Sherman Alexie's Poetry Comparison: The Hero And The Villains

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David Mazahreh English 110 Professor Bliss The Hero and the Villain The history of mankind was never short of wars and battles. During that chaos, many controversial characters were widely known by posterity. Those controversial characters were thought to be heroes because they won many battles as leaders with daringness, or they saved many people’s lives. They were also thought to be villains because they did many inhuman slaughters. A true historical bio has never been accomplished. To determine a history figure is a hero or a villain is depending on what positions we are standing on. Hence, a history figure…show more content…
“Custer Speaks” and “Crazy Horse Speaks” are the two poems contained in Alexie’s book Old Shirts and New Skins. In this book, Alexie composed these two poems by standing on two opposed roles. In those poems, he described what they had felt and seen, real and imaginary. Through all these elements, Alexie tells us the Indians history and his view towards the Indians…show more content…
The second stanza of “Custer Speaks” displays Custer’s prowess. He was a born warrior, fighter, and leader for wars. Then in the third stanza, his brutality fully exposes. He killed Indians without any shame. He also gave himself excuse for his atrocity: “I was forced to do that.”(P. 36) In the fourth stanza, Custer showed off his ambition—to be the president of the U.S. But there was one man scared this arrogant guy. The man was called Crazy Horse, Custer’s natural enemy. In stanza five, he expressed his awe and admiration towards Crazy Horse. Stanza six and seven tell readers the reason about his feeling towards Crazy Horse. In Custer’s mind, Crazy Horse was the same as him—a brave, born warrior and leader for wars. He thought maybe Crazy Horse was better than him. The fact proved that Custer’s worry was reasonable. Crazy Horse’s forces didn’t have advanced arms, but he had better wisdom and tactics of war. He defeated extremely arrogant Custer. While at the end of the poem, Custer said that he would be reborn whenever dictators need him or whenever movie-goers want to watch him. This is an ironic and humor ending. Through this ending, Alexie indicates his view on Custer: he was standing on the side of dictators; he was a bad guy. However, many people think he is a hero and would like to bring his history into movies. Alexie discloses his frustrated and protest mood about people don’t correctly approach Native Indians’ history through this

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