“A Coyote Columbus Story” by Thomas King is a short story which can be analyzed using the Marxist theory by Karl Marx because of the strong abuse of power, the lack of respect for the American first nations and the slavery in control of the ones in power.
In the short story “A Coyote Columbus story”, King expresses the abuse of power existing in the early 1500’s in numerous ways. King begins by implying how minorities are overlooked by people who are in control, who later turn out to be the sailors selling Indians in various regions across the globe. “Maybe we should sell Indians” says Christopher Columbus. As an upper-class individual, Columbus decides to sell Indians because he knows the potential fortune of the trades. The sailors, as
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In return, the sailors receive money and fame for their trade. The oppressive men that acquire the Indians would later use them for the lone purpose of slavery because of the power and “rights” they have over them. King uses anecdotes along with humour to mock the rich of Spain who would use these individuals for enslavement knowing that he was from the First Nation’s himself. Coyote, being a greek god in the story, thinks of the idea as a joke and acts careless upon the retrieval of his friends because selling men and women seems ridiculous to him. “She starts to laugh. Who would buy Indians” said Coyote. In Coyote’s perspective, the Indians are his friends and that is for the intent of playing ball with them. In contrast to this, the sailors think of the Indians as the path to their glory, using them as trades and neglecting their true value as human beings. The sailors do not see the Indians as humans, but instead see them as price tags and fortune destined for themselves.“Those things were always here” says the narrator. Indians, described to have been always present, aren’t found but are neglected by almost all upper-class individuals. They are used as merchandise and so people do not associate them with power,