Humour is a powerful tool: it can break 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 meet; “Humor helps dispel animosity by bringing cultures together, using shared human failures as a common denominator” (Lowe 442). By making fun of themselves or their traditions, minority authors are able to create a 'safe' space for discussion: "ethnic jokes delineate the social, geographic and moral boundaries of a nation or ethnic group, reducing at the same time the ambiguities and clarifying the 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 and, at the same time, invite other cultures to come closer; in contrast, the Humor can be used to threaten dominant social structures that are harmful – in the same way that political cartoons or the Paul Ryan gym meme are used to discredit politicians, so too can it be used to advance or stop any cause no to plagiarism . Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned" Get an original essay "Call me Zits" (1) - this is how the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie opens about a boy, "half Indian and half Irish,” all about being orphaned/abandoned, growing up impoverished and unloved in Seattle. Alexie, who has been called a “mediagenic American Indian superstar” by Men's Journal, has become famous for her themes of poverty , violence and alcoholism in Native American life, but also for his deft use of humor in story telling. which are tragic in their reality. Humor in 'ethnic literature' is a valuable tool that “can lead to deeper understanding on the part of those who hear the joke and to greater inclusion in the community for the joker” (Ward 272); this is certainly true of Alexie and the protagonist Zits, who usually resorts to self-deprecating humor to deal with his depression, mockery to deal with his exclusion from "mainstream" society, and acerbic wit to manage a society that seems structured to keep him from finding happiness or comfort. Using humor in these ways is perhaps universal, but it's that universality that makes it such an effective tool for ethnic authors, in this case specifically Native Americans. By framing social and cultural criticism in a humorous way, I am able to reach a broader and more receptive audience. In Flight, a novel that deals with themes such as poverty, child molestation/abuse, murder, the violence of war, the genocide of Native Americans, depression and the general violence of humanity, humor present throughout the film keeps the story accessible and allows the message, that these are real events, real tragedies, real social problems that should be addressed, to emerge in a way that isn't heavy-handed or preachy. Alexie said in an interview with NPR that “the two funniest groups of human beings I've ever dealt with are Indians and Jews. So I guess that says something about the inherent humor of genocide.” Although the genocide of his people may seem like a strange thing to credit for his humor, Alexie is not alone in seeing the way humor tends to arise from pain and oppression. Kenneth Lincoln writes: “Humor it is the best and most weapon sharp edge we have always had against the ravages of conquest and assimilation” (7); for Zits in Flight, his sense of humor and theability to mock himself and the sometimes desperate situations in which he finds himself are a weapon. He preemptively teases himself with the nickname "Zits" so that others cannot make fun of his complexion; makes fun of happy families so as not to feel guilty for not having one; he mocks capitalist institutions (“Starbucks can kiss my bright red ass” (16)) that he knows he doesn’t have the means to participate in – all of his humor is designed to protect him from further harm. Lincoln writes that “The powers to heal and to wound, to bind and exorcise, to renew and purify 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 adoptive families - purge the past so he can move forward , renewed, towards a new and better future. After one of his many arrests, Zits meets a white boy named "Justice" in prison who pushes him to rediscover the "Ghost Dance", a ceremonial dance created by a Paiute holy man that was intended to bring back "all the dead Indians and make the whites disappear” (Alexie, flight 31). At first, Zits jokes about the Ghost Dance – perhaps the dancers were initially unsuccessful because they lacked the right music: “they should have had Metallica” (Alexie, Flight 31) – but his jokes hide a seriousness. Zits is a 'scholar' of Native American culture, at least as much as he can do it using the tools at his disposal (generally television), joking about the Ghost Dance is his way of making it accessible, both to Justice and to himself: “In order for American Indian writers to mediate the reality of their culture, they must somehow unsettle their readers, throw them off balance. Humorous treatment of tradition, Native Americans and others, is an excellent means to this end” (Ward 278). Justice introduces Zits to guns and the idea that he can somehow "solve" all his problems through violence, even though it makes it seem like a game, using a paintball gun to terrorize random people on the street as an initiation into later violence which he will ask Zits to commit. Zits is initially enthusiastic about the game, "the notion of game, especially complicated and deceptive game, describes much of American Indian humor" (Ward 270), he is amused by how people who think that they are about to be shot, “people think they are going to die, they scream like a nine year old girl” (Alexie, Flight 33). When Justice convinces Zits to enter a crowded public place with a real gun, to dance "Ghost Dance", to make people "disappear", it is an easy transition for Zits from their "game" with the paintball gun to shooting really to people because "play and danger, risk, chance, enterprise: it's all one field of action where there is something at stake" (Ward 270). The way Justice is able to use play/humor to manipulate Zits into doing something he finds abhorrent is indicative of the power of humor in creating social change. After the shooting, in which Zits is shot and "dies", he "wakes up" in the body. FBI agent Hank Storm in the year 1975. He manages his confusion and fear in this bizarre situation by making jokes. The use of humor to regularize an unconventional situation reflects “a basic element of ethnic humor in which the unmet expectations create opportunities for the most basic type of comedy, that of incongruity” (Lowe 446). Throughout much 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 insome act of violence: every 'life' he experiences teaches him something. As an FBI agent, he learns that two Natives who were revered as heroes were actually double agents working with the FBI against their own cause; in several iterations of battles during the American Indian Wars he sees atrocities and violence on both sides of the conflict. Despite the violence and horrors he experiences, he maintains his wits and ingenuity; “Humor can be generative, allowing audiences to reach new understanding. Humor can expose the fact that any potential ordering of experience can be arbitrary” (Ward 272). After experiencing life as an Indian child at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and seeing countless people massacred, mutilated, and defiled, Zits awakens as a soldier in the U.S. Army; he still has the sense of humor to joke about being a "Farting Old Soldier" (Alexie, Flight 82). Zits is learning that his concept of reality, of war, can be an arbitrary construction; that all that knowledge he gleaned from 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 American Indian Wars, Alexie allowed for interesting social commentary; while a reader might expect a Native American author to only sympathetically describe his own people, Alexie was careful to highlight the good and evil on both sides of the conflict. Since Alexie, unlike most history books, shows a more balanced portrayal rather than taking sides, it becomes clear that his comment is intended to show the futility of the violence depicted in the novel. The criticism is not aimed at white oppression or Indian savagery – those tired old stories – but is instead a criticism of the human tendency towards 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 embarrassment of being a naked, elderly soldier in a crowded field, the His use of irony and wit is always skillful. “Ethnic artists use this ploy to great advantage, launching savage attacks on the central government and traditional capitalist society in a curiously disarming way” (Lowe 448); by expressing his criticism with humor, Alexie is able to say things that might otherwise create controversy. After all, “jokes manage to release an otherwise repressed or 'censored' thought through the disguise of humor” (Lowe 442). While the purpose of this story is a social critique, it is not intended strictly as a critique of past violence. The fragments that make up the present – ​​Zits's many disappointments and disappointments, his molestation and abandonment, his interaction with a "good" parent who has turned sour due to ego/competition – these are 'continuous' acts in a way that the Indian-American War is not. While conflict may still exist between the Anglo-Saxon world and the reservation, it is rarely physical. The need for a sense of humor in a young "American" taking a risk that perhaps does not mean his throat will be cut is still vitally important. As Lincoln writes: “the need for a disunited people to create new bonds, a new unity, a semblance of society” (53) is vital to the formation of an “American” identity. «Man is the only animal that laughs and cries... because he is the only animal that is struck by the difference between what they are and what they could have been» (55). Zits can laugh when he finds himself arrested at fifteen, he can laugh when he holds court with drunken, homeless Indians, and he can even laugh (1997): 267-280.