government

Both Sherman Alexie’s short stories “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” and “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” revealed how corrupt the government can be, with inequality and racial prejudice standing out. In “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire”, Thomas faced purely racial discrimination in a court of law because he was Native American. While on trial, Thomas was attempting to understand himself by recounting events that had shaped his life and justifying why he was the way he was. Regardless of how Thomas tried to defend himself, the judge was steadfast about locking him up. “The judge was red-faced with anger; he almost looked Indian. He pounded his gavel until it broke. “Order in the court,” he shouted. “Order in the fucking court” (Alexie 146). When the BIA officers discussed Thomas, they already had ideas for why he was on trial, asking, “What charges should we bring him up on? Inciting a riot? Kidnapping? Extortion? Maybe murder?” (Alexie 140). Because the justice system and the BIA were both biased against Native Americans, Thomas received the same horrible treatment as many others. Thomas is given as an example of how the system treats Native Americans with racial prejudice and injustice. In “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, Victor needed assistance from the council since his father died in Phoenix. Victor, due to a lack of funds, was unable to bring his father’s cremated remains from Phoenix to the reservation. The Tribal Council of the reservation could only afford to give $100 and showed little sorrow when he mentioned his father’s death.