LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, fall 2001
Poetry Presentation Index

Poetry of Sherman Alexie: A Presentation of Alexie’s "Vision (2)"

October 16, 2001

Poetry Reader: Andrea Dunn

Discussion Recorder: Erin Gouner

Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian, Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. According to Alexie, Spokane is pronounced Spo-kan-ee, which means "children of the sun". The Spokane/Coeur d’Alene are, what Alexie terms, "a Salmon people". The religions, culture, dancing and singing center on the salmon. Alexie, a Spokane Indian Catholic (as opposed to a Roman Catholic), started writing in 1989. His favorite writers are Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. He has won several awards for his writing.

I assume "Vision (2)" was written previous to but perhaps just before 1992 based on the reference to the 500th anniversary of "the invasion of Christopher Columbus." The handout I attached to each student’s copy of the poem acknowledges 1992 as "the year of the anti-celebration" for Native Americans and also denounces Christopher Columbus’ discovery as "invasion."

"Vision (2)" is written in prose and is narrative in style. The lines are somewhat fragmented but teem with the irony and sarcasm Alexie is famous for. The poet uses American symbology, ideology and history as double language that contributes to the poem’s irony and sarcasm as tools for resistance. Alexie’s resistant prose subsides in the end, leaving the reader with a vivid image of an Indian leaning against the wall in a movie scene. The end of this vision, a comment on the voiceless and choiceless Native American, as compared to the fire Alexie stirs up in the middle portion of the poem, leaves the reader with a sense of ambivalence. If Alexie was truly resistant to the dominant culture and its history, why does the poem leave the culture without voice? Is Alexie ambivalent to all he mentions in the poem? If so, why bother to point it out in the first place?

The poem contains several objectives listed in the course syllabus including issues of class, voice and choice, involuntary or forced participation, loss and survival, assimilation and resistance and double language. Some of the points intended for discussion of these objectives include:

To begin the discussion I asked about the title of the poem. Throughout the remaining discussion I attempted to incorporate the objectives mentioned previously. Where conversation lulled I brought new lines up for discussion. The most active dialogue occurred near the end of the presentation with regard to whether the poem reflects assimilation and resistance (Obj. 4) or ambivalence (Obj. 3c).

Discussion:

Andrea: What do you think the title means? Why is the 2 of the title "Vision (2)" in parenthesis?

White: I always thought there was another poem.

Andrea: I thought it was because his vision was not the American vision. (Note: this could also be that this was Alexie’s second vision. The title for his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is also attributed to a vision.)

Andrea: What about the comments on Cotton Mather and Andrew Jackson? I’m no history buff so I had to look up the significance of these references. It turns out Cotton Mather wrote Native American captivity stories that described Native Americans as savage, devil figures. Andrew Jackson led troops against Native Americans in Creek and First Seminole Wars.

Jennifer: Cotton Mather also wrote about the witch trials.

White: He wrote over 700 books.

Andrea: Do you think Alexie shows assimilation and resistance or ambivalence? It appears he enjoys the modern conveniences but at the same time he does not.

Jennifer: He is assimilated, but he is not happy about it. But life is easier.

Rachel: The reference to McDonald’s is all about convenience.

Andrea: I noticed that he didn’t like the 4th of July, but he talks about fireworks stands.

Andrea: And the 4th paragraph shows the conflict between Native American groups.

Rachel: It is ironic.

Jennifer: One of the ambivalent parts is the celebrating of the invasion of Christopher Columbus.

Andrea: On the second page is the handout of the Year of Anti-Celebration.

Jennifer: Points out invasion.

White: In a study of the Puritans in the 70s, the invasion of America is not a settlement if looked at through the Indians' point of view.

Andrea: The line "1492 and 1992 are two snakes entwined", which reminds me of the Caduceus or medical symbol which, according to Greek mythology symbolizes the story of Hermes who came across two fighting snakes that, after throwing his magic wand at them, became entwined and stopped fighting. Does this mean the white man and the Native Americans stopped fighting because they were thrown together on the reservation?

White: Remember, snakes are not evil to the rest of the world as compared to the Christian world.

Andrea: "Then again, who am I to talk? In the local newspaper I read this morning that my tribe escaped many of the hardships other Native Americans suffered. By the time the twentieth century reached this far west, the war was over." Alexie noted in an interview that in 1951 a dam was built that killed the salmon beds and how hard this was on his tribe. So the war wasn’t really over and his tribe did face hardships.

White: There is a huge division on what to do about the salmon situation—save the salmon or save the farms.

Jennifer: Bless Me Ultima has a carp.

White: Fish are images of rebirth. Fish are also native signs and Christian signs. They can be either/or and they are not exclusive.

Andrea: The reference to the Great American Movie is about the Great American Movie debate over the portrayal of minorities in movies. It is the idea that they are all extras—voiceless and choiceless.

Rachel: Often Native American parts are not played by Indians.

White: The assimilation and resistance factor is hard to gauge. The McDonald’s vision makes me think of Chrystos, which gives a negative image. But there is still so much love. And the 3rd paragraph about the cup of coffee makes me think of Black Elk (black medicine). Coffee gets absorbed quickly into their culture.

Student: I thought of Langston Hughes. The dream is deferred, but in this case the dream is squashed. The Great American Movie should depict the Native Americans but it does not.

White: This goes nice with the (2) we talked about earlier and at end there is a nice image of the leaning Indian.

Andrea: It is like a roller coaster ride—love/hate/American/expendable. Kind of like he losses his fire by the end.

White: The book seems like a 90s book because of the roller coaster feel. And still he losses his fire. He is kind of self-conscious—don’t rock the boat because everything is sort of okay. If he complains he is uncool; if he advocates he is uncool. The dominant tone of the 90s is a move to irony, distance, and coolness, instead of a strong advocating of feeling.

Andrea: The poet shows part of popular culture because he disagrees but at the same time he chooses to sit back.

White: People take turns getting in zingers, but they are not really being serious about the situation.

Student: It is like Rush Limbaugh—he fizzles out. Everyone knows their stance so they get boring.

White: Society takes a casual ease.

Andrea: He does this with the history. He knows the purpose, gets in the zinger, and then drops it.

David: If you read the history in his work, Alexie really remembers it.

Andrea: He might not even get the history exactly right, but that might be his point. If I don’t get it, who cares? Who even knows?

White: It’s like he’s the guy sitting next to me in Denny’s – he breaks the stereotypes.

More information:

"Vision (2)" is published in Unsettling America and Old Shirts and New Skins from the American Indian Studies Center, University of California at Los Angeles, copyrighted in 1991.

Information regarding Sherman Alexie can be found at: http://www.fallsapart.com/biography.html and http://www.fallsapart.com/art-av.html.

Information on The Great American Movie Debate can be found at: http://www.homevideo.net/FIRM/amdebate.htm.

Information about the Amherst-smallpox blanket episode can be found at: http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/86.4/fenn.html.

Information regarding Andrew Jackson’s administration and involvement with the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears can be found at: http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/bio/public/jackson.htm.

Information on the Caduceus Medical Symbol can be found at: http://www.medhelpnet.com/caduceus.html.

Information regarding Cotton Mather and his writings on Native Americans can be found in: Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana or the Ecclesiastical History of New England, Volume II Book VII, "Decennium Lucuossum, or a History of Remarkable Occurances, in the War which New-England had with Indian Salvages, from the year 1688 to the year 1698." Taken from the 1852 edition, with all page numbers referring to that edition. This document is located at http://www.salem.mass.edu/~ebaker/chadweb/magnalia.htm.