Alexie's Semi-True Diary of Arnold Spirit

In Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold Spirit (Junior) struggles with the identity of Indians as alcoholics. He has to cope with the alcohol-related deaths of three of his family members in the span of only a few months. (Eugene counts as family. Since he's the dad's best friend, he would be like an uncle). His grandmother is hit by a drunk driver. Eugene is killed by his own friend while they are drunk. Arnold's sister's house burns down after a drunken party, and she is too drunk to even wake up. And all that happens after Arnold decides that he has to change his identity. With a little nudge from Mr. P, he realizes that he has to get off of the reservation so he doesn't end up like all of the others in his tribe.

While Arnold stuggles with trying to figure out his identity (half-white, half-indian, artist, basketball player, teenager, son, brother, friend), he also struggles with many levels of family drama. His dad is a drunk, his mother is an ex-drunk, his best friend hates Arnold after he switches schools, his whole tribe hates him after he switches schools, and his sister runs away to Montana. And he even he forms a new family of peers at Reardon who grow to love and respect him.

1. Why is it so important to Arnold that he get away from the reservation and go to Reardon?

2. Arnold feels like the betrayal of his tribe (a form of family) is the cause of the deaths of his loved ones. Is Arnold justified in thinking this way? Why else would so many bad things happen all at once?

3. Which member of Arnold's family has the biggest positive impact on him? His mother, father, sister, or grandmother? Or maybe his friend Rowdy, or Eugene, or maybe even his coach at Reardon?

I will redeem your war dances with smoke signals...

The short stories "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," and "War Dances," and the movie Smoke Signals were all written by Sherman Alexie, who we will be reading more from next week with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. But, for now, let's focus on what we've already experienced from Alexie.
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In "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," the main character, Jackson, is a homeless Native American who has a drinking problem. He hangs out with two other homeless Native Americans named Rose of Sharon and Junior. One day, he sees what he believes to be his dead grandmother's stolen powwow-dance regalia in a pawn shop window. The story revolves around him trying to raise enough money to buy it from the shopkeeper.

Here are some discussion questions:
1. Would Rose of Sharon, Junior, Irene, Honey Boy, and the three Aleuts be considered part of Jackson's family?
2. Why was it so important to Jackson that he win back the regalia? Did he feel that it was a way that he could reunite with his long-gone family? Did he think that by winning it back, it would somehow alter his identity from that of a drunken bum to that of a hero?
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In "War Dances," several stories are being told at once. The main character finds himself partially deaf, and the doctor thinks he has a tumor. He flashes back to when his father was sick in the hospital, after having his feet amputated. There is also a small flashback to his father's death, as well as an interview with someone who served in World War 2 with his grandfather, and a strange "Exit Interview" for his father that includes a poem.

Here are some discussion questions:
3. How did the main character feel about his family, particularly his father?
4. How did the main character's father and grandfather shape his identity? Did he seem to follow in their footsteps in any way, or did he seem more like he was trying to carve out a new path?
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In Smoke Signals, the main character, Victor, leaves his reservation to collect his father's ashes in Phoenix, Arizona. A geeky kid, Thomas, goes with him. Along the way, the two learn more about each other, and teach each other a few things, too. Victor learns a secret about his father, and finds himself.

Here are some discussion questions:
5. Why was Thomas always telling stories about Victor's father? Was it because he had no father of his own to look up to?
6. Why was Victor so standoffish to everyone except his mother? Why was he so unfriendly to Thomas most of the time?

Themes of Family and Identity in Dream Homes

In Dream Homes, by Joyce Zonana, the themes of "family" and "identity" kept reoccurring. Throughout the book, Joyce recounted how hard she tried to break away from her mother's identity and find her own. But at the same time, she dug deeper into her family's history and culture to learn more about herself in that way as well. So, the entire book seemed to be a struggle between her need to be her own individual person and her need to belong to a family, to embrace the culture she barely knew.

On page 61, she told the reader how she struggled with her physical identity, trying to change her look so that she would no longer resemble her mother, even though their similarity had previously been a comfort to her. "I worked to obscure the obvious, letting my hair grow long, hiding my hips, even dreaming of a nose job. In public, I pretended to be someone else, not at all my mother's daughter. But in my earlioest years, it was gratifying to find myself reflected, the solidarity of my mother's body helping to assure me of the reality of my own."

She also struggled with her religious and cultural identity. On page 107, she surmised that the Jews of Egypt must have also had trouble determining their identity. "Were they Egyptians first, inextricably linked to their birthplace, the land where they had prospered and build comfortable lives? Or were they primarily Jews, bound to be loyal to the new Jewish homeland being established across the Sinai Peninsula?" Zonana also mentioned that her mother felt that it was their "Frenchness" that set them apart from everyone else in America...not their Jewish qualities, not their Egyptian qualities, but their French qualities. On page 116, she explained that "it was this sense of French bourgeois decency that sustained" her mother.

Another big piece of Joyce Zonana's identity turned out to be her sexuality. For more than twenty years, she only dated women. And with joining the homosexual minority, she also found another type of family: gay friends, collegues, and students. And when she ended her relationship with Kay (a woman) and slept with Bernard (a man), she felt that she was betraying that family. That action also tore at her identity. On page 186, she wrote that "Sleeping with a man after more than twenty years with women was harder to come to terms with than coming out as a lesbian had been."

Throughout Dream Homes, Zonana took the reader from Egypt to New York, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and back again to Egypt. Through her physical journey, she also goes through an internal journey to find herself and her place in the world, as well as to understand her family, their reasons for living and acting the way they did, and their place in culture and history.

Grammama Jo's Caramel Cake

My mother was raised by her grandmother. Grammamma Josephine was a cook for many families in her town. 'Good ol' southern cook', they would say. She was the hired hand for a many Doctors and Professionals in her community. She cooked for Dr. Praider, Dic Creekmore, Owner of Creekmore and Sons Grocery, Ms. Lilly who owned Jellico 5 and Dime, and so many others, often too many to name. But Grammamma loved to cook for her family 'more than any those other folk', she said. Christmas time was one of her favorite holidays to prepare a feast for her family. Just as Zonana spoke on her mother, and grandmother before that making wraps with grape leaves, mommy and Jo would throw down in the kitchen. They would have turkey legs, chicken n' dumplins, mashed 'tatas', candied yams, corn pudding, a relish tray, and so many other delictable dishes. The highlight of that meal would be when Jo brought out her Famous Caramel Cake. Candied crunch atop this luscious cake, "mmmm mmmm", was all you heard.
"Jo let me get a piece, c'mom Jo, please. I been good." She would laugh, tickled still that her family was praising her masterpiece. "Now chil'ren, jest a minute herr, gimme a space to cut it loose". Then she'd cut a big piece for 'Nin, my mother, and all the others to follow, handing each one a glass of milk. "Eat't up, aint no more till next yerr", she would say with a big smile on her face. "Now this herr made our Christmas, didnt ev'n haf to buy nerr gift". That was so true, to this day it is NOT Christmas without Grammamma's cake and the warm stories that we share about her when we make her cake and when we share it together.

Grammamma Jo's Caramel Cake

Cake
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
3 cups self rising flour, sifted
1 cup milk
1tsp pure van extract

Filling
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp pure van extract

Icing
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream, add more if necessary
1 oz powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pure van extract

Preheat oven to 350
Grease, flour (3) 9" cake pans
Cream butter, add gran sugar slowly, beat for 6-8 min
Slowly add in 1 egg at a time, beat well
Alternate adding in milk and flour, start with flour, end with flour
Add in vanilla
Separate batter into pans, level the batter

Bake for 23-25 min, depending on oven, until golden brown.

Let the cake cool, completely.

Filling
Butter, brown sugar, milk into saucepan
Cook for 3 min
Remove from heat, stir in vanilla
Stack cakes inverted, place toothpics into cake

Icing
Melt butter, stir in brown sugar and cream, let boil, remove from heat
Add pow'd sugar, vanilla, beat until desired constistency (spreadable)
Add cream
Spread over entire cake
Let it set up, icing will harden
Enjoy

By Kara Thompson

My first ever blog!

With the exception of Myspace (how many years ago?), this will be my first-ever experience with blogging. It took me several days, I'm actually ashamed to admit that, to figure out how to actually post a blog! Turns out, the little "sign in" button is at the top for a reason....

So, I just wanted to post my initial message to this awesomely titled blog group, and hope for many more messages to come!

Welcome to the blog!

Hello! 
Our blog group consists of: Kara Thompson, Ashley Zsedenyi, Liz Weary, Sue James, and Laura Sullivan. 

This blog will focus on the themes of Family & Identity in the following books: 
Dream Homes by Joyce Zonana
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende
Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
Push by Sapphire
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
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I hope all of our readers will feel free to comment on our posts and join in the discussion of these books!