Notably Sherman Alexie was an intelligent and extraordinary filmmaker, poet, performer, and novelist. Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit. Then, he attended Washington State University in Pullman and received his BA in American Studies. Alexie childhood years were very strenuous for him. Being born with a condition called hydrocephalic caused him to suffer from random seizures and bed wetting. He was also dealing with the pain that his father caused by leaving him and his mother at a young age without any explanation of his actions, which caused Alexie to become exceedingly hostile and bitter towards his father. Through every piece of work that he has written, we learn more about Alexie's childhood. Alexie's poems …show more content…
Here's an example of one of Alexie's poems named "Poverty of Mirrors." Describing his past; he writes "so you open the fridge again / for a beer, find only rancid milk and drink it / whole, this all tastes too familiar" (15-16) in this poem he describes his poverty as a young boy waking up the next morning after a long night of his parents partying and drinking at his house with the other Indians, now drunk and some passed out on the floor. The young boy makes his way to the kitchen to find some breakfast, but there is nothing to be found. In another section of the poem Alexie writes, "You wake these mornings alone and nothing / can be forgiven; you drink the last /swallow of warm beer from the can" (1-3), here, he describes in this stanza how he has nothing and no one has anything to offer he feels alone every morning he wakes up. His parents do not take much care of him, he fishes through the refrigerator to find not a trace of food just more cases of beer. He finishes his beer from the other night and continues …show more content…
Here he titles each of the semi lines, Language, Names, Alcohol, time and tradition. In each of these it has a message to bring to the table such as the first one, Language he writes "I dreamed I was digging your grave / I spoke English I was not consumed" (1-8) in the first line of the poem he talks about his father's grave and in the last stanza of the language he says how he spoke English and was not consumed in other words he is implying that English is his first and language he knows nothing about his Native Indian