Laughing At A Wake

Chapter "Wake" in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie was a bit confusing. This chapter takes place at Arnold's grandma's wake. I feel as though I had trouble interpreting it. In this chapter though there is a picture on page 166 that demonstrates a person laughing and smiling. Then on page 167 the word "laugh" was repeated several times. It is quite strange to think that laughter would be in a chapter about someones death. But laughter is used differently in this chapter. Laughter is used to show that they are sad. On page 166 it says"When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing." I think that the sentence above shows that everyone is different people cope with death in a different way. When they (the Indians at the funeral) were laughing they were in reality crying. They were truly sad but they laughed. They laughed at the memory of his grandmas existence. They laughed at all the memories they shared with her. Another line from page 166 is "We lived and died together." And that is also why they were laughing. They were sad to let her go, but while letting her go they remembered all the good times they had spent with her. It was as if part of them was dying along with her. I think the picture on page 166 shows that there are many ways you can deal with death and laughing is just better than crying. To some people it may seem as though you do not care, but to the Indians it was just a more pleasant way of recognizing ones death.

Carly Newell