While at the penitentiary, The Misfit is told that he was convicted for stealing his father 's life, but he never killed his father. In actuality, The Misfit 's father 's cause of death was the epidemic flu in 1919 (O 'Connor 1294). What is the real reason for convicting The Misfit? He claims that "you can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you 're going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it" (O 'Connor 1294). The Misfit allows for his punishment because he assumes it is for a sin that he committed during his life even though he is aware that it is not for killing his father. Viewing life the way he does, The Misfit believes that punishment will come for any minor sin that is committed. The Misfit states that he calls himself The Misfit "because [he] can 't make what all [he] done wrong fit what all [he] gone through in punishment," but with much thought, one can conclude that there is more to the meaning of his name (O 'Connor 1295). Because of a crime that he never committed, he is placed in prison; therefore, he does not fit in with the rest of the prisoners who were punished for actually committing a crime. In "Capital Punishment," Alexie expresses that after witnessing multiple executions, "If any of us stood for days on top of a barren hill during an …show more content…
At this point in his life, The Misfit says "I don 't want no hep...I 'm doing all right by myself" (O 'Connor 1294). It is difficult to understand what is "all right" and what is not because since he has extreme views on life now, there is no way to differentiate right from wrong. Also, he believes that "the crime don 't matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car," because regardless of what the crime was, a punishment will come in due time (O 'Connor 1295). With this thought process, it leads into his belief that it does not matter whether he kills anyone or not. In "Capital Punishment," Alexie reckons that the number of deaths to be insignificant by stating "1 death + 1 death = 2 deaths," a concept that is not difficult to understand (Alexie 1161). Speculating that murder is simply a matter of adding together the number of deaths, Alexie views it as an insubstantial act. An event that causally takes place every day. It can be seen as if The Misfit is simply totaling his sins, whether it be murder or lying, to keep track of in case he were to be punished again and that he would be aware that he has actually committed that crime. Both The Misfit and Alexie have parallel beliefs on the topic of killing- executing others is guilelessly an "any day" mistake, thus