Government

In both short stories of “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona” and “The trial of Thomas Builds-the-fire” the author Sherman Alexie alludes to a particular government and rulership. The two characteristics of the government system are unjust and discrimination. There was discrimination because when Thomas was in his cell a BIA said “It has to be a felony charge. We don’t need his kind around here anymore. That was a discriminatory comment for them to say about Thomas. A reason why it is also an unjust system is because Thomas was on trial without the judge saying what he was specifically on trial for. In the story it says “Your Honor” he said. “I don’t believe the exact nature of any charges against me has been revealed, let alone detailed.” Already unjust for being on trial without a description on what he was on trial for. Thomas can be seen as an allegorical figure because he is dealing with this discriminatory and unjust system by himself, he is representing himself and also representing Native Americans that are dealing with the same thing that he is going through.