John Wayne and Me
David Hochheiser
Gorham High School, Gorham, Maine

I teach a sophomore Honors American Literature course at Gorham High School in Gorham, Maine. While this course is a “pull-out” from our vastly heterogeneous American Studies program – which I also teach – I do try to both keep pace with the students’ AP American History course and include whatever historical and interdisciplinary context I can for the works we cover. I actually try to exemplify the depth over breadth mantra.  Even though we won’t read many novels this year (It looks like we’ll get through four), we devote a lot of time to essays, journals, poetry, plays, and short stories.  This is especially true when I cover the latter half of the nineteenth century and head into my unit on The Great Gatsby.

Starting with the transcendentalists and moving on through Longfellow, Currier and Ives, Whitman, and Emily Dickinson, I establish the notion that a huge factor in the divisive growth of American social politics - especially manifest destiny – hinged on the acceptance or refuting of what I call American mythology.  At the end of the unit, we read Arthur Kopit’s play Indians, which deals with Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show’s involvement in the American propaganda machine and the decimation of the American Indian culture.  The kids loved it.  It’s funny and brings light to a piece of American history that usually gets a mere mention in their AP history class.  After the play, I showed them Sherman Alexie’s Smoke Signals and then handed out a short story of his entitled “Dear John Wayne.” 

I thought twice about including the short story for two reasons.  My first consideration was time.  Secondly, it does contain sexual content (as do most of Alexie’s stories).  It turned out, however, that my students picked up on a line in Smoke Signals that presents the strength of “John Wayne’s teeth” as a metaphor for European domination over American Indians.  Since this story openly questions the machismo, dominating aura that surrounds John Wayne’s persona, I could think of no better match for my curriculum.  It’s also true that Alexie is a fabulously creative and original writer.  I was excited by what I thought was such a good match for the class.  I was wrong. 

There were a percentage of students and parents who could not get beyond the sexual content to see what the story was about and how it helped us to wrap up the unit on mythology before beginning Gatsby.  The parents called each other; they called the principal; some of them called me.  Ultimately, my principal came to my room and told me that out of consideration for some of the students’ feelings and some of the parents’ requests, I was not to discuss the story in class.  I was upset, but I told my students that we could not discuss it and apologized for offending people.  I told them that it was not my intention and that I had hoped that they could move beyond the sexuality in the story. 

What follows are letters from two of my students who were truly upset.  They, by the way, were also the ones to ask about the teeth metaphor the day before.  I told them that they could write articles for the school paper, which I advise.  They did.  I couldn’t be more proud of them. 

To let you know how things went…we had a meeting at night with the parents to discuss the story’s relevance and appropriateness and the issue of censorship in general.  About thirty parents, my principal, my department head, a union representative and three of the girls from class (the same two and one more) all showed.  It went very well.  Most of the parents were against censorship and loved the story.  The students spoke up amazingly well.  In the future, I’m going to have to make an attempt to more thoroughly alert the parents when “mature” readings are offered.  That’s the only concession I had to make.  Everyone left happy.

Questions Unanswered

One Student Wrote:
In my Honors American Literature Class the use and class discussion of Sherman Alexie’s short story, “Dear John Wayne,” was banned because of the sexual content in it. Although there is sexuality in the reading, the main points of the story directly relate to what we were talking about in class.

Before reading this piece, we were discussing Native Americans in the U.S. We were talking about how the white population, throughout our history, tried to project this image of superiority and greatness over Native Americans. The question was then asked, “If John Wayne’s teeth were plastic or real,” which was paraphrased from a movie we had watched on this subject. After reading, “Dear John Wayne,” I was able to understand the meaning of the question.

The reading directly portrayed how the character John Wayne was completely different from his actual personality. The only reason the actor projected this superior, heroic, cowboy character was because Americans loved this, and he thought he represented America. In a sense his teeth were fake, and John Wayne was nothing like the way he was depicted. Along with the first question, another question was asked wondering why John Wayne never showed his teeth. I thought it was because if he showed them, he would be showing who he really was and that his character was only a phony. However, this short story was not able to be discussed, the question was left unanswered, and our Native American unit was not able to be completed because this story had some sexual content in it.

The sexual content in the story would not have had to be addressed. I think, though, that since we are in high school, we are able to handle it. Most of us have already been exposed to this through TV, music, and videos. It is no worse than some of the things shown in them. We are mature enough and old enough to overlook the sexual parts and realize what the theme the story was trying to show, which pertained to what we were talking about.
 
I feel that this piece was related to what we were talking and learning about in class. The sexual part would not have been brought up. We are mature and old enough to read it and know that the purpose of reading the story was not its sexual content. I think, in my class, this discussion should not have been banned. If we were able to talk about the story then the questions would have been answered and we would have had a great discussion.

Another Student Wrote:
My sophomore Honors American English class read a story called “Dear John Wayne.” It contained sexual content. The story was about a woman who claimed to have lost her virginity to John Wayne. Our reason for reading the story was to lead ourselves through a discussion about a question we posed in class, whether John Wayne’s teeth were real or fake. The question was a metaphor for an explanation of American Indian and white settler relations. The metaphor came from the movie we watched in class, Smoke Signals. We, as a class, picked up on this metaphor and our teacher, Mr. David Hochheiser, helped us follow our connection. This story was to help us explore the question that many of us were wondering about. This story allowed me to fully understand the question and form my opinion.

When I came into class the day after reading it, I was told we were not going to be discussing our reading. Why? Individuals had complained and said the reading was too graphic and inappropriate, and had gone past Mr. Hochheiser to get the story banned. I was appalled. I no longer could share my theory about the answer to the question, nor could I hear what others had to say. I felt held back by the complaints of others. It is not right that we should be kept from discussing this story in class, not on the basis of the sexual content. 

Sex is everywhere in our society. The mass media does nothing to prevent it; in fact they promote it. Sex is in magazines, movies, newspapers, on television. I do not believe that this story is any more offensive than anything else we, as Americans, are exposed to. As an honors class we should be mature enough to read and discuss this story. The discussion was not to be about the sexual content, but about the connection to the question about John Wayne’s teeth. But due to the fact that we could not hold our discussion, this question was left unanswered. The complaints of these students and their parents have held back the rest of the class. I do not believe that this censorship is right.

We should be allowed to read and discuss the material and those who do not wish to, or those who cannot look past the sexual content, should not participate. The views of one group of individuals should not hinder another group from learning.