Postcolonial Analysis of This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona by Sherman Alexie

 

In Sherman Alexie’s This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona, we see the daily struggles of Native Americans in terms of dealing with a cultural lag. This cultural lag is the result of the complex history of Native American ethnic groups with mainstream America; a consequence of the European immigrants invading their land and the British colonialists complicating their survival, which happened during the American Revolution war.

The short story is set in a reservation for Native Americans and we have two major characters Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Victor represents the modern youth of Native America that has arisen from trying to assimilate themselves into the mainstream America and in the process losing their indigenous culture. Thomas represents the old ways of the Native Americans who are in touch with their traditions and spirituality. Native American culture is rooted in oral traditions and the modern world in the literary. Alexie thus gives importance to storytelling and bases Thomas’ character on this.“Thomas was a storyteller that nobody wanted to listen to”. In several instances we see people in his surrounding finding him strange and not wanting to be around him.Here identity of the Native American is questioned because of its conflicting nature. Storytelling is an essential cornerstone in these indigenous people’s lives, by rejecting  Thomas the community is alienating their own culture.

Alexie uses hyperbolic, stereotypical views of American Indians with “Thomas, that crazy Indian storyteller with ratty old braids and broken teeth” . It serves as a critique of contemporary stereotypical assumptions about American Indians. Victor comes across as the modern stoic who is heavily influenced by the dominant culture and finds his own culture old and demeaning. They are both contrasting personalities, utilized to show the diversity in the community and to try and break the stereotype ,boosting a critique of the stereotypical and shallow image created by the Euro American society.

The story clearly shows the divide of ethnic group from the mainstream America. In the airplane when Thomas says "Sounds like you all got a lot in common with Indians," referring to how the government “screwed” them over and nobody laughs when the statement was meant to be a joke, it shows how equality among the “whites” and the “Indians” is an issue. In the same scenario we see Victor being skeptical about how the “white woman”  spoke to them only because they shared a plane together and would not have conversed with them otherwise when he says "Yeah, but everybody talks to everybody on airplanes,". It also implies how they usually do not come in contact with the mainstream American population as they live on the reservation completely cut off from the rest of the “white” people.

 Thomas, recalls how at the age of ten he says “It’s strange how us Indians celebrate the Fourth of July. It ain’t like it was our independence everybody was fighting for” is a comment that the white conquest and the history of white suppression of Native Americans. It emphasizes how their situation was compromised after the American Revolution. The whole situation put them at a disadvantage, losing land and their culture was never intact after the American Independence.