Sherman Alexie Accomplishments

Success and Life Today
A relentless attempt of Sherman Alexie :to draw awareness among the young generations through his writings and storytelling. Today Alexie is exploring in all branches of literature through his writings: poem, novel short - story, editing, short story for children, songwriting, composing, directory, and public speaking. But he is more relevant in novel, short story, and public speaking .His writings are mainly about poverty, racism , alcoholism and abuse which are the part and parcel of native American’s life. He depicted his serious thoughts in a humorous and light- hearted way in his writings. Alexie acquire plenty of admiration for his poems and short stories of contemporary Native American reservation life.Among them
“The Business of Fancydancing”has appreciated by the readers. He also broke the barriers , when he contributed to create the first all - indian movie, “Smoke Signals” for which he wrote the screenplay based on his short stories.It was produced, directed and acted by Native American genius. In the story “The Toughest Indian in the World’ He tried to assimilate the white world with native world . As a public speaker his popularity knows no bounds such as : recently he was the commencement Speaker at the Seattle alternative high school where he talked with sixty students who were inspired by his adult novel “The absolutely true Diary of a Part - Time Indian”. The young generations are inspired by his autobiographical story of a poor reservation indian boy and his desperate and humorous attempts for a better life. Every day he receives a great deal of feedback from his YA book readers who are mostly teens and pre - teens. Some of them did not read any other books except Alexie’s YA writings. He is also influencing young generations by telling the story of his real life and urging them to come out of all the barriers and obstacles. Which leaves a sense of respect, understanding and compassion for him.
In 2005, Alexie was chosen as the board member of the”Longhouse Media,” a non-profit organization that has launched to teach filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change.As the recognition of his works Sherman Alexie accomplished enormous amounts of awards, some of them are : American Book Award (1996). National Book Award (2007). PEN/ Faulkner(2010) and many others. In spite of all these attainments, there are also some controversy about Alexie’s writings. For example : “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” was pulled from the curriculum of Idaho Schools. Following parental objections that,the writer used filthy words. The school board in the Meridian district in Idaho has voted to remove it from high- school supplement reading list, where it has been used since 2010. (the gurdian.com/books). Today Sherman Alexie is a successful author but very down to earth person, married to Diane who is also a Native American (Hidatsa, Ho Chunk, and Potawatomi descent) and he is the father of two sons; lives in Seattle.He was shocked at his mother’s death and also mourns for her tribe and culture who was one of the last speaker of the traditional Spokane language.(Tampa Bay Times). He wrote a memoir as a tribute for his mother,“You Don’t
Have to Say You Love Me.”
Sherman Alexie who was born with a life threatening condition would live in a native Indian reservation with his alcoholic parents.He had a life full of hardship but was highly ambitious to overcome all sorts of boundaries and limitations on his way to achievements.His first attempt to reach his goals was to go to Reardan High School after that he dropped out of med and law program but he did not give up, though he became depressed for a short time of period. Finally, he figured out that literature is suitable subject for him and he finished his Bachelor degree with an honourable fellowship at washington State University.Today, he is a renowned writer and public speaker. He is also known as a filmmaker, poet, songwriter, composer etc.At the same time he is the total of a courageous, honest,anguished, and hilarious personality.
Under the above circumstances, it can be said that, Sherman Alexie is a self made person who writes to portrait the lives of Native Americans, who attempts to escape of their situations through alcohol and other forms of abuse. Nowadays,Alexie actively and publicly advocating for the native kids to leave the reservation in order to have a meaningful life so that they will be able to eradicate all sorts of discriminations and segregations which are going through centuries after centuries.