The Tough Indian In The World Analysis

In the short story The Toughest Indian in the World, by Sherman Alexie, Alexie lives in the United States but is raised by the Indian culture his parents follow. Throughout the story the author shows the Indian culture’s influence on the characters and how different characters are affected by it. Through use of multiple literary devices, he shows the constant struggle for American-Indians that have to deal with the difficulties of mixing their family traditions in an environment that isn’t too accepting of them. In the very beginning of the story it is shown how Alexie’s father is affected by the combination of culture. His father is very passionate about Indian traditions, and has come to hate white people for being unaccepting his background. He explains to his son that white people cannot be trusted because they are destroying the tradition of their ancestors and all hope to keep their culture. He explains this to his son through the use of symbolism. His father says to him, “Love you or hate you, white people will shoot you in the heart. Even after all these years, they’ll still smell the salmon on you, the …show more content…
He shows how he copes with the stress of his family’s traditions and the modern world he lives in. He portrays this by having deeper underlying meanings to many situations in the story. Hitchhiking and the salmon represent their Indian culture and practices. The relationship with Cindy represents the conflicts caused by mixture of Indians and white people. The fighter represents the ideal idea of a true Indian and their sexual encounter represents the solution to this internal conflict. He has a figurative style of writing; it’s all about interpretation. If someone weren’t to interpret this way they may think that this story has no