This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona By Sherman Alexie

Thomas seems to have a gift in his storytelling, they may seem like crazy stories he tells over and over but his stories may carry some kind of meaning. “We are all given one thing by which our lives are measured, one determination. Mine are the stories which can change or not change the world.” (Alexie P. 518) His stories about Victor’s father are why he went out of his way to help Victor. It took Victor a trip to Phoenix to see that Thomas was there for a reason, to help him because they were cousins.

Stereotypes are shown in the story through the binary depictions of Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire. The most important binary that is emphasized by Alexie is the stereotypes that Victor is “bad,”while Thomas is good. Victor is portrayed as the negative views of Indians. “Victor was really drunk and beat up Thomas up for no reason at all” (Alexie). In this situation, Victor is shown as the typical drunk Native American. Other stereotypes that are presented by Victor are that Indians are lazy when he fails to be persistent to try to get more money to get to Phoenix. When Victor beats up Thomas as a teenager, this depicts Victor as the bloody savage. Thomas Builds-the-fire, on the other hand, is portrayed as the more positive view of Native Americans. The romantic portrayals of Native Americans include the idea that they are noble savages. Indians are characterized as gentle and connected to the world. For example, instead of being captured as a bloody savage as Victor, Thomas is seen as the noble savage as he appears to be more connected with the environment and nature. Being connected with the nature and the world shows that Thomas-Builds-the-Fire is is not a selfish person. Also, instead of being viewed as lazy, Thomas Builds-the-Fire appears as diligent. This is because Thomas continued to

Benjamin Franklin once said that “Nothing is certain in life except death...and taxes” (Waliwensky). This phrase has rung in the ears of Americans for many, many years. The phrase has stuck around for an extensive amount of time is because of the irony and actuality behind it. While the expression is meant to focus on the inevitability of taxes, Franklin also makes a point that it is impossible to deny the fact that everyone will eventually die. People get caught up in their day to day lives and forget how precious life is. Death can happen at almost any point. The time where the loss has the most impression, is when it hits the family. A death of a family member demonstrates the relationship that the family members had. In the end, the family is going to be the one people use as reference for the memoir of the person.

When Victor was at the tribal council meeting, Victor had told the members that his father had recently died his trailer from a heart attack at Phoenix, Arizona. Victor asked the tribal council to loan him some money. The tribal council told him “ we can only afford to give you one hundred dollars.” Victor

Just like many other politically based holidays such Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, or Labor Day, the American people don’t really understand as a whole what the 4th of July really means or why the Declaration of Independence was adopted. There were true struggles that occurred during these times of oppression that jolted the revolution of America. Today’s America focuses on the liberties gained from it and the sole fact that the Declaration was signed on July 4th by future presidents, but do not know what caused it to be written or what was to be accomplished.

Throughout the story, Victor has shown that he feels guilty for what happened, even going so far as to try to turn Thomas’s help down by saying “I can’t take your money. I mean, I haven’t hardly talked to you in years.

14) Revealed in a vision to Thomas, Victor’s father advice was to take care of eachother. Thomas completes the advice by accompanying Victor to Phoenix, Arizona to pick up the ashes and claim the money. He also helped him financially,

In “This is What It Means to Say Phoenix,Arizona “ the character “Victor” is brought in the story as a poor indian boy who just lost his father and is on a rough edge and is on a mission to get his father's savings and once Thomas Builds-the-Fire is introduced in the story describing victor's childhood life and stories of victor by describing his dark story of victor's childhood to showing his sweet heart.

The story is informing and teaches the readers life lesson. When Victor did not know how he was going to pay for

Thomas expresses that he is compassionate and still holds emotions towards a friend because he gives Victor an offer saying “I can lend you the money.. But you have to take me with you”. Victor responds with “I can't your money i haven't talked to you in years”. Although they haven't communicated in years thomas is willing

Throughout the story the author Sherman Alexie specifically chose Victor and Thomas builds-the-fire to depict the differences they had towards the native traditions, in their way of thinking, and nature of relationship they had both shared with Victor's descend father. And how variations affected their individual relationship towards the end. In the passage it explains how Victor must go and collect his father's remains but does not have enough to get their the council offers 100 but it's not enough to even get started. That evening as Victor cashes his check he runs past a old childhood friend,Thomas.

“We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”

The character Victor from “This It What It Means To Say Phoenix,Arizona” by Sherman Alexie goes through many struggles in order to travel to Arizona to pick up his father's ashes from Washington where he lives. Victor was not in a good economical position, neither was the rest of his family. When his father dies Victor has to go down to Phoenix to take care of all the arrangements needed, but he didn't have enough money so he decides to call the Tribal Council, but what the Tribal Council offered him was not enough to cover all his needs. Victor then accepts help from his childhood friend Thomas who was weird and no one talked to him. Throughout the rest of the play, Victor and Thomas go through many adventures together in order to get the

The sun was falling, turning the sky a pinky red. The fire from our dinner fire was still blazing, although it shouldn’t be. The hunters had not returned, and we were hungry. We should be eating the meat they had returned with by now, but something was keeping them busy. Maybe the herd has moved and it’s just taking them longer. I tried to keep my stomach calm by imagining what the reason was they had not come home to the tribe yet. My father and brother were with that group, and as it grew later into the night, and the fire began to die, I began to worry. Not for my father of course, but for my brother Tacoma. My father had always despised me, treating me like a child, even though I was fourteen. It was my brother I worried about. Tacoma always treated me kindly, and fairly, and like an equal even though he was a year older than I was. I looked around the camp to see if anyone else was worrying.Yoki, the tribe elder, had her eye closed, blindly drawing something into the dirt with her stick. It was a mystery to the whole tribe, regarding her lost

In Sherman Alexie’s short story, “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” we follow Victor and Thomas along to their journey of change and revelation. Shortly after being laid off his job, Victor gets the fatal news that his father, has died. Since Victor had been abandoned by his father at a young age his character is negative, frustrated, angry, and confused. Having found out both things within the same week made his outlook on life very pessimistic. Thomas, on the other hand, is the storyteller on the reservation that nobody wants to listen to. He is lonely, positive, but has lived a sad life. After their journey together, Victor finds out more about his dad's lifestyle and personality and builds a bond with Thomas that would have never happened without the journey to Arizona. He goes from being confused and angry, to happy and at peace with himself and his father. Thomas also experiences the same emotions by the end of the journey. While they “technically” are not friends towards the end of the story, they will be forever bonded by this journey and he helped his friendship with Victor get a little deeper. Thanks to Thomas, Victor changes his perception of his dad and while doing so, helped himself get close to someone from back at home. Author Sherman Alexie uses the journey to Arizona to reveal and demonstrate change and the protagonist’s lifestyle. While Victor lives a torn and confused life because of his father’s absence, his outlook on his father changes