A Study Guide for Sherman Alexie's "Defending Walt Whitman"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Sherman Alexie's "Defending Walt Whitman," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535821728

Book preview

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Defending Walt Whitman

Sherman Alexie

1996

Introduction

Sherman Alexie is of Spokane and Coeur d'Alene heritage. He prefers being called an American Indian rather than a Native American. His prolific literary career and instant fame as a writer in his early twenties were surprising, given his childhood in poverty on the Spokane Reservation. Alexie has been celebrated for his versatility in many genres: poetry, songwriting, short stories, novels, and screenplays. He has produced films and become a popular performer in poetry slams, on television guest appearances, and as a stand-up comedian. His themes have dealt with racism and the crippling legacy of American colonialism for Indians. Alexie is noted for his humor in pointing out the incongruities between white and native worlds.

His poem Defending Walt Whitman is a celebration of reservation basketball, one of Alexie's favorite topics. In this poem, he humorously imagines the nineteenth-century American poet, bearded and ecstatic, being defended on the basketball court by good-natured and muscular Indian boys as he tries to make a basket. Whitman does not know anything about the game but is infected with the same enthusiasm as the Indians. Whitman was a favorite poet of Alexie's, and the poem is written in the same style of free verse used in Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Defending Walt Whitman can be found in the collection The Summer of Black Widows, published in 1996.

Author Biography

Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. was born on October 7, 1966, in Spokane, Washington, to Lillian Agnes Cox (of the Spokane, Flathead, and Colville tribes) and Sherman Joseph Alexie (of the Coeur d'Alene tribe), one of six children. He was a hydrocephalic baby and underwent brain surgery at six months. The doctors said he would have mental retardation from this condition, but instead, he was very bright and an early learner, learning to read by the age of three. He grew up in poverty and with an alcoholic father on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, where he went to primary school. To prepare for college, Alexie transferred to Reardan High School, a primarily white school, in 1981. He excelled and flourished, becoming captain of the basketball team, class president, and a debater.

He attended Gonzaga University in Spokane from