Our class discussion drew on our reading of Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Thomas King’s Truth & Bright Water, and the 1998 film Smoke Signals.
Themes:
- Borders as human constructions.
- Belonging as something that necessitates that there are those who don’t belong.
- Varying definitions of success.
Questions:
- How can humor be a vehicle for truth?
- When can humor be dangerous?
- What possibilities exist in the threshold spaces between borders?
- What role can place play in relation to the understanding of the self?
- What is the relationship between grief and growth?
Suggestions for Additional Reading:
- “Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke” by Ralph Ellison
- Tribal Secrets by Robert Allen Warrior
- The Way to Rainy Mountain by N Scott Momaday
- The White Roots of Peace: The Iroquois Book of Life by Paul Wallace
