“An image is a representation in words of a sensory experience or of a person, place, or object that can be known by one or more of the senses (Nordquist, 2017).”
The first central image in the poem, “Evolution” written by Sherman Alexie is the pawn shop that Buffalo Bill opened up. The way that Sherman Alexie portrayed the pawn shop as greedy white settlers is very talented. Pawn shops are seen in the world for always accepting and waiting different material things. In correlation, the white settlers are no different than the pawn shop. The white settlers were always wanting more and more from the Native Americans, but never gave anything in return. The Native Americans gave the white settlers everything. As stated in the poem, “Buffalo Bill takes everything the Indians have to offer, keeps it all catalogued and filed in a storage room. The Indians pawn their hands, saving their thumbs for last (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012, p. 524).” This speaks volumes of the meaning behind the pawn shop, and the relation Alexie wanted to show between the white settlers and the
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the connection between the pawn shop and Buffalo Bill is very glaring. The reason why it is so glaring is because Buffalo Bill can be seen as the government. The government will always be willing to take anything from people, especially back then. The one line that really stuck out was when Alexie states, “when the last Indian has pawned everything but his heart, Buffalo Bill takes that for twenty bucks (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012, p. 524).” This line goes to show that Buffalo Bill did not take anything into consideration which that is in line with how the government works. They are very selfish, and only think about themselves. Continuing on, Buffalo Bill knew that the location of the pawn shop was perfect because it was right across from the liquor store. This only enhanced the giving that the Native Americans were