“Crazy Horse Speaks”

Sherman Alexie

UA 237-240 

Biography: http://www.fallsapart.com/biography.html

Sherman Alexie was born in 1966 to a Spokane Mother and a Coeur d’Alene Father. Mr. Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation with 1,100 Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal members.

Learning to read young in life, He started to read “Grapes of Wrath at the age of 5. His love of reading ostracized him his peers. Leaving the Spokane reservation, Sherman Alexie attended Reardan High. In “Reardan High he was ‘the only Indian...except for the school mascot.’ There he excelled academically and became a star player on the basketball team.” After which he attended Gonza University in Spokane and later Washington State University. He is published extensively with accomplishments including over 14 novels.

Literary Objectives: Objective 1a Involuntary Participation. Objective 1c alternate voice. Objective 3b Loss and Survival, Objective 4 Resistance to assimilation, Objective 5a Voice to share.

Literary Terms:

Characterization is the method used by a writer to develop a character. The method includes (1) showing the character's appearance, (2) displaying the character's actions, (3) revealing the character's thoughts, (4) letting the character speak, and (5) getting the reactions of others

Example: “We had no alternatives but to fight again and again live our lives on horseback.”

Imagery: To quote Naomi Johnson in 2001 “Imagery is an important vehicle that ushers in recurring themes portrayed in this poem. The three most persistent of these ideas include the issue of voice and choice (the American Indians, of course being denied both), the idea of history being purposefully forgotten and locked away, and finally, of all Indians being packaged as savages of the same color (both literally on reservations, and in the minds of the White culture).”

Allusion is a brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art. Casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion. Alexie alludes to historical events and historical people within the poem. Examples include: Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse.

Read The Poem: 

History:

Crazy Horse: http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/CRAZYHOR.html

Crazy Horse was born an Oglala-Brule Sioux in 1842. Union Soldiers killed Crazy Horse in 1877 as he attempted to visit his sick wife. The photo above is thought to be Crazy Horse, although scholars have generally debated this, saying that the picture is of an Indian by the name of No Neck. You can view the debate here: http://www.friendslittlebighorn.com/crazy-horse-photo.htm

George Armstrong Custer:

http://www.garryowen.com/

 In a unified command with General George Crook, Custer attempted to repel an assault from multiple Sioux tribes, including the tribes led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Custer died in this battle of Little Big Horn. Who killed him is unknown.

Interpretation:

Sherman Alexie infuses this poem with so many different images and feelings that it becomes hard to isolate a direct interpretation of meaning. It is obvious from the passages that the narrator wants to be someone else and spends much of his life trying to be “anonymous” and “practicing masks and definition”. The poem contains imagery that impresses upon me a sense of Claustrophobia; “the eternal rib cage…” “8x10 dream called the reservation”  “living exhibit” “Places I can not leave”.  At the same time, the narrator, and Alexie speaking for the Native American, will survive, will persevere, and will be there “Whenever it all begins again…” The apocalyptic rebirth ending offsets a macabre image that besets the reader and shows the pain “the white man” inflicts to others in Stanza 6 “The three dead Eskimo were stuffed and mounted … next to the two living…”.

Question 1)

Alexei uses a very serious tone throughout the poem. He means no line to be comical, humorous, or sarcastic. How does the serious tone affect you? Do you believe that that Alexie could have achieved the same effect with sarcasm or humor?

Question 2)

As I read this poem, I constantly had to ask myself who was the narrator. By the title, we are lead to believe that Crazy Horse is speaking. By stanza five, we can see a transition from Crazy horse to possibly Alexie himself. “I have always wanted to be anonymous instead of the crazy skin who rode his horse backward and lay down alone.” By stanza 6, “I hear the verdict”, Alexie is firmly the narrator.  Do you believe this assessment to be true? If so, why do you think that Alexei shifted points of view? If not, who do you think the narrator is?

Question 3)

 What do you make of the use of “He” in the first stanza? Who is he? And why did he forgive the narrator?

It was suggested in the in the 2002 report from Sarah Daly that, “Many hated whites because of Custer's crime. Creation story- Custer's existence created the need for Crazy Horse to exist.” Dr White said “Crazy Horse was a military leader at Little Big Horn. At the end of stanza 1: He forgave all my sins- literary illusion to book by Native American author titled Custer Died for Your Sins.” This would suggest that the “He” is Custer speaking. It is ironic that the narrator in the form of Crazy Horse would seek forgiveness from the spirit of Custer. Even more so when you look at Custer as a Jesus figure, “He forgave all my sins.” Custer does not just forgive Crazy Horse from the sin of his death, but like Jesus’ death, he forgave all of Crazy Horses sins and like Jesus’s death, the sins of all of humanity. What do you make of Alexie’s use of Custer as a Jesus Icon? How does this relate to the rest of the poem? Being that it is in the first passage it sets the tone for the rest of the poem, how does universal forgiveness, and consequently freedom, correlate with the Claustrophobia and violence portrayed by the rest of the poem?

What if “he” was Crazy Horse and the narrator was Sherman Alexie. The transition from Alexie’s voice to that of Crazy Horse would happen in line three of stanza 2. How would it change the poem knowing that Crazy Horse was the Jesus figure that died for the sins of Indian peoples?

Alternate Question:

Alexei writes, “…your language tears holes in my tongue until I do not have strength to use the word love.” What do you think he means by this? How can a language “tear holes” in a tongue? What do you make of the ripping image associated to a loss of emotion? Compare this imagery with the sound of color, “I can still hear white it is the sound of glass shattering”?  This question expounds upon Naomi Johnson’s 2001 presentation question.