Top 9 Moments of 10 Little Indians

Sherman Alexie's Ten Little Indians is an amazing collection full of wonderful lines and moments. The following is my top 9 list of favorite moments from Ten Little Indians--one from each story.

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"I'm a Spokane Indian. I'm an English literature major here."
"Oh, God, you're an Indian?"
"Well, mostly. Fifteen sixteenths to be exact."
"So, fifteen sixteenths of you is studying the literature of the other one sixteenth of you?"

Lawyer's League:

"Ignore my husband," said the Democrat wife. "He's a right-wing maniac."
"And you, my lovely wife, are a knee-jerk liberal."
"You keep talking like that, and it's going to be a long time before you stick your right wing in my knee jerk."

Can I Get a Witness?

"Nobody is innocent, right? she said. "Isn't that what all of the holy books say? We're all sinners? But after the Trade Center, it was all about the innocent victims, all the innocent victims, and I kept thinking--I knew one of those guys in the towers was raping his daughter. Raping her. Maybe he was raping his son, too. And beating his wife."

Do Not Go Gentle:

My wife and I didn't know Mr. Grief in person until our baby boy got his face stuck between his mattress and crib and suffocated himself blue. He died three times that day, Mr. Grief squeezing his lungs tight, but the muscular doctors and nurses battled that suffocating monster man and brought our boy back to life three times. He was our little blue baby Jesus.

Flight Patters:

"We're all trapped by other people's ideas, aren't we?"

The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above:

She was always making scenes. She yelled at mothers and fathers who publicly spanked their children (Hey, Mussolini, how would you like me to do that to you?), and commented loudly at any display of public rudeness:
     1. "Oh, look at Prince Pushy of Monaco, cutting in line. Hey Prince, do you keep your crown in your ass?"
     2. "Oh, excuse me, excuse me, Ms. Moneybags, but I see that your party of eight left only a dollar tip for the waitress. I assume that was an honest mistake."
     3. "Okay, okay, everybody, listen up, we're all waiting in line to get our driver's licenses, but this man here, he's cursing a lot, so he obviously needs his license more than anybody else in the history of the world. Can somebody please get him a special driver's license, please, hurry."

Do You Know Where I Am?

"'All in green went my love riding,'" she whispered in that special way, "'on a great horse of gold into the silver dawn.'"
"Cummings wrote the poem, and I'm in love and gone," I said and made my slow way down the creek side.

What you Pawn I Will Redeem:

"You Indians. How the hell do you laugh so much? I just picked your ass off the railroad tracks, and you're making jokes. Why the hell do you do that?"
"The two funniest tribes I've ever been around are Indians and Jews, so I guess that says something about the inherent humor of genocide."

Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church?

Mr. Death, Frank thought, if a lie is beautiful, then is it truly a lie?

**That's all for Sherman Alexie, I promise. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with a new topic…I hope.

10 Little…9 Little…8 Little Indians: a Book Review

Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie was published in 2003 by Grove Press.

I particularly like this cover. There are 10 Indian silhouettes all touching like chain dolls cut out of paper. The Indians wrap around onto the back cover, with one Indian on the spine. The cover is blue, yellow, and black. It's very minimalistic and clean. There are ten Indians on the cover, leading me to think there will be 10 stories in the collection (all with Indians as protagonists). There are 9 stories. This bothered me at first. I really wanted there to be 10 stories. But then my professor suggested that Alexie is the 10th Indian and well, that's really funny. I'm just upset that I didn't think of that.

The collection of stories contains "stories about Native Americans, who like all Americans, find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads, faced with heartrending, tragic, sometimes wondrous moments of being that test their loyalties, their capacities, and their notions of who they are and who they love" (I stole this from the back of the book).
All the protagonists are Indians, more specifically Spokane. Many of the stories deal with relationships between people. Strangers who meet and bond in the face of tragedy, racism, or for the love of poetry.
Love is another continuing theme. The book opens with an epigraph from Sappho, "Love--bittersweet, irrepressible--loosens my limbs and I tremble." This is a sexy epigraph and fits the sexiness of Alexie's stories. For example, Corliss's love for poetry could easily be described by the Sappho epigraph.
There are also themes of race and identity. With the concept of identity, many of the narrators are concerned with being special or at least more than ordinary. Some characters struggle with their Indian heritage.
Many of the stories, especially the ones dealing with death and grieving involve ceremony. In "Do Not Go Gentle" the parents of a sick child buy a vibrator and perform a ceremony to make Mr. Grief go away. In the last story, Frank Snake Church partakes in multiple ceremonies while trying to move past his grief. He pounds the floor while chanting, eats his father's hair, and plays hours upon hours of basketball. The basketball acts as a ceremony--a way to grieve his parents and loss of his youth.

This collection is also very humorous, which is primarily why I love Alexie's writings so much. He has a way of being dark, poignant, and hilarious all in the same story.

Next week: Top 10 Favorite Moments from Ten Little Indians

Best Character Ever

The entire cast of To Kill a Mockingbird is wonderful. The teachings of Atticus, the wild schemes of Dill, and Uncle Jack--yes, just Uncle Jack. But the best character of all is our protagonist, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. And here is a list of Scout's awesomeness:

1. Scout is honest and speaks her mind As a five year old, Scout sees no problem in saying what she's thinking. When her classmate, Walter, comes over for lunch and pours syrup all over his food, she asks him why he's doing that. That he's ruining the food. She is dragged out of the kitchen and reprimanded by Calpurnia (another amazing character who consistently scolds Scout, but you see Cal's love for Scout all throughout the novel). Scout is honest to a fault; even when it gets her into trouble, like on the first day of school.

2. Scout is curious. She wants to learn. Her father, Atticus, never talks down to her or her brother, Jem. When Atticus uses a word Scout doesn’t understand she asks him what it means. She has a desire to understand. This is also shown by her love of books. “I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” Her passion for books is so deep that it goes beyond love. Reading is necessary to Scout’s very life.

3. Scout is very protective of her family. The main reason she gets into fights is because someone has insulted Scout or a family member of hers. She fights to defend her honor or the honor of her family. However, this is due more to her pride than anything. And Atticus has a talk with her about not solving her problems with her fists.

4. Scout is true to herself. Scout does what she wants without worrying too much about what others think of her. She does not go around pretending to be something she’s not, but she will bend to appease her father. When Atticus forbids Scout to fight, she promises she won’t. And she really tries to keep her promise.

5. Scout is fun. My favorite line (other than quote in #2) comes at the end of the book. Scout and Jem are walking home in the dark and they realize that someone is following them. Thinking it is her classmate who jumped out at her earlier in the night, Scout turns around and hollers, “Cecil Jacobs is a big, wet he-en!” This line sadly did not make it into the amazing film version. Scout, Jem, and their friend Dill spend the summers running around and use their imaginations to have great adventures. 

6. Scout has a great name. Her birth name may be Jean Louise, but she is wholly and completely Scout.

And that’s why Scout’s is an amazing character and a person I strive to be like when I grow up.

Best Literary Characters Ever

Characters are the heart of the story. They're what keeps us coming back. We like to see them struggle and succeed. Some characters are so real, it's like they're family. We go on this epic journey with them and by the time we finish the book, it can be hard to put it down. It's like saying good bye to a best friend. So I've decided to compile a list of my favorite literary characters of all time. This is by no means a complete list. There are so many characters out there. These are just the ones I thought of. There are some that I've forgotten. And many more that I have yet to meet.

So without any further ado...
The Best Literary Characters Ever:

8. Don Quixote (from Don Quixote)

7. Janie Crawford (Their Eyes Were Watching God)

6. Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the Wind)

5. Benvolio (from Romeo and Juliet)

4. Hamlet (and Horatio from Hamlet)

3. Anne (of Green Gables)

2. Huck (and Jim, of course! from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

...and my number one favorite character of all time...

1. Scout Finch (and Calpurnia and Atticus and Uncle Jack--Can I just include the entire cast from To Kill a Mockingbird?)

Wow, only 8. I need to start reading something other than comic books!