According to poetryfoundation.org, Sherman Alexie is a well known Native American poet, novelist, and filmmaker. According to this article, Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington where most of early childhood was spent reading. Overtime, he grew very prosperous in his academia; however experienced battles of alcoholism. After receiving a publication, Alexie came to the decision to quit drinking.
Through much of Alexie's work, there's many pieces with emphasis on despair, poverty, and alcoholism that link towards common connections to the Native community. This can also be demonstrated in the text in the book Nothing but the Truth by John L. Purdy and James Ruppert.
The text is a piece by Sherman Alexie called, "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel." Within the poem, Alexie elaborates a visual necessity that Native features hold being 'tragic noses, tragic eyes, and arms.'
Alexie then elaborates upon the mentality and emotional characteristics which must also be present with said Natives. One ironic elaboration is the stereotypes that derive from mass media productions and their attempts to portray the American Indian culture.
By the end of the poem, Alexie poses the idea that all of the Indians are merely 'figments of reality' or rather ghosts because the Indian people are actually going to be present as white.
The style of the text is Free Verse where 42 lines are broken down into 21 couplets. The overall tone of this piece would be pitiful due to the emphasis of tragedy. The overall meaning of the piece then would be to demonstrate why the Native culture hold secrets due to the mistrust of Western culture; therefore making Indian people appear as less trustworthy to said culture.
Outside resources:
[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/sherman-alexie]
[Nothing but the Truth textbook]
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