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Jacob Crossno
Dr. Suhr-Sytsma
Eng-181
24 March 2016
Project 2: How Natives Survive with Dirty Jokes in Alexies Novels
In the face of colonialism, unemployment, poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, diabetes, the
uncertain future, and eroded cultural traditions, what is the response among indigenous people,
(Heldrich, 25). How does a people deal with the uncontrollable circumstances that govern their
life and attempt to take away their humanity? The answer may lie within oral tradition which is a
big part of many native cultures; its the link that connects the past and the future. Storytelling
gives way to a process of healing through humor, and Native comedy is a method of approaching
and dealing with problems.
Sherman Alexie often writes with a comedic style. In this essay, I will show how Philip
Heldrich argues in his work Survival = Anger x Imagination that Alexies comedic style is
used to address problems among Native people and communities with dark humor. I will analyze
the way that Heldrich supports and counters the ideas in the works that he discusses. I will finally
show examples of when Alexie did and did not use dark humor for this purpose in his novels
Flight and True Diary.
Philip Heldrich asserts that Alexie, who although is among many American dark
humorists, specifically uses dark humor and irony in the form of literary techniques and
figurative language to discuss dark issues, particularly social issues and stereotypes of Indians,
which are a result of colonization. Heldrich reveals Alexies use of dark humor in his works The
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and The Toughest Indian in the World and argues that

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Alexie effectively makes the dominant culture question its errors and stereotypes of Indians
suggesting dark humor to be Indians secret weapons to survival in tragic situations and
resistance to the colonial power. Heldrich discusses examples of problems addressed with dark
humor such as alcoholism through a basketball scene and connection to culture and community
through sexual desire; however, Heldrich complicates matters by providing subtle counter
arguments in which the discussion and solution of problems is addressed through lighter humor
as opposed to dark humor.
Heldrich seeks to support the idea that Alexie uses humor as a secret weapon to survival
by highlighting and discussing a scene where a character witnesses a young native basketball
player winning a shot and responds by laughing. While Heldrich insists that such moments
shared legends of great feats and failures in the face of dire circumstance create a means of
survival through laughter, I would argue that just because it is a bewildering situation, dark
humor has not necessarily been used to address problems among Native people, (Heldrich, 29;
30). Heldrich strengthens his argument, however, by demonstrating that basketball players are
heroes among the tribe, and because many youth lose the opportunity to play as a result of not
finishing high school and another man who played drunk lost his ability to be a hero, the moment
of winning or failing at that one shot speaks directly to the problems that basketball seeks to heal
such as a lost sense of community and the effects of alcoholism, (30). Therefore, I understand
that although the basketball is successfully shot, the tension of the moment and the cultural
meaning and importance that basketball has taken on imposes a situation where problems such as
Native identity and alcohol abuse were pressed.
The use of dark humor to address Native problems is further revealed by Heldrich when
he draws attention to a character, Mary Lynn, in Assimilation who desires to sleep with an

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Indian man, only because he was Indian, (33). Because Mary Lynn is already married to a
white man, this taboo idea involving an inappropriate sexual desire is an application of dark
humor by Alexie, and Heldrich asserts that her infidelity was a political act! (33). Basically
Heldrich is saying that Mary Lynn is trying to connect more with her culture and with being an
Indian by connecting sexually with an Indian man despite and because of being in an interracial
marriage. I agree with Heldrich that this humorous situation hence addresses issues of
assimilation and Native resistance.
Despite majorly contributing to the idea that Alexie uses dark humor to address problems
among Natives, Heldrich also acknowledges that Alexie uses humor that does not have the same
dark edge but uses it for the same purpose of discussing and responding to problems, (39). The
struggle of finding an identity as an Indian is realized by a character named Atticus in Alexies
work through humor such as when he pokes fun at elders claiming that after all, most people are
idiots, regardless of age, (Heldrich, 39). According to Heldrich, the humor is less dark as it
contains subject matter that is less taboo, but apparently, it is still used in solution to Native
problems such as identity crisis. While other approaches are used to address issues among
Natives, dark humor is still a greatly effective tool that Alexie uses in his work which allows
characters to laugh at problems to survive them.
I believe it is very evident that Alexie uses dark humor for the similar purposes in his
other novels such as True Diary and Flight. For example, in True Diary, the main character,
Junior, responds to learning of his sisters death by laughing. Junior says, I laughed and
laughed. I couldnt stop laughing. I felt like I might die of laughing. I couldnt figure out why I
was laughing, (True Diary, 205). This is a clear, well-expressed example of how laughter at
dark humor is the secret weapon to the survival of tragedy in Alexies novels. The text continues

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as Junior discovers and thinks of the reality of his sisters cause of death which makes him laugh
more as all of these darker realities continue to make Junior laugh; consequently, Junior deals
with more and more tragedy with laughter. It is a grander representation for humor and laughter
being the keys to survival of all problems including issues inflicted by colonization.
True Diary provides another example of the use of dark humor and laughter to survive
problems and tragedy faced by Natives. This example also concerns the tragedy of death. After
Juniors grandmother is killed by a drunk driver, two thousand Indians who attended her funeral
all laughed when they lowered [Juniors] grandmother into the ground when they covered her
with dirt as [they] walked and drove and rode [their] way back to [their] lonely, lonely
houses, (True Diary, 167). In this situation, all of these Natives have a collective response to
Juniors grandmothers funeral that is laughter in a sense that strengthens the importance of their
community and tribe. Alexie demonstrates that dark humor and laughter are the ways that Native
people respond to and survive tragic situations including problems like alcoholism.
Furthermore, the main character, Zits, in Flight makes the reader address realities of
Native problems by using dark humor. When Zits boasts that he is gifted, you might say at
drinking alcohol, his brazen pride of out drinking homeless Indian drunks can be interpreted as
darkly humorous, (Flight, 7). Alexie admittedly argues that alcoholism is a serious problem
among Native communities. By creating this scenario in the fictional novel, he is using dark
humor to address the problem. Bringing attention to problems with dark humor is Alexies
version of activism which is a step toward solving the problem at hand.
However, Alexie does not always use dark humor to survive tragedy. For example, in
Flight, when Jimmys plane crashes, the novel takes on a more philosophical and serious tone as
his character inflicted upon himself the tragedy of oncoming death because of the reality of his

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problems of marriage and betrayal. There is no humor at all in this setting as Jimmy stays silent
all the way down, (Flight, 130). Therefore, one may conclude that Alexie does not use dark
humor to allow his characters to respond to tragedy and address Native problems in this
situation. On the other hand, this introduces a controversial matter. Although Zits is in Jimmys
body, Jimmy controls his own actions, and Jimmy is not Native. Therefore, Alexie may be
indirectly emphasizing his use of dark humor as a key for addressing and surviving Native
problems.
Finally, in Flight, Alexie does not use dark humor to respond to Zits when he learns of
Officer Daves police dispatch call which leads to two dead toddlers whose eyes are open and
blue and blind, (Flight, 171). When faced with tragic situations, Alexies characters would
typically respond with laughter to help survive the situation. In this situation, there is, like the
previous situation, a lack of laughter or humor which shows that humor is not always used for
survival of dark situations. There could be limitations even for an author who responds to almost
everything tragic with laughter.
In conclusion, Alexie does indeed use dark humor to address social issues and survive the
effects of oppression by the dominant culture; even though, dark humor is not always used for
this purpose, and characters do not always respond to tragic situations with dark humor and
laughter. Readers must understand that laughter among Native people represents survival, and
Alexie focuses on addressing dark problems with laughter to survive those problems in many of
his works ranging from fictional short stories to novels.

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Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. Flight. New York: Black Cat, 2007. Print.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Hachette Book
Group, 2007. Print.
Heldrich, Philip. Survival = Anger x Imagination Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical
Essays. Jeff Berglund & Jan Roush. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2010.
ProQuest Ebrary. Web. 23 March 2016.