Should Sherman Alexie Be Banned? Essay

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Banned Sherman

The Problem of Sherman Alexie's True Diary

While there are several good reasons for why Sherman Alexie's book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian should be read in schools, the honesty and lack of political correctness with which Alexie speaks about taboo subjects make it a good candidate for banning. The book is extremely provocative for any age, but in a politically correct age it is especially dangerous as it exposes youths to unconventional modes of thought and expression that challenge orthodox American values. In short, Alexie upsets the status quo that progressive thinkers, teachers, and leaders have spent more than a century protecting.

Alexie displays with absolute candor his take on how different races really perceive one another -- which in a nation that values equality is not the most sensitive way to discuss race. True, the novel exposes the reality of cultural identity and racism in America, and it does so in a way that reveals what it is like to struggle to find one's own voice; but in an age that looks to move beyond culture and race, Alexie's Diary is rather more backward-looking than forward-looking. Do we really need to be reminded via bitter anecdote of Sherman's past? For example, when Sherman recalls how he had to have his extra teeth pulled, he recounts, "Our white dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain" (2) and then calls the doctor "a bastard" in the next line. Is it frank? Yes. Is it honest? Yes.

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Is it politically incorrect? Yes. And that is why the book should be banned. Alexie is a non-conformist (he won't even conform to being "an Indian," thus the "part-time" status).

In a society whose ideological values are based on conformity to political doctrine, Alexie is a dangerous man. He inspires revolt, thinking outside the box, disregard for artificial, arbitrary convention. He calls himself a "retard" (4) and later states that he "was a happy faggot!" (198) without any regard for the preferred nomenclature of today, which is "intellectually disabled" and "homosexual." Alexie throws such respectful terms back in the face of those who crafted them. He insists on being a pariah, on using words that polite society has banned. (And since polite society has banned such words, it only follows that a book that….....

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