Short Story This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona

In the short story “This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, by author Sherman Alexie, his writing style is very prominent. Alexie is about to achieve this by writing in a very blunt manner. When Victor is talking about his father dying he says, “‘He died of a heart attack in his trailer and nobody found him for a week. It was really hot, too,’” (Alexie 512). The author words this quote in a way that is very direct and makes it understood that the main character is not someone who cares about sentimentality. He also writes, “That is, Victor was really drunk and beat Thomas up for no reason at all,” (Alexie 514) when referring to Thomas’ and Victor’s relationship when they were teenagers. The point of view is third person limited, so even though it is a narrator telling the story Victor’s thoughts are still present throughout, again making it clear that Victor is not the type of person who cares about what he says or does. The style of writing makes it almost seem like Victor is bitter, probably about his life.

The story quotes, “Who does have money on a reservation, except the cigarette and fireworks salespeople?” (Alexie 511). This quote illustrates the socioeconomic status of the people living in a reservation. The whole conflict of the story is set around the fact that Victor does not have enough money to go to Phoenix and retrieve his father’s ashes. Alexis writes, “‘You know there ain’t nobody around with that kind of money,’” (Alexie 512). The Tribal Council told Victor to find somebody to lend him the rest of the money to get a roundtrip plane ticket to Phoenix, but because of where he lives he does not know anybody who has that much money to spare to help him. The setting helps to set up the plot to allow the reader to visualize the way Victor lives and why he is unable to get to