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This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona

Beth

This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona

Sherman Alexie’s This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona, is a great short story demonstrating loss and powerful emotions when losing a loved one. The story focuses on two men’s journey across the United States to comfort one another in troubling times. The story is focused mainly on two friends, Victor and Thomas, to resolve a challenging situation for Victor. The initial events of the story take place in an Indian Reservation where both Thomas and Victor grew up. The reservation had its own set of problems and challenges for both Victor and Thomas while they were still young boys. However, the two eventually move out of the reservation and find other states. Consequently, the two older friends, Victor and Thomas, find numerous similarities between themselves in their current journey. Eventually, they mend an old bond that they once shared as young boys. The journey progresses as more detailed stories of the two friends are provided.

In the story, Victor, who is the main character, is shown to be dealing with the sudden loss of his father. Other than that, he must travel from Washington to Phoenix, Arizona, to collect his father’s belongings. To add to his predicaments, Victor is faced with financial problems making it difficult to travel and acquire the items he needs. He had recently lost his job and had no money to facilitate his transport or preparations for his father’s funeral. However, amid these predicaments, Victor’s old friend, Thomas, offers to help him out and pay for everything that is required, thus making everything easier for Victor. Although Thomas was helping Victor out of kindness, Victor thought he was doing so only to downgrade and despise him. However, Victor later accepts the help he is given and resolves the misunderstanding.

Victor is depicted to have never had a good relationship with his father. As the two approached his father’s trailer, a strong “stench of death” greeted them since the body was discovered after a few days (Alexie, 2017). At this point, we are given the background of the two friends. While living on the Indian reservation, the two friends faced numerous challenges and obstacles in life. Some of these challenges included alcoholism, unemployment, gambling, and truancy, along with several other social and financial issues. Although not clearly evident in the story, it is possible that Victor’s factor was an alcoholic and possibly abused Victor in some cases. This could have also been the reason why Victor left the reservation and moved to different states.

The story demonstrates how a once shattered and wafted friend becomes whole again after being rejoined in the journey across the United States. Although the journey was a little uneasy and uncomfortable in the beginning, the scenes are different towards the end. When the journey was almost coming to an end, Victor and Thomas had already resolved their differences and revived a friendship that had thrived while they were still young. Other than helping Victor with financial aid, Thomas tries to cheer him by telling him about the good memories they had with his father. Victor gets flashbacks and starts highlighting negatives about his father. However, Thomas cheers him with positive memories. Thomas intentionally leaves out bad memories that Victor had with his father. Therefore, the setting of the story shows loss and powerful emotions, two old friends. The two men journey across states while comforting each other during a time of need and loss.

References

Alexie, S. (2017). This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona. In L.Kirszner& S.Mandell(Eds.), Portable Literature: Reading, reacting, writing, 9thed (pp. 205-216). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. (Original work published 1993)

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Question 

Literary Response for Point of View as a Device

Instructions (how to get it done):

This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona

Assignment

This assignment focuses on your ability to: Analyze different perspectives and points of view within a piece of literature; create a new experience for the reader through the design of an additional scene.

Sample

Rewrite Short Story Two Kinds by Amy Tan

Tan, A. (2017). Two kinds. In L. Kirszner & S. Mandell (Eds.), Portable literature: Reading, reacting, writing, 9thed (pp. 471-480). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. (Original work published 1989)

Two Kinds

The story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan represents the theme that parents cannot control their children, but can only guide them. A Chinese mother and daughter Ni Kan are at odds with each other in story. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy of some sort, her daughter does try to follow her mother ‘s orders but has she gets older she realizes she wants to find her own self and not to be what her mother wants her to be. They both have conflicting values, which is the theme of the story. The daughter seeks her own individuality, while her mother demanded her to do what she feels is best for her daughter.
In the beginning of the story, the mother tries to control her young nine year old daughter’s life, trying to mold her into a prodigy. “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America.” “America was where all my mother ‘s hopes lay.” Ni Kan was excited about becoming a “Chinese Shirley Temple.” Both mother and daughter shared the American dream and pursued to make Ni Kan to be the next great American prodigy. Ni Kan felt that if she is successful then both her mother and father would adore her and she would never need to sulk. Therefore Ni Kan thinks that being a prodigy will make her “perfect.” However Ni Kan starts to get impatient and her wanting to become a prodigy starts to fade away.
Ni Kan ‘s mother starts making up test. She would presents them to Ni Kan in an effort to make her stand out, like the amazing children her mother would read about in different magazines The test were silly, consisting of knowing the capitals, multiplying numbers in her head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, standing on her head without using her hands, predicting daily temperatures in different cities, and looking at Bible verses for three minutes to see what she remembers. The test got harder and harder for Ni Kan and her mother would push her to be like the children she read about. After many failed test Ni Kan could see the disappointment on her mother’s face. Ni Kan did not take her mother’s disappointment well, “Something inside me began to die.”
Ni Kan soon realized that she did not want to be changed by her mother nor anyone else. Her prodigy was herself. “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not.” Ni Kan was trying to make her mother see she did not want this by being rebellious by not participating with the testing anymore. Ni Kan knew her mother was giving up on her. After three without any mention of a prodigy, her mother was the ED Sullivan show which sparked up a new prodigy for Ni Kan to play the piano, like the little Chinese girl on TV. Ni Kan just knew that idea would soon disappear since they could not afford a piano. However her mother was able to get their neighbor Mr. Chong to give Ni Kan piano lessons in exchange for housecleaning. Ni Kan own prodigy came out, her rebelliousness. She argued with her mother about the piano lessons, but she still had to take the lessons. During first lesson Ni Kan learns that Mr. Chong is deaf and cannot see well, so she is able to be lazy and fool him and pretends to play. Ni Kan carried on like this for over a year and her parents eventually bought her a used piano. Mr. Chong and her mother put Ni Kan in a talent show. Ni Kan never practice her piece as always she was lazy and not paying attention in her lessons, because she was determined not to try. When it was Ni Kan turn she was very confident. “I had no fear whatsoever, no nervousness.” This was ironic since she nerved practice correctly. Ni Kan struck her first note and it was the wrong key and almost each stoke after that was wrong. The talent show was a disaster and she could see the look of disappointment on her mother’s face again, a look that she once saw before that made Ni Kan feel devastated. Ni Kan assumed that she would never have to play the piano again, but two days later Ni Kan’s mother was telling her it was time for piano lessons. Ni Kan becomes very disobedient and refused to practice. Ni Kan shouts out “I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be.” Ni Kan mother then tells her that “Only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” Ni Kan goes in to a rage and rebels. “Then I wish I ‘d never been born!” Ni Kan shouted. “I wish I were dead! Like them.” Referring to the twin baby girls her mother had lost in China. This was Ni Kan’s mother braking point and Ni Kan knew it, she saw it in her mother’s face.
Although the piano was the main tension between the both of them but in the end it was as a peace offering. Ni Kan and her mother did not have the same aspect in life. Ni Kan wanted to be in control of herself. Live her own life and be her own person. Ni Kan ended up making her own choices in life while trying to repair her relationship with her mother. Before Ni Kan’s mother passed away she offered to give the piano to back to Ni Kan since it was hers.

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