“Terminal Nostalgia” is a reflection on Native American History; written by Sherman Alexie, a Native American poet. The author reminisces about how life was before Columbus came to America and completely changed the world of Native Americans. It was published in the anthology series “Best American Poetry” in the year 2012. The poem takes a look at the past and present day conditions for a Native American living in The United States of America. The overall playful tone of the poem keeps readers interested all the while informing them of the hardships that Native Americans continue to go through. Alexie uses repetition in a versatile way to present a serious subject in a comical manner. Every single stanza of “Terminal Nostalgia” ends with the
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This is significant because it gives the poem a personal feeling. Not everyone can relate to the type of nostalgia that the speaker is feeling. The addition of personal pronouns removes the poem from the public eye and speaks specifically to readers in the same or similar situation as him. Alexie’s use of first person pronouns is also another form of irony that can be found in the poem. The speaker is comparing the 1400s to the present day as though he was there personally, as seen in various lines of the poem such as: “Indians were neither loaners nor debtors. / Salmon was our money (line 18)” and “We all apprenticed to wise old mentors (line 25).” Alexie does a great job of making “Terminal Nostalgia” such a versatile poem. Not only does it specifically speak to people of native American decent about the hardships of having their land and cultures taken away, but it also speaks to audiences across a spectrum of cultural backgrounds. Whenever Alexie repeats the personal pronouns he can also be interpreted as speaking from a different perspective. As aforementioned, Alexie’s uses of repetition is also comical and mocks older generations of people who are stuck constantly comparing to past to the present day as though it will some how change the course of the …show more content…
Alexie, being of Native American decent, grew up in this culture and had his older relatives constantly tell him about the golden days. This is an experience that could’ve be written down in a variety of ways to make the poem more relatable to readers, but instead he specifically chose to discuss the misfortune of his predecessors. Among the example that Alexie uses to make his argument about how the past can’t live up to the present, there is only one reference that he can take ownership of, and that’s the first line where he starts of his argument “The music of my youth was much better…” Every other example that follows takes place in the past, and supports the idea that he is mocking an older generation of people who live for the past time. He makes this point in a particularly humorous way in lines eleven and twelve of the poem when he says “Every ball game was a double-header. / Mickey Mantle was sober.” Mickey Mantle was a Native American baseball player that played for the New York Yankees in the 1950s and 1960s. Only Mikey Mantle was only really white, and less than 15% Native American on his mother’s side. He once again brings up the comical aspect of the poem in such a subtle way that you’d miss it the first time you read it.
This is significant because it gives the poem a personal feeling. Not everyone can relate to the type of nostalgia that the speaker is feeling. The addition of personal pronouns removes the poem from the public eye and speaks specifically to readers in the same or similar situation as him. Alexie’s use of first person pronouns is also another form of irony that can be found in the poem. The speaker is comparing the 1400s to the present day as though he was there personally, as seen in various lines of the poem such as: “Indians were neither loaners nor debtors. / Salmon was our money (line 18)” and “We all apprenticed to wise old mentors (line 25).” Alexie does a great job of making “Terminal Nostalgia” such a versatile poem. Not only does it specifically speak to people of native American decent about the hardships of having their land and cultures taken away, but it also speaks to audiences across a spectrum of cultural backgrounds. Whenever Alexie repeats the personal pronouns he can also be interpreted as speaking from a different perspective. As aforementioned, Alexie’s uses of repetition is also comical and mocks older generations of people who are stuck constantly comparing to past to the present day as though it will some how change the course of the …show more content…
Alexie, being of Native American decent, grew up in this culture and had his older relatives constantly tell him about the golden days. This is an experience that could’ve be written down in a variety of ways to make the poem more relatable to readers, but instead he specifically chose to discuss the misfortune of his predecessors. Among the example that Alexie uses to make his argument about how the past can’t live up to the present, there is only one reference that he can take ownership of, and that’s the first line where he starts of his argument “The music of my youth was much better…” Every other example that follows takes place in the past, and supports the idea that he is mocking an older generation of people who live for the past time. He makes this point in a particularly humorous way in lines eleven and twelve of the poem when he says “Every ball game was a double-header. / Mickey Mantle was sober.” Mickey Mantle was a Native American baseball player that played for the New York Yankees in the 1950s and 1960s. Only Mikey Mantle was only really white, and less than 15% Native American on his mother’s side. He once again brings up the comical aspect of the poem in such a subtle way that you’d miss it the first time you read it.