The concept of storytelling in the two stories A Train is an Order of Occurrence Designed to Lead to Some Result, and “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” shows the role that it plays in Native American culture. Storytelling appears in the first short story, A Train is an Order of Occurrence Designed to Lead to Some Result, when a man named Samuel Builds-the-Fire bestows the gift of storytelling to his grandson, Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Thomas Builds-the-Fire is one of the two main characters in the story “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” which is a story of how he shares his gift to tell stories with a man named Victor. This shows one way how storytelling was passed through Native American culture, from father to son.
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He accepts the offer and tells a story about a young Indian boy trying to steal a hot dog, but drops it in a river and drowns. A little white boy sees this all happening and tries to tell his mom, but she doesn’t listen and drags the little boy away.
Samuel Builds-the-fire also gets fired from his job, and decides to go to a bar for the first time. In the story it says, “All his life he had watched his brothers and sisters, most of his tribe, fall into alcoholism and surrendered dreams. But today Samuel sat down at the bar, unsure of himself, frightened.”
He thinks that if he drinks, it will affect his storytelling. When he drinks, he tells a story about a god called Coyote, who is the creator off all of us. This shows how storytelling helped create or pass on Indian myths. He then ends his story by saying “the whites are crazy, the whites are crazy,” while to himself he whispers “And sometimes so are the
He accepts the offer and tells a story about a young Indian boy trying to steal a hot dog, but drops it in a river and drowns. A little white boy sees this all happening and tries to tell his mom, but she doesn’t listen and drags the little boy away.
Samuel Builds-the-fire also gets fired from his job, and decides to go to a bar for the first time. In the story it says, “All his life he had watched his brothers and sisters, most of his tribe, fall into alcoholism and surrendered dreams. But today Samuel sat down at the bar, unsure of himself, frightened.”
He thinks that if he drinks, it will affect his storytelling. When he drinks, he tells a story about a god called Coyote, who is the creator off all of us. This shows how storytelling helped create or pass on Indian myths. He then ends his story by saying “the whites are crazy, the whites are crazy,” while to himself he whispers “And sometimes so are the