Topic Proposal for Essay 3:
1. The Tonto and Lone Ranger Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie. I really liked this story and would like to learn more about the author and the context of when it was written.
2. This story was written by a Native American who grew up an Indian Reservation, just like the main character of the short story. It was written in the 1990s about a young man living in Seattle, WA. It is partly autobiographical, the author takes many things from his own life into his writing.
3. I feel that I understand the main character and his life and feelings a lot more after reading about the author and Native Americans.
4. Knowing more about the culture and history of the time, I can understand the views on racial prejudice the narrator feels, and the path of his life, which is a lot sadder than he probably expected. Its about his dreams, and how they compare and contrast to reality.
5. I think the culture is more important than the history, but the time the story was written is also important, to understand the setting, and the state of racism.
6. The short story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" features many parallels to the authors life. The character is different, but his life has many similarities. I have heard that it is easy to write about what you know. Sherman Alexie does just that, writing about someone with a similar life and their dreams.
2 comments:
Justin,
You have picked a good story to work with for cultural analysis and it is good that you have found some relevant biographical information. However your major claim (at least as formulated now) is too general and is unsupported in your thesis statement. Make sure that any bio is only there to support your claims about the cultural context you use to discuss the story. You claim needs to be about the story’s main themes and you can attribute the authenticity of the author’s position on the issue to his personal experiences, but you need to stay focused on the text, not on the cultural clues as your main target.
I think that the tory youpicked for the essay is very interesting. I agree that the cultural aspect of the time is probably more interesting because of the racial and social tension but try not to overload the essay with just cultural of historical facts.
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