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.
Alexie
Unfair Gov’t
In “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” and “This is What it Means …” the examples of government portrayed are unjust and oppressive. They take advantage of Thomas’ need to tell stories against him and get him to indict himself in the trial. Constantly leading him on to continue telling tales. “Mr. Builds-the-Fire, you do admit, willingly, that you murdered two soldiers in cold blood and with premeditation?” said the cross examiner, and that was enough to get him to admit to a crime he did not commit which shows just how oppressive the government toward anything they don’t like. They didn’t need any evidence to put Thomas behind bars, just the words of a storyteller.
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.
Government
In both “The trial of Thomas Builds- the-fire” and “This is what it means to say Pheonix, Arizona” Sherman Alexie alludes to a particular type of government/ rulership. Two characteristics of this system are discriminatory and unjust, both are seen evident when Thomas was on trial and they used the fact that he is Native American as grounds to charge. While Thomas was unsure of what he was being charged for, they decided “It has to be a felony charge. We don’t need this kind around here anymore”. This shows how little regard they have for Thomas and Native Americans in general. The system itself is discriminatory which creates unjust outcomes. Thomas can be seen as an allegorical figure because he is in his own right dealing with a discriminatory system as an individual but also representing Native Americans like him that deal with the same unjust treatment.
Government
Commonly seen between “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” and “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, by Sherman Alexie, is the allusion to a tyrannical government. Evident throughout both stories is the subtle dismissal of the needs of the Indian people, in “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, Victor was not able to acquire the funds to travel to make arrangements for his late father as Tribal Council was having, “difficult time financially”(99) while Thomas Builds-the-Fire was deemed, “‘Dangerous'”, for being blatantly truthful(139). The lack of basic funds for necessities was deemed unimportant while Thomas Builds-the-Fire’s trial became somewhat of a formality before his sentencing, Thomas’ fault being his interaction with Esther who was being mistreated by her husband, the tribal chairman, who practiced a form of self-hate by calling Esther a “savage in polyester pants”(140). During the trial, there was clear lack of professionalism apparent through the bias from his history by judge who also had ample funds for a replacement gavel.
Alexie Government
When reading “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” and “This is What it Means …” by Sherman Alexie, there were two main characteristics in the system, which were discrimination and unjustness. Thomas was treated very unjustly. ” BIA suit said to the others. “What charges should we bring him up on?” ( Alexie 140 ). The BIA suits are trying to set Thomas up just because he is a Native American. “Well, ” they all agreed. “It has to be a felony charge. We don’t need his kind around here anymore.” ( Alexie 140 ). They even try and make the punishment even harsher. It shows that the government dont seem to care about Thomas at all and doesn’t care for his opinion.
Government
Sherman Alexie alludes to an unjust and racially biased rulership. It is evident from Victor’s and Thomas’s stories that the color of their skin deters them from receiving fair treatment. Firstly, in Victor’s case, the unjust government is depicted when he meets the council to ask for funds to go for his father’s body. It is evident from the council’s response when they say, “Now, Victor, we do have some money available for the proper return of tribal members’ bodies. But I don’t think we have enough to bring your father all the way back from Phoenix” (Alexie, 100). It depicts their reluctance to help victor because he is Indian since the funds are only unavailable for him and not the other members. Therefore, Alexie demonstrates an unjust and racially biased rulership against people of color.
In Thomas’s case, this type of rulership is evident in his trial. It arises when the BIA guys discuss and say, “What charges should we bring him up on? Inciting a riot? Kidnapping? Extortion? Maybe murder? Another guy in a BIA suit asked, and the others laughed. Well, they all agreed. It has to be a felony charge. We don’t need this kind around here anymore” (Alexie, 141). It highlights the racially biased rulership where the BIA wants to charge Thomas for various felony crimes that are not his to ensure he is deported. Therefore, Thomas is an allegorical figure in the criminal justice system since he is the leading figure in the case, and he is a symbol of the biasness in the justice system.
Work Cited
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Open Road.
Sherman Alexie (Government)
In both of Sherman Alexie’s poems “The Trial of Thomas Builds-The-Fire ” and “This is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona ” we see great examples of the unequal and unruly qualities of government. When Thomas was on trial he faced unfair disrespect on account of him being Native American. Even before his trial had begun it was made clear of how they viewed him. “Inciting a riot? Kidnapping? Extortion? Maybe murder?” another guy in a BIA suit asked, and the others laughed. “Well,” they all agreed. “It has to be a felony charge. We don’t need his kind around here anymore” (Alexie 94). Thomas even had made it clear that he wasn’t sure of what it was exactly that he was being charged for. “Your Honor,” he said. “I don’t believe that the exact nature of any charges against me have been revealed, let alone detailed”(Alexie 95). When Victor from “This is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona ”, went to the BIA to request money to aid his fathers death, we saw another example of the lack of fairness or sympathy. “Now, Victor, we’re sorry for your loss and the circumstances. But we can really only afford to give you one hundred dollars.” Both situations showed the unfair circumstances and treatment that both men endured, even after they both clearly suffered.
Government
Both short stories “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” and “The Trial of Thomas Builds the Fire” by Sherman Alexie exists within an unjust and biased kind of government. Throughout the stories we can see the unfairness in the way the BIA treats the native Americans. In the story “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, when Viktor asks for money to go collect his father’s remains the BIA has seemingly already made up their mind that they were only going to give him a certain amount which was only $100.They also showed a lack of sympathy when he told them about the death of his father. At the beginning of the story “The Trial of Thomas Builds the Fire” a guy from the BIA states when speaking about what charges Thomas would be brought up on “It has to be a felony charge. We don’t need his kind around here anymore.” Along with this statement, Thomas states” He was guilty, he knew that. All that was variable on any reservation was how the convicted would be punished.” These statements show just how discriminatory and unfair the BIA is. Going into the trial just as Thomas said he was already considered guilty before the trial even started. They sentenced him based on stories he told and not real facts which just confirms how unfairly Native Americans were treated.
Alexie- Government
Deborah Adekoya
This system of government/rulership is a discriminatory one that has many characteristics that indicate what type of government it is. The main characteristic I identified is the “no real justice” so basically the unjust characteristic. We see this in “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” when the people in the courtroom made a commotion and the judge wanted to get back to the “administration of justice” and Thomas asked “Is that real justice or the idea of justice?” In this, we see that justice is in question on whether it will be true and real justice. The other characteristic is inequality, we see this because Thomas has to defend himself, and on top of that, the judge is not even willing to see his point of view. We see evidence of the judge discriminating against Thomas when Thomas tells the judge that he in fact does not understand his charges. The judge responds that since Thomas has now decided to speak that proves that he actually does understand. From a reader’s point of view, this makes absolutely no sense. One can only assume the judge said this because Thomas is an Indian and the judge doesn’t see the need for Thomas to know his charge because he is already guilty. The justice system has no mercy or compassion for Thomas. He is a native American man of color, living in America at a time when racial discrimination was at its peak, the justice system definitely was not built to favor him. This is why I think Thomas decided to tell stories in court rather than actually defend himself. He knew the outcome of the case before the case started. I feel like everyone did.
