate world when she says to Laura you be the lady this time and Ill be the darky. She plays games like this to make her life more exciting. However she is unable to live in her alternate world and she is forced into the pressures of everyday life, which she lives through her children. Amanda lives through her children to help make her life more bearable. Amanda living through her children brings out the bad and the good. One of Amandas good traits is the fact that she gives all to her children. She shows this when she says I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who arent prepared to occupy a position. That is her lifes main concern. She frets and worries about her children to no end. She wants the best for her children. She does not see that her wants differ form that of her children. She therefore does not gear her whole life towards their happiness, because she does not want them to end up where she has. This devotion makes Amanda fall into a trap of being overbearing, nagging and non-understanding. Amanda shows traits through out the play. She was very critical of what and how who children did things, like when Amanda calls Laura to come wish upon the moon and tells her to wish for happiness and good fortune. She shows her overbearing side and Laura says mother youve made me so nervous. Amanda then shows he inability to understand when she says, you couldnt be satisfied with just sitting home. As stated before Amanda is not all bad. She is a devoted mother with great determination. She however has let these good traits take her to bad places. After the loss of her husband Amandas life became empty and manilas. She makes up stories to replaces holes in her life. She is so devoted to her children that she starts to live through them. She flailed to recognize that her children had different wants in life and the end Amanda ends up driving one of her kids away. She used the to worlds to protect her from the brutal truth of her life. Amandas traits good or bad added a lot to this story. .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f , .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .postImageUrl , .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f , .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f:hover , .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f:visited , .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f:active { border:0!important; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f:active , .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u31a478f8e175ae5230a03ac34241ef7f:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Coco Chanel Essay ThesisBibliography: