Throughout the story we see many opposing arguments from Alexie that shows he may believe there's a sense of family and community on the reservation. “A drug called tradition”, “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona”, “The only traffic signal on the reservation doesn’t flash red anymore” and“The trial of Thomas Builds-the- fire”. In a “drug called tradition” we see a strong bond between the native americans as they say a goodbye to the whites,for instance, “We dance in circles growing larger and larger until we are standing on the shore,watching all the ships returning to Europe.All the white hands are waving goodbye and we continue to dance,dance until the ships fall off the horizon,dance until we are so tall and strong that
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Out of all Victor’s friends Thomas who had been constantly not treated nicely by the group of boys was the one to show support. This shows a sense of community because even though Victor was not always nice to Thomas, Thomas saw him as family and someone that can get all the help they can. Thomas showed community to a certain extent. Sure Thomas is great, but one guy taking care of his community is hardly indication that a community is strong.Thomas constantly struggled with the people on the reservation. They did not show their trust in him until “The trial of Thomas Builds-the- fire”. Thomas went before a judge for the crime of storytelling, because as you remember people did not care to listen to his stories he was always turned down. On trial it finally hit people the truth that thomas had been saying throughout his stories for many years the first person we hear this from is Eve Ford who says, ““Thomas,”she yelled. “we’re all listening.” …. “Thomas,” she yelled. “We hear you”(Page 99). After many years of Thomas telling stories to get people's attention on what’s really in front of them they are finally listening to him. They finally agree with what he’s saying and the crowd bursts into emotion because the truth is what they see now after such along time
Out of all Victor’s friends Thomas who had been constantly not treated nicely by the group of boys was the one to show support. This shows a sense of community because even though Victor was not always nice to Thomas, Thomas saw him as family and someone that can get all the help they can. Thomas showed community to a certain extent. Sure Thomas is great, but one guy taking care of his community is hardly indication that a community is strong.Thomas constantly struggled with the people on the reservation. They did not show their trust in him until “The trial of Thomas Builds-the- fire”. Thomas went before a judge for the crime of storytelling, because as you remember people did not care to listen to his stories he was always turned down. On trial it finally hit people the truth that thomas had been saying throughout his stories for many years the first person we hear this from is Eve Ford who says, ““Thomas,”she yelled. “we’re all listening.” …. “Thomas,” she yelled. “We hear you”(Page 99). After many years of Thomas telling stories to get people's attention on what’s really in front of them they are finally listening to him. They finally agree with what he’s saying and the crowd bursts into emotion because the truth is what they see now after such along time