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Toughest Indian Analysis

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Sherman Alexie’s two stories “Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian” and “Toughest Indian in the World” share a common theme of self-control under the main topic of cultural identity. In both passages, it talks about how Indians can't show too much of what they are capable of or they would or would have been punished in the past. Showing potential or not going with the flow that the whites have created can prove fatal to the Indians. So, to stay safe, Indians need a lot of self-control to keeps themselves from showing the whites their true potential.self-discipline to keeps themselves from showing the whites their true potential. One example of this would be when he talks about how his father talks about salmon a lot and says "Even after all these years, they'll smell salmon on you, the dead salmon, and that will make white people dangerous." (Toughest Indian in the World 96). With salmon being a metaphor for Indians that go against the flow that the whites created, this statement is saying that if you don't follow what the whites expect you to be then they'll count you as threatening and might kill you. This can be thought of …show more content…

In this story, junior fought against the flow which made Mr.P talk to junior about what he was told to do back in his younger years of teaching. He also says that he was supposed to beat the kids who wouldn't let their spirits be broken and go along with what the white people wanted. What Mr.P made clear in these statements was that white people did not want Indians acting Indian they wanted to change them into more white people. those who fought against the flow were in trouble that could kill them, if they followed the flow then they weren't treated as harshly and that was the basic rules of an

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