Sherman Alexie's Identity Struggles

“If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity. He grows into a man who often speaks of his childhood in the third-person, as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more modest about his talents.” This quote from Sherman Alexie’s, “Superman and Me”, highlights that how two of his main three identity struggles. Alexie focuses on a few of the identity struggles he faced growing up and throughout his life in his texts, “Superman and Me”, “This is what it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona’, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” and “Cowboys Have Never Been My Heros”. He has overcome his struggles …show more content…
In “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”, the racism Native Americans face is put under a spotlight. The quote, “He looked me over so he could describe me to the police later.” shows this well. The narrator was seen as a criminal from the moment he walked into the store based solely on the color of his skin. Alexie was told who his is, what he can achieve,and what is out of reach the day he was born and for the rest of his life. His parents didn’t tell him this, nor his teachers or friends. The world told a little boy that he was worth less because his skin was darker than people wanted it to be. Alexie was able to fight through these racist ways of thinking, but not everyone can. No one should have to deal with this. Another instance of racism Alexie had seen was shown in “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”- “You’re making people nervous. You don’t fit the profile of the neighborhood. He had to show everyone that he was more than just his race, that he wasn’t just another drunk and washed up native kid looking to make trouble. This would be incredibly hard to realize at a young age. He knew that people were waiting for him to fail, for him to fit into the