The difficulty for most contemporary Native American authors is how to present their work to a population that is not fully familiar with the modern world Indian situation and way of life Alexie Sherman and Velma Wallis achieve this in their books The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Raising Ourselves by presenting their stories alongside the Christmas celebration. universally known. -class, the American reader is then able to compare his own vision of the holiday to Alexie and Wallis's darker version, thus making the author's point clearer through the astonishing contrasts between the perceptions of the reader and those of the author of the same event The idea that Christmas is a peaceful holiday filled with family and good times conflicts with the Indian view that Christmas is a time of discord and alcohol abuse. . Alexie and Wallis use this strategy of turning a well-known holiday into something the common reader no longer recognizes in order to better show the problems modern Indians face, such as alcoholism and family problems. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayAlexie describes Christmas as an event that separates family members rather than bringing them together under the influence of alcohol. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior's father, the protagonist, leaves on Christmas Eve with the family money, gets drunk, and does not return until January 2. After Junior tells his father that "it's okay," he points out to the reader, "It wasn't okay." This was as far from correct as it could be. If Earth was okay, then I was on Jupiter. I don't know why I said it was okay. For some reason, I was protecting the feelings of the man who had broken my heart again. (Alexie 151) Junior still loves Christmas like many other kids his age, and this quote expresses how hurt he is that the holiday was ruined. The fact that he repeatedly said it was wrong demonstrates his sheer frustration with the situation and how seriously Junior takes the vacation and doesn't want it to fail. Additionally, Junior uses several phrases that distance himself from his father's situation and alcoholism. He says that "It was as far from correct as possible" and "If Earth was correct, then I was on Jupiter." At its farthest point, Jupiter is approximately 601 million kilometers from Earth. Junior uses this example to show how estranged and emotionally disconnected he is from his father. These statements serve to distance Junior from the problem that brought him to this point, alcohol, and to remove him from his family at a party that people believe should bring the family together. Junior also uses many uncertain expressions, such as "I don't know" and "For some reason", to demonstrate that alcohol has caused confusion and disruption in his family life, to the point of calling into question his own actions. To the average reader, the fact that Junior's father chose to abandon him at Christmas is shocking, as many believe that you cannot have a successful Christmas without the presence of an entire family. Children are supposed to be happy and joyful at Christmas, but Junior is upset and gloomy. This excerpt turns what Junior hoped would one day be happy into a sad mix of confusion and anger within his family. Wallis also uses Christmas to discuss the problems of alcoholism andfamily stress so the reader can compare the vacation to their own perception. In Raising Ourselves, when Wallis talks about Christmas, she states that "Barry and I dreamed of having a good Christmas, which meant a sober mother and a time of togetherness like our family used to have." When things didn't go this way, we called it a bad Christmas. (Wallis 149) The placement of the terms “sober mother” and “togetherness time” next to each other emphasizes that Wallis could not have one without the other. Additionally, she directly attributes a good Christmas to a sober mother, demonstrating how the success of the holiday depended entirely on the presence or absence of alcohol. Wallis also seems to attribute the family's lack of unity to alcohol, calling his "sober mother" just before talking about what his family "used to have." Clearly, Wallis believes that alcohol is one of the main reasons for his family problems. For example, Wallis doesn't use terms like "Merry" or "Jolly" to describe his Christmas. She simply uses the term "Good", which indicates how Wallis's expectations for Christmas are already quite low, even if the holiday goes off successfully. Finally, she says that she "dreamed" of having a good Christmas, which suggests that Wallis thought that a good Christmas was something extremely difficult to obtain, and that she did not necessarily expect it. get. Furthermore, this statement also draws parallels to recognizable popular culture in the form of the song "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin, which contains the lyrics "I dream of a white Christmas." The song also mentions "The Ones I Knew", which is similar to Wallis' "Like Our Family Once Had It". The title of Wallis' song is contrasting, "White Christmas", and may also evoke issues of race, stating that the white version of Christmas has nothing to do with the Indian version. These details allow the reader to draw on their personal conceptions of the holiday and then contrast with those of Wallis. Although Alexie uses Christmas as a platform to talk about poverty, he avoids materialistic gifts and instead focuses on the thoughtfulness of the holiday. vacation. When the only gift he receives from his father for Christmas is a $5 bill, Junior remarks, "My father must have really wanted to spend those last five dollars." Hell, you can buy a bottle of the worst whiskey for $5. He could have spent that five dollars and stayed drunk for another day or two. But he kept it for me. It was a beautiful and ugly thing. (Alexie 151) In this statement, the paltry gift of five dollars is not as important as the fact that her father thought to give it to her in the first place. Junior repeats several sentences. One of them is "five dollars", repeated three times in different ways. Junior's repeated mention of the gift indicates how much the gift means to him, not because it is substantial, but because given his father's alcoholic absence, he did not expect to receive it in first place. Additionally, Alexie uses phrases like "Must have", "Can't have", and "Could have" to convey the difficulty his father probably had in setting aside that five dollars for his son. By presenting all the alternative uses for the money, the father's gift seems all the more sincere because he refused several other viable options in favor of his son, an action Junior would never have believed would happen. would produce. Alexie goes on to explain that "it was a beautiful, ugly thing." Alexie places two words with opposite meanings side by side in order to suggest that good actions can occur among imperfect actions, in the same way that the father engaged in..