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This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona Essay

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This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona Essay
The quality of life on some reservations can be comparable to that of life in countries like Mexico with issues of poverty and alcohol and drug abuse. Starting at a very young age Alexie had overcome many obstacles as does his characters in his stories. In the short story, “This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” the author Sherman Alexie shows the struggles of Native Americans in a white man’s world. To help us better understand these struggles, this paper will analyze the characters, theme and setting of this story. The characters of a story is what holds the audiences’ attention. It's important a storyteller introduce characters in a way that allows an audience the time to take in who the characters are and what issues them …show more content…
The theme of a story is woven all the way through the story, and the characters' actions, interactions, and motivations. This is all reflected in the friendship between Victor and Thomas and the heritage between modern man and tradition Native Americans. Thomas proposes to lend Victor the money he needed after only receiving 100 dollars from the Indian counsel due to lack of funds. That money that Thomas gave Victor was a mark of true friendship. He gave it without expecting anything in return except to be part of the trip to Phoenix. Even thought they have not been friends since they were teenagers, their journey to Arizona helps Victor realize Thomas would later reveal in the story, the reason for him giving Victor the money was that he had given his word to Victor’s father that he would “watch out” for him. Thomas was being a true friend as he had always done such as the incident with the wasp nest when Thomas saved Victor. However, in the end Victor knows that he and Thomas will not be friends after the trip because of how other people perceive Thomas. At the end of the story Victor r54offers half of his father’s ashes to show Thomas that he is grateful for Thomas’

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