Breaking And Entering By Sherman Alexie Analysis

Box Theory: the theory of roles

Who are we to decide who we are in society, more often than not society chooses who we are and others accept it as truth. Some would say that everybody is like a box and we have a certain place we fit into in the world, but then one question remains. Can we escape from the place society gives us or are we stuck in your place forever? In the short story “Breaking and Entering”, Sherman Alexie creates a sense of tension through his use of stereotypes, to suggest that society has a limited set of expectations and goals for individuals depending on their race.

A great example of how Sherman Alexie uses stereotypes to push an individual into a group is when Elder Briggs’s mother, Althea Riggs, was talking to a reporter and said “The police don't care about my son because he’s black… He’s just another black boy killed by a white

He thinks to himself “Since I wasn't interested in defending my property, and since my family and I were not directly threatened, what part of myself could I have possibly been defending? In the end, I don't think I wasn't defending anything at all.” one could say he wasn't killing to defend anything but rather play his part in society as a white guy who kills black kids. Even though that's not who he is that's just how society sees him. During the entire walk past the basement door we get George trying to convince himself to get out of there and get to safety and yet he still went down to the basement with a baseball bat in hand ready to use it. In the end he kills Elder Briggs not because he wanted to but because society forced him to.

Throughout the story that sherman Alexie uses race to assign roles to people. It proves that this theory of boxes has power over everyone however in the end do you truly control yourself, or does society control you and your