This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona by Sherman Alexie (1994)

“Thomas Builds-the-Fire walked through the corridors of the tribal school by himself. Nobody wanted to be anywhere near him because of all those stories. Story after story.

Thomas closed his eyes and this story came to him: ‘We are all given one thing by which our lives are measured, one determination. Mine are the stories which can change or not change the world. It doesn't matter which as long as I continue to tell the stories. My father, he died on Okinawa in World War II, died fighting for this country, which had tried to kill him for years. My mother, she died giving birth to me, died while I was still inside her. She pushed me out into the world with her last breath. I have no brothers or sisters. I have only my stories which came to me before I even had the words to speak. I learned a thousand stories before I took my first thousand steps. They are all I have. It's all I can do.’

Thomas Builds-the-Fire told his stories to all those who would stop and listen. He kept telling them long after people had stopped listening.”

 Page 6, This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

The passage I selected is from This is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona by Sherman Alexie. I liked how throughout the short story, the plot did not stay in one place. Not only in a literal sense, because Victor and Thomas traveled from the reservation to Phoenix, but also in a sense of time. Throughout this story, we learn from the beginning that Thomas is a storyteller. The passage I chose to analyze is a passage in which we look into one of Thomas’ stories.

Up until this point in the story, we do not know much about the meaning behind Thomas’ stories. We just know that he is always telling stories and it gets to be annoying. The passage starts off by telling us that Thomas is at the tribal school by himself. It says that no one wants to be near him because of his stories. Thomas goes on to say that we all have a meaning in life. He explains that his father died in World War II and that he died fighting for his country that tried to kill him for years. I found this to be an important part of who Thomas is. We can take from this that Thomas’ father lived among the other Indians in the reservation and had difficulty living in America. It says a lot about how Thomas perceives the world. Thomas seems to always have an optimistic outlook in his stories and morals, which he shares, yet he comes from a background of struggle. Thomas goes on to say that his mother died while giving birth to him. She died while he was still in his mother’s stomach; “She pushed me out into the world with her last breath. I have no brothers or sisters. I have only my stories, which came to me before I even had the words to speak. I learned a thousand stories before I took my first thousand steps”. This specific quote shows us that Thomas believes his mother left him to tell stories. That he is determined to change the world and tell everyone stories that his mother wanted to continue to tell.

The last sentence in this passage made me think about Thomas’ relationship with victor. It says that Thomas would tell his stories and even continue to tell them after they would stop listening. Victor is the prime example of this, he hates Thomas’ stories. He can’t tell us enough how much he hates his stories, yet Thomas’ stories often end up leaving Victor on a positive note. From the start of the story, Victor doubts Thomas and says that he is even embarrassed that he wanted to ask for his help, yet in the end, Thomas is someone who Victor truly can count on.