Summary Of This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Sherman

Loss affects and shapes people in many different ways. Alexi Sherman experienced numerous types of loss throughout his life which shaped him into the man he became; he used these experience in his life as strength refusing to fall into the social norms in which he was raised in and observed while growing up as did his characters, Victor and Thomas in “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”. This short story introduced readers to Victor at a time in his life where he is experiencing one of the biggest losses one can suffer, the loss of his father. At the same time losing his job, a difficult thing to come by on or near the reservation where he lived. Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire are young men who live and grew up on the reservation,

Alexi Sherman would continue on to attend college at Gonzaga University in Spokane before transferring and later graduating from Washington State University in Pullman in 1991. Sherman is quoted as saying, “...My writing was very personal and autobiographical. I was simply finding out who I was and who I wanted to be… So even though much of my early work deals with alcohol and alcoholism because of personal experiences, I got a lot of criticism because alcoholism is such a loaded topic for Indians. People thought I was writing about stereotypes, but more than anything I was writing about my own life.” (299) in a 2005, interview with Ase

Victor the antagonist, reflects on some of his previous choices throughout the story. One particular incident when him and Thomas Builds-the-Fire are teenagers and Victor beat Thomas up for no reason, “When they were fifteen and had long since stopped being friends, Victor and Thomas got into a fistfight. That is, Victor was really drunk and beat Thomas up for no reason at all. All the other Indian boys stood around and watched it happen. Junior was there and so were Lester, Seymour, and a lot of others. The beating might have gone on until Thomas was dead if Norma Many Horses hadn’t come along and stopped it.” (284, 285) Victor ends up learning a larger lesson from this time in his life, while reflecting on his treatment of Thomas over the years when Thomas so easily steps up to aid his friend in getting to Phoenix to gather his recently deceased father’s belongs which he wouldn’t have been able to do without the financial help of Thomas. Victor feels shame for the way he has treated Thomas, he goes on to tell Thomas, “‘Listen,’ Victor said as they stopped in front of the trailer. ‘I never told you I was sorry for beating you up that time’ ‘Oh, it was nothing. We were just kids and you were drunk.’ ‘Yeah, but I’m still sorry.’”