Sherman Alexie Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

Sherman Alexie The odds were against Sherman Alexie on that day in October 1966. Not only was he born a minority, but he was also hydrocephalic. At the age of 6 months, he had a brain operation, but was not expected to live. Though he pulled through, doctors predicted he would be severely mentally retarded. Fortunately, they were wrong, but he did suffer through seizures and wet his bed throughout his childhood ("What" 1). Rather than being called "Native American," which he feels is a "guilty white liberal term," he prefers to be called Indian. He is a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian, in fact, and grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. To avoid being picked on by the other reservation kids, he spent most of his time indoors, where he developed a love for reading. But as he grew older, alcoholism, which plagues most reservations, found its way to Alexie, and he suffered this disease for five years until he became sober at 23 ("What" 1). He graduated high school with honors and originally planned to become a doctor until a fainting episode in a Human Anatomy class changed his mind. He attended Gonzaga University on scholarship and graduated in American Studies from Washington State. He then received two consecutive Fellowships in 1991 and 1992, and shortly thereafter wrote six poetry and poem/short story books. Two of these, The Business of Fancy Dancing and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, earned him literary awards (What" 1). By 1998, his list of accomplishments grew to include Reservation Blues (1995), which earned him Granta’s Best of Young Novelists, the Before Columbus Foundations Book Award, and the Murray Morgan Prize. Indian Killer (1996), his second novel, was The New Yo... ... reders in and keep them turning pages. He writes so visually that they feel they are actually there with the other characters. But most importantly, his stories make them think, not only about the characters and what is happening to them in the stories, but also about themselves and the world in which they live. His fiction echoes Chinua Achebe’s idea that the strong must listen to the weak. They are stronger in number only, which doesn’t make them right. Those who are outnumbered, the weak so to speak, have something to say. They have a voice that deserves to be heard. Alexie has a powerful voice, and it would do us all good to listen. Works Cited Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Harper Perennial , 1994. "What it Means to be Sherman Alexie". The Official Sherman Alexie Site. Online. America Online. 8 April 1999.