Humor is a powerful tool: it can break down barriers, create friendships, establish cultural unity or undermine/destroy people or organizations. In “ethnic” literature, humor is often used to create a shared space for readers to come together; “Humor helps dissipate animosity by bridging cultures, using shared human failures as a common denominator” (Lowe 442). By making fun of themselves or their traditions, minority authors manage to create a “safe” space for discussion: “ethnic jokes demarcate the social, geographic and moral boundaries of a nation or group ethnic, simultaneously reducing ambiguities and clarifying boundaries.” » (Lowe 440); through humor it becomes acceptable to ask uncomfortable questions or examine controversial topics. By using humor, minority writers can bring their own culture closer together and at the same time invite other cultures to come closer together; Conversely, humor can be used to threaten to dominate social structures that are harmful – in the same way that political cartoons or the Paul Ryan meme at the gym are used to discredit politicians, it can also be used to advance or stop a cause. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay "Call me Zits" (1) – so opens Sherman Alexie's novel, Flight, about a boy "half Indian, half Irish", all as an orphan/abandoned, growing up poor and unloved in Seattle. Alexie, who has been called a "mediagenic Native American superstar" by Men's Journal, became known for his themes of poverty, violence and alcoholism in Native American life, but also for his skillful use of humor when he tells stories. which are tragic in their basis in reality. Humor in “ethnic literature” is a valuable tool that “can lead to a deeper understanding on the part of those who hear the joke and to greater inclusion of the joker in the community” (Ward 272); This is certainly true for Alexie and for the protagonist Zits, who often indulges in self-deprecation to cope with his depression, mockery to cope with his exclusion from "mainstream" society, and acerbic wit. to manage a company that seems structured to stay. prevents him from finding happiness or comfort. Using humor in this way may be universal, but it is this universality that makes it such an effective tool for ethnic writers, particularly Native American in this case. By formulating social and cultural critiques with humor, they manage to reach a wider and more receptive audience. In Flight, a novel that deals with issues such as poverty, child abuse/abuse, murder, the violence of war, the genocide of Native Americans, depression, and the general violence of humanity, humor which accompanies it keeps the story accessible and allows the message to be transmitted. , that these are real events, real tragedies, real social issues that need to be addressed, and resolved in a way that is neither authoritarian nor preachy. Alexie said in an interview with NPR that "the two funniest groups of humans" The people I've been around are Indians and Jews. So I guess that says something about the humor inherent in genocide. Although the genocide of his people may seem strange to attribute to his humor, Alexie is not alone in seeing how humor tends to arise from pain and oppression. Kenneth Lincoln wrote: "Humor is the best and most effective weapon thatwe have always been against the ravages of conquest and assimilation” (7); for Zits in Flight, his sense of humor and his ability to make fun of himself and the sometimes desperate situations he finds himself in is a weapon. He preemptively mocks himself with the nickname "Zits" so others can't make fun of his complexion; he makes fun of happy families so he doesn't have to feel bad for not having one; he mocks capitalist institutions (“Starbucks can kiss my shiny red ass” (16)) that he knows he cannot afford to participate in – all his humor is designed to protect him from further harm. Lincoln writes that "the powers to heal and wound, to bind and exorcise, to renew and purge remain the contrary powers of Indian humor" (5). Zits' humor is designed to do all of these things: heal his own wounds and inflict wounds on others, bond with authority figures like Officer Dave, and exorcise the demons of his foster families - purge the past so that he can move on, renewed, towards a new and better future. After one of his many arrests, Zits met a white boy named "Justice" in prison who inspired him to rediscover the "Ghost Dance" – a ceremonial dance created by a Paiute holy man that was intended to bring back "all the Indians dead and whites disappearing” (Alexie, Vol 31). At first, Zits jokes about the Ghost Dance – maybe the dancers didn't succeed at first because they lacked the right music: "they should have had Metallica" (Alexie, Flight 31) – but his jokes hide a certain seriousness. Zits is a "scholar" of Native American culture, at least to the extent that he can use the tools at his disposal (usually television), joking about the Ghost Dance is his way of making it accessible, both to Justice and to himself: “For Native American writers to be able to publicize the reality of their culture, they must in one way or another disconcert their readers, unbalance them. The humorous treatment of tradition, Native American and otherwise, is a great way to accomplish this” (Ward 278). Justice introduces Zits to guns and the idea that he can somehow "solve" all his problems through violence, although he makes it seem like a game, using a gun of paintball to terrify random people in the streets as an initiation to the later violence he will ask Zits to commit. Zits is initially excited about the game, "the notion of play, especially tricky and deceptive play, describes much of Native American humor" (Ward 270), he is amused by the way people who think that they are about to be shot, "people think they are going to die, they all scream like nine year old girls" (Alexie, Vol 33). When Justice convinces Zits to enter a crowded public place with a real gun, to participate in "Ghost Dance", to make people "disappear", it is an easy transition for Zits from their "game" with the gun of paintball to shoot people because "the game and the danger, the risk, the chance, the exploit – all of this constitutes a single field of action where something is at stake" (Ward 270). Justice's ability to use play and humor to manipulate Zits into doing something he finds abhorrent is indicative of the power of humor to create social change After the shooting, during which Zits. is shot and "dies", he "wakes up" in the body of FBI agent Hank Storm in 1975. He deals with his confusion and fear in this bizarre situation by making jokes. to regularize an unconventional situation reflects "an essential element of ethnic humor whereunmet expectations create opportunities for the most basic kind of comedy, that of incongruity” (Lowe 446). For most of the rest of the novel, Zits continues to "wake up" in different bodies and time periods, always just in time to witness or participate in an act of violence - each "life" he experiences teaches him something thing. As an FBI agent, he learns that two native men revered as heroes were in fact double agents working with the FBI against their own cause; in different iterations of battles during the Native American Wars, he sees atrocities and violence on both sides of the conflict. Despite the violence and horrors he endures, he retains his spirit and spirit; “Humor can be generative, leading the audience to gain new understanding. Humor can reveal the fact that any potential order of experience can be arbitrary” (Ward 272). After experiencing life as an Indian child during the Battle of the Little Bighorn and seeing countless people massacred, mutilated, and desecrated, Zits wakes up as a soldier in the United States Army; he still has a sense of humor to joke that he is an "old soldier with farts" (Alexie, Vol 82). The buttons are learning that his conception of reality, of war, can be an arbitrary construction; that all that knowledge he gained on the Discovery Channel may have been a creative effort; that there were horrors and heroes on each side of the conflict. By showing Zits both sides of the Native American wars, Alexie allowed for interesting social commentary; While a reader might expect a Native American author to only portray his own people sympathetically, Alexie was careful to highlight the good and bad on both sides of the conflict. Because Alexie, unlike most history books, shows a more balanced portrait rather than taking sides, it becomes clear that his commentary is intended to show the futility of the violence depicted in the novel. The criticism is not about white oppression or Indian savagery – those tired old stories – but rather about the human tendency to resort to violence as a solution. Alexie uses humor to great effect, whether describing Custer's ridiculous arrogance in Little Bighorn, the interaction between FBI agents in IRON/HAMMER, the embarrassments of being a naked elderly soldier in a crowded camp, his use of irony and wit is always deft. “Ethnic artists use this ploy to good effect, launching savage attacks on the central government and dominant capitalist society in a curiously disarming manner” (Lowe 448); By framing his criticism with humor, Alexie is able to say things that might otherwise create controversy. After all, “jokes succeed in releasing an otherwise repressed or “censored” thought via the disguise of humor” (Lowe 442). While the aim of this story is social criticism, it is not strictly intended to be a critique of past violence. The scraps that make up the present – ​​Zits' many disappointments and letdowns, his abuse and abandonment, his interaction with a "good" parent that turned sour due to ego/competition – these are acts “continuous” in a way that the Indo-American War is not. Even if conflicts can still exist between the Anglo-Saxon world and the reserve, they are rarely physical. The need for a sense of humor among an "American" youth who is in danger in a way that may not mean having their throats cut, remains vitally important. As Lincoln wrote: "the need for a disunited people to create new bonds, a new unity, a semblance of society" (53) is vital for the formation (1997): 267-280.