Native Americans make up less than . 9% of the United States population. With this trivial number, it is difficult to keep its culture and traditions alive as generations progress. In the short story “War Dances,” author Sherman Alexie morns the loss of Native American identity through a deprecating tone which illustrate a divide between generations. Traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture; however growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity.
In the beginning, the narrator is in the hospital while as his father lies on his death bed, when he than encounters fellow Native Americans. One of these men talks about an elderly Indian Scholar who paradoxically discussed identity, “She had taken nostalgia as her false idol-her thin blanket-and it was murdering her” (6).
The nostalgia represents the old Native American ways.
The woman can’t seem to let go of the past, which in turn creates confusion for the man to why she can’t let it go because she was lecturing “…separate indigenous literary identity which was ironic considering that she was speaking English in a room full of white professors”(6).
The man’s ignorance with the elderly woman’s message creates a further cultural identity struggle. Once more in the hospital, the narrator talks to another Native American man who similarly feels a divide with his culture. “The Indian world is filled with charlatan, men and women who pretend…” (5).
The Essay on Native American Women
On few subjects has there been such continual misconception as on the position of women among Indians. Because she was active, always busy in the camp, often carried heavy burdens, attended to the household duties, made the clothing and the home, and prepared the family food, the woman has been depicted as the slave of her husband, a patient beast of encumbrance whose labors were never done. The ...
The language used indicates a distance. Rather than using the word, “our”, to describe his heritage, the man says the,” Indian world”, which disassociates himself from the older generation of Native Americans. When the speaker does finally get the blanket he has been searching for, the elderly Native American man who gave him the blanket and says “let me bless it (blanket).
” “I flinched…That was dangerous”(7).
The syntax used creates a tense mood and is present only because the narrator does not understand his heritage.
The unfamiliarity with the Native American ways is uncomfortable to him because he has lost so much of his cultural identity as a result of being part of a novel generation. As a coping mechanism, the author utilizes racial stereotypes toward Native Americans and humor to mask the distressing conflict of cultural confusion. After a fellow Native American man is describing his father’s ritual, he exclaims “I mean, come on, I’m a loser…my whole family is filled with losers”(5).
The parallel structure of the two sentences creates what the man believes to be a truthful statement masked by a jesting tone. In order to cope with the man’s true thoughts on his Native American family, he comically pawns off an insult. When the narrator is wondering the hospital, another individual asked why his dad had to get his feet cut off. The man asks if it was caused by “Vodka straight up or with a nostalgia chaser? ” He replies, “Both. ” “Natural causes for an Indian”(6).
The short dialect the characters have illustrates the commonness of alcoholism in Native American society.
The casualness in which they talk about such a detrimental issue indicates that they are coping with their cultural problem by acting like its normal, which disassociates themselves from other Native Americans. When they continue to talk to one another, the narrator thinks, “This guy was talking out of his ass. I liked him immediately”(5).
Both men don’t fully understand their Native American integrity, so they are embarrassed by it. In order to ease their embarrassment they say things on a whim, never knowing if they are real aspects of Native American culture or not.
By “talking out of his ass” they are able to mask the fact that they feel a loss of identity with their own culture. As the title suggests, the “War Dance” is the clash between two contradicting cultures, mainly the younger generation opposing the older ones’ beliefs. In the hospital, one man complains at his father’s notion that being at a hospital is not necessary for the birth of a child. In response he says “you know how many babies died before we had good hospitals?… Most of them”(5).
The Essay on Native American Indianstotem Poles
The Haida, meaning The People, once were numbered at over 10,000. They occupied the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Colombia. Their numbers were numerous and their life was prosperous. In 1774 there was the first European contact (Gunn) and the Haida, unknowingly, let the lion out of its cage, they let white man enter their territory. The Europeans brought trade, but they also brought ...
The rhetorical style of the quote allows for the character to depict his frustration toward his own culture.
Because he was born on the modern west, he believes in modern medicine, while his family believes the antithesis. Growing up in modern times generates a clash of generations. The older generation is stuck on old ways, while the younger generation can’t accept the old ways. The old beliefs frustrate the younger generation abundantly. “You should see my dad right now. He’s Pretending to go into this, like, fucking trance, dancing around my sister in the bed, and he says he’s trying to, you know, see into her womb, to see who the baby is, to see its true nature, so he can give it a name- a protective name-before its born” (5).
The condescending tone of this quote exemplifies the frustration and disconnect that the younger generation has with the older one. Likewise, the elder generation appears to be discontent with the younger one. When the narrator thinks to how his father would respond to his good medical news, he says “But none of them laughed as hard about my beautiful brain as I knew my father-the drunken bastard- would have”(22).
The author uses alliteration to add a positive effect to the quote, while balancing it with a negative message.
This quote shows the disconnect present with the two generations. On one hand the narrator’s mind is healthy and “beautiful,” but in the eyes of his father his mind could never be beautiful because he never embraced the Native American culture. “War Dances” depicts Sherman Alexie’s view that Native American culture diminishes with younger generation by utilizing a deprecating tone. As newer generations grow up, they never fully understand the traditions of their elders, and as this cycle progresses, the Native American culture is lost.
