Bearable with Humor, Pain in Sherman Alexie’s The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems

Abstract

For the time being Native Americans still doubt and question their status amid the American nation. The consciousness of being marginal and subjugated appears clearly in their literature. Within the rising voices that echo widely against repression and injustice, they have had their voice, a voice that reflects historical agony, cultural deprivation, and political stings. Moreover, what distinguishes their voices is the amount of mutilation and loss that turns into humor and sarcasm. This voice ceaselessly tries to bring back a fragmented identity from ashes. Sherman Alexie, a poet, novelist, short story writer, filmmaker, essayist, and comedian, is one of the best to adopt the role of fighting for his people to reclaim their status. His people and their dignified and excruciating survival inform much of his multi-genre works and unify his style. Frequently, the black humor technique pops up in his poems to show, on the one hand, the considerable amount of pain and, on the other, to make this pain bearable.