Indian Killer Essays -- essays research papers

In Indian Killer Alexie uses a pulp-fiction form, the serial killer conundrum, to frame the social issues face American Indians. He populates the book with stock characters such as a grizzled ex-cop, a left-wing professor, a right-wing talk radio set personality, drunken bums, thuggish teenagers and a schizophrenic main character who servicings as the intimately obvious suspect in a mystery that never kinda resolves itself. tooshie Smith, the troubled Indian adopted by whites appears at beginning to be the main character, but in some respects he is what Alfred Hitchcock called a McGuffin. The story is built around him, but he is not truly the main character and he is not the heart of the story. His struggle, period pointing out one aspect of the American Indian commence, is not the fundamental point. John Smiths experiences as an Indian adopted by whites have left him too addled and sad, from the first moment to the last, to serve as the storys true focus. The damage that had been done to John Smith was irreparable from the moment the story began. His death, while a dreary ending for his character, is in many ways a release from his torment, as demonstrated by his rising from the point of impact and leaving his soundbox behind. The value of John Smith is to serve as an extreme object lesson of the damage being done to Indian society.The heart of the story is the experience of Marie Polatkin. Unlike the somewhat stock characters that make up much of the mystery element of the novel, Marie is a fully real...