I have found connections between the pieces “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona.” I think that both stories contain a high level of irony and in particular, satire. As you may know, satire is the use of irony to poke fun at a particular group of people, usually the primary people reading the story. In his short story, Sherman Alexie uses a sizable amount of irony to tell his tale. Much of it is humor, a lot of which is directed toward the fallacies of Indian culture on the reservation. One of these scenes is when Thomas is telling Victor about how he knew Victor’s father had died. He starts by saying he heard it on the wind and acts like a mystical Indian. Thomas finishes by saying that he also saw his mother crying.
