Capital Punishment Sherman Alexie Summary

In Sherman Alexie’s poem, “Capital Punishment” he talks about an Indian male in prison, and his last meal. Sherman Alexie choose to write this poem because he is showing a little of himself through this prisoner. He is able to relate to the poem more because he uses himself as a lens for his story. Alexie had a troubled childhood and ended up becoming a writer and has written many poems and stories that seem to be very violent and dark. He chooses to write the way he does because he can get more into his stories since they are based on his life. Alexie uses the violence and darkness he has had in his past, to help himself open up more to his readers, and to better express himself in his stories. Alexie has shared his life to many people. On an article online called, “The Famous People”, it has a biography on Sherman Alexie. It talks about everything that has happened in his life. You get told that Alexie had an alcoholic father who was hardly around at all, but when he was he seemed to be abusive. This then leads to why Alexie has maybe chosen to write this poem. You get the idea that this is based off him because, he starts out his poem saying, “I prepare the last meal for the Indian man to be executed” (1-2). The Indian man in the story could be Alexie. He is an Indian male, who also has to deal with an alcoholic father

You assume he is talking through a white person because he says, “You know, it’s mostly the dark ones” (6). He continues to call the man that is about to sit in the chair Indian, and talks about a black man. A lot of races are given in this poem, mainly minorities. Alexie chose to do it this way to show how the world really works. We block out that minorities are sometimes wrongly accused and Alexie is again, trying to open up to his readers, so they see how scary the world is. Which again leads back to Alexie wanting his readers to feel some sense of darkness and sadness out of this