Wanting to Say Things: The Power of Stories
AN ANTHOLOGY OF NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE
from "This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" by Sherman Alexie in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Thomas Builds-the-Fire could fly.
Once, he jumped off the roof of the tribal school and flapped his arms like a crazy eagle. And he flew. For a second, he hovered, suspended above all the other Indian boys who were too smart or too scared to jump.
“He’s flying,” Junior yelled, and Seymour was busy looking for the trick wires or mirrors. But it was real. As real as the dirt when Thomas lost altitude and crashed to the ground.
He broke his arm in two places.
“He broke his wing,” Victor chanted, and the other Indian boys joined in, made it a tribal song.
“He broke his wing, he broke his wing, he broke his wing,” all the Indian boys chanted as they ran off, flapping their wings, wishing they could fly, too. They hated Thomas for his courage, his brief moment as a bird. Everybody has dreams about flying. Thomas flew.
One of his dreams came true for just a second, just enough to make it real.
. . . .
Thomas Builds-the-Fire walked through the corridors
of the tribal school by himself. Nobody wanted to be anywhere near him because of all those stories. Story after story.
Thomas closed his eyes and this story came to him:
“We are all given one thing by which our lives are measured, one determination. Mine are the stories which can change or not change the world. It doesn’t matter which as long as I continue to tell the stories. My father, he died on Okinawa in World War II, died fighting for this country, which had tried to kill him for years. My mother, she died giving birth to me, died while I was still inside her. She pushed me out into the world with her last breath. I have no brothers or sisters. I have only my stories which came to me before I even had the words to speak. I learned a thousand stories before I took my first thousand steps. They are all I have. It’s all I can do.”
Thomas Builds-the-Fire told his stories to all those who
would stop and listen. He kept telling them long after people had stopped listening.
Editor's Commentary
Alexie uses the metaphor of flight to characterize
Thomas Builds-the-Fire and describe his abilities. Through imagination and story-telling—his flights of fancy, as some might consider it—Thomas is able to ascend from the reality that the Indian boys know and reach the reality of his own dreams. However, there will always be a force that pulls him down, such as the boys who “hated Thomas for his courage” and the people who “had stopped listening” to his stories. Yet, he “kept telling them” and keeps trying to fly, which takes immense courage. Alexie writes, “Everybody has dreams about flying. Thomas flew.” Everyone else is “too smart or too scared to jump,” which prevents them for ever reaching new heights. Thomas says, “We are all given one thing by which our lives are measured, one determination. Mine are the stories which can change or not change the world.” His stories are changing the world, as seen by how the people around him recognize their own shortcomings and are inspired by his courage. Like a phoenix, Thomas rises from the stagnant ashes and is reborn through his stories.