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
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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
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Victor In the very first sentence of Sherman Alexie ’s "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix‚ Arizona‚" you can assume that the main character‚ Victor‚ is facing a hard life. Not only did he lose his job‚ he also lost his father to a heart attack the same day. The story tells the journey of Victor and an old friend‚ Thomas Builds-the-Fire‚ traveling to Phoenix to pick up his father ’s ashes‚ pickup truck‚ and money from his savings account. Victor did not have any money and neither did anyone else
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Anh Phan Professor Frank English 112 September 28‚ 2012 “That Is What It Means to Say Phoenix‚ Arizona” In short story Sherman Alexie. “That is what it means to say Phoenix‚ Arizona‚ he creates three main characters‚ Victor‚ Victor’s father‚ and Thomas who have three different personalities. However‚ Thomas seems one of the most interesting characters in this short story. The author presents Thomas as a person who has not been affected negative by the hardship and struggles of modern day Native
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Comparison and Contrast Essay Two stories written by two different writers can share similar but very different aspects of life. Sherman alexie wrote the story What It Means To Say Phoenix‚ Arizona which was about two natives on a road trip to retrieve one of their fathers ashes and bonded during the trip. Louse Erdrich also wrote a story about two natives who took a road trip to bond named The Red Convertible. In both stories two natives lived on a preservation as kids. A key difference
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Sherman Alexie is an American poet‚ writer‚ and filmmaker‚ which was raised on the Spokane Indian Reservations. Alexie’s literary work shows the reality of how modern Native Americans faced poverty‚ alcoholism‚ and violence on and off the reservations. In addition‚ unlike many authors Alexie uses gallows humor to lighten the darkness in some of his stories. Most of Alexie’s stories do not deal with life on the reservations; most of his stories are life experiences that can influence readers to overcome
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What does it mean? Although some people may not think too much of things as insignificant as names or symbols‚ there is always a reason an author puts them in a story. Sherman Alexi’s “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona” is a great example of a story that is full of many different kinds of symbolism‚ ranging from animals to people‚ even the story’s title. Understanding of Alexi’s symbols in the story is crucial in understanding the meaning of the story as a whole. A symbol
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young poor couple that give up their greatest belongings in order to buy something special for each other. However‚ they can not make use of their gifts‚ because what they gave up‚ relates to their possessions they gave up. In Sherman Alexie’s “This is What It Means to Say Phoenix‚ Arizona”‚ the protagonist Victor travels with his childhood friend Thomas to Phoenix to get the remains of his dead father. Thomas tells him the story of Victors dad telling him to “Take care of each other” (156). Through
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“This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix‚ Arizona‚ is a story that focuses on the relationship between two Native American men‚ Victor and Thomas Builds-The-Fire‚ who have grown up together one the Spokane Indian Reservation. The leading cause of the central action of the story was the death of Victor’s father in Phoenix‚ Arizona. Having just lost his job and unable to financially travel alone with the one hundred dollars given to him by the Tribal Council‚ Victor happens to run into Thomas Builds-The-Fire
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forgetting history of themselves becoming people living in the present as well as writing their own history‚ while others bass in the pass‚ never forgetting where they came from and who they are. The same happened in “This is What it means to say Phoenix Arizona”‚ by Sherman Alexie‚ the story followed two men who traveled to retrieve the remains of a deceased one while learning more about themselves and their culture. Victor and Thomas Builds-The-Fire are the two main characters that are both Native
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