Alexie's This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona

Purpose: Alexie highlights how he ultimately overcame the hardships suffered during his early years due to his Indian ethnicity and displays how Native Americans were, and continue, to suffer from discrimination.

Thomas on the other hand was ok with knowing Victor would not talk to him again after their trip to Phoenix. “I know you ain’t going to treat me any better than you did before. I know your friends would give you too much shit about it.” (Alexie P. 518) He asked of Victor one favor only, he said, “Just one time when I’m telling a story somewhere, why don’t you stop and listen? Just once!” (Alexie P. 519)

In Sherman Alexie's “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona” a man named Victor finds out that his father has passed away. Being next of kin, Victor is responsible for gathering his father's assets together, which requires him to make an out of town trip. In order to accomplish this Victor needs help. This help comes from the town outcast, Thomas Builds-the Fire. Victor and Thomas were childhood best friends but as they grew older, Victor turned his back on the one that always looked out for him. A trip to gather his father's remains turns into a journey of reviewing his life and choices.

In the story, “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” by Sherman Alexie the two main characters are Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire. The story is about Victor and Thomas who are childhood best friends that went on a trip from their reservation to Phoenix, Arizona to collect Victor father’s savings account. Throughout the trip, they experience many flashbacks of when they were friends such as when Victor stepped into a wasp nest. The character I choose to analyze is Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a storyteller. Even though the Native American culture is dying, Thomas Builds-the-Fire still values the culture and helps

Life is more than just a walk in the park, we are not always that lucky. Throughout one persons life there are always ups and downs, but what really make a person are the actions we take when we encounter obstacles. Life is an obstacle course in which we have to overcome in our lifetimes. In A Worn Path an older woman by the name of Phoenix Jackson takes a long road full of hardships to achieve a goal, which is to get medicine for her grandson. Not only does Phoenix of A Worn Path represent struggle but how we overcome this struggle to achieve a sense of achievement or a goal. Throughout time, people have been going through life’s obstacles and their willingness to

Sherman Alexie says that being funny breaks down the barriers between people. In his short stories, “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona” and “The Lone Ranger and Tonto and Fistfight in Heaven”, Alexie has different characters who tells jokes. Many of the jokes are funny but can lead to many problems is said at an inappropriate time and place. The two characters are already an outsider as Indians, so they would have to watch what they say and do to not offend anyone near.

    Many people see the world and others differently. Just like the two sisters in “Everyday Use”, the two sisters in “Two Ways to Belong in America”, and the father in the letter/short essay “An Indian Father's Plea”. All these people have different past and things they’re going through. The two sisters in “Two Ways To Belong In America” both have their different stories from their past, one likes America the other does not because they betrayed her. Next, the father from “An Indian Father’s Plea” sees America differently because the school was labeled his kid a “slow learner” which made him upset. In addition, the two sisters from “ Everyday Use” argue about a quilt in which they both view differently

Sherman J. Alexie, is a short story written in the first person focusing on two Native American Men who grew up together on a Reservation for Native Americans but have been estranged from each other since they were teenagers. Victor who is the narrator of this story is a young man who lost faith in his culture and its traditions, while Thomas our second main character is a deeply rooted traditional storyteller. In the beginning of the story Victor, our Native American narrator learns the death of his father. Jobless and penniless, his only wish is to go to Phoenix, Arizona and bring back his father’s ashes and belongings to the reservation in Spokane. The death of Victor’s father leads him and Thomas to a journey filled with childhood

Characterization is the most prevalent component used for the development of themes in Flannery O?Connor?s satirical short story ?Good Country People.? O?Connor artistically cultivates character development throughout her story as a means of creating multi-level themes that culminate in allegory. Although the themes are independent of each other, the characters are not; the development of one character is dependent upon the development of another. Each character?s feelings and behavior are influenced by the behavior of the others.

Traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture; however growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity. In the beginning, the narrator is in the hospital while as his father lies on his death bed, when he than encounters fellow Native Americans. One of these men talks about an elderly Indian Scholar who paradoxically discussed identity, “She had taken nostalgia as her false idol-her thin blanket-and it was murdering her” (6). The nostalgia represents the old Native American ways. The woman can’t seem to let go of the past, which in turn creates confusion for the man to why she can’t let it go because she was lecturing “…separate indigenous literary identity which was ironic considering that she was speaking English in a room full of white professors”(6). The man’s ignorance with the elderly woman’s message creates a further cultural identity struggle. Once more in the hospital, the narrator talks to another Native American man who similarly feels a divide with his culture. “The Indian world is filled with charlatan, men and women who pretend…”

Characterization is the biggest component that helps build on the themes of identity in the short story “Good Country People” written by Flannery O’connor. The theme itself is dependent where as the characters are independent of each other. The characters behaviors build within each other.

In Dagoberto Gilb’s story “Al in Phoenix” the narrator feels that Al is treating him unfairly. The narrator believes that Al thinks of him as a guy that is living loose and not bothering to get a job (Gilb 75-81). The narrator being the inductive thinker thought that Al was being unfair to him because of the way he was being treated. Al on the other hand, uses deductive thinker because he just based his facts about the truth. Al based that the only reason the narrator is at the garage getting his car fixed was because of it having problems and probably because he had the image of the narrator of being a living loose type of person that worries about every single little thing.

Based on all of this, the themes of this story are cultural differences and adapting. It shows how difficult it can be for someone to move to a new culture that is so different from the one they’re used to. It gives an excellent look into the struggles of being an immigrant, and trying to adapt to a new society, with different norms and ways of

“This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”: The Road to a New Beginning

The ability to understand other’s differences is what we call acceptance. Accepting a person or a situation for exactly what it is rather than trying to manipulate it into what you think it needs to be is a way to happiness. The main idea of Sherman Alexie’s story entitled “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is not let anyone or anything control, limit, repress or discourage you from being your true self because only you can determine who you truly are as a person. Specifically in this story, the main character is experiencing an identity crisis caused by the colonization of the White Folks. This story claims this idea through symbolism to show the death of the Indian culture, through connotation to show the differences between the past and the present Native Indians generation and through characterization to show how the Indian population are still trying to find their true identity as a part of the Indian nation.