Native Americans are often a forgotten minority in history and literature. The slaughter of Native lives and the erasure of their culture is an unfortunate American legacy. Fortunately, writer Sherman Alexie attempted to fill the cultural void and illuminate the plight of his people. He does this through a writing style that he defines as “reserve realism”. Although natives are the opposite of immigrants, the Native American minority experience shares many similarities with the discourse surrounding immigrants, thus making reservation realism a viable division of immigrant literature. This genre uses often “distorted,” “exaggerated,” or “deluded” stories as a means of documenting and translating the Native American experience (Alexi). The idea here is that “truth-story” can be truer than actual truth (TTC 203). Reservation realism combines narrative tradition practiced within tribes with historical facts to capture the essence of reservation life. This is exemplified in "The Trial of Thomas Builds-The-Fire", a story in Alexi's collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. This story incorporates the surreal theme of reincarnation into its triangular structure combined with a variety of literary devices to document the Native American experience and to show the shared nature of their suffering. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Initially, Sherman Alexie uses a timeline divided into three short stories, each representing a different reincarnation of the protagonist, Thomas Builds The Fire. He creates this structure to demonstrate the progression of native resistance as time passes and to reveal the similarities between the experiences of Thomas' incarnations. The three stories told by Thomas are also strengthened by details relating to his current situation as an alleged criminal. Thomas begins as an alleged criminal on trial in Spokane Washington. The reader is not informed of why he is on trial precisely because Thomas himself is insecure. While in a holding cell, white officers discuss Thomas's “future,” “immediate present,” and “past” (93). Here is another example of the triangulation of time. Thomas' past, future and present are all connected. His story is shared with those who came before him. This theme of connectivity continues throughout the story as Alexie explores the idea of ​​a collective, ancestral consciousness through reincarnation. Alexie uses negative diction when describing Thomas' penchant for telling stories and uses his protagonist's current silence as a symbol, to demonstrate the destruction of Native American culture caused by white Americans. Guards at the prison where Thomas is held say he has a "dangerous" "storytelling fetish." The negative connotation of the word "fetish" implies that storytelling is somehow taboo, and this is further emphasized by the fetish labeling. as “dangerous”. Since storytelling is a fundamental element of Native culture, treating it as a crime shows how Caucasian Americans have violated Native traditions. Furthermore, the word “dangerous” illuminates the fear felt by those who believed that Native culture threatened the colonial way of life. Negative diction is also manipulated to highlight the effect of white Americans on Native culture. For example, a native named Walks Along labels his wife a “savage in polyester pants.”(94). Walks Along's treatment of his wife is an example of a phenomenon called assimilation, which is the label given to the way minorities conform to a new way of life, perhaps losing their previous identities in the process. He has conformed to traditional American life to the point that he now labels his wife a “savage.” Assimilation is a common tendency in the immigrant experience. Colonials and pioneers severely marginalized Native Americans and this led to the loss of their cultural identity. Alexie is implying that this is one of the many negative effects of imposing American conventions on Native people. In this story silence is used as a symbol of oppression for the protagonist and his people. The agents reveal that Thomas had “agreed to remain silent” and had “not spoken in almost twenty years” (94). Thomas will no longer tell stories due to the negative consequences he and people like him have faced for doing so. His silence is an adaptation, developed by those who spoke before him and suffered the consequences. The revelation of this “adaptation” helps Alexi relate Thomas Builds A Fire to the suppression of the minority voice indicative of the immigrant experience. Silence in the face of oppression connotes defeat, the victimization of Thomas and the natives. Reluctance to speak or loss of voice represents a loss of freedom. However, Tommaso does not remain silent. The narrator informs the reader that Thomas began making “little noises that held more emotion and meaning than entire sentences” (94). Finally, Thomas breaks his silence when he defends himself at trial. The slow progression that helps Thomas find his voice parallels the progression that the natives in Thomas' story make from passive resistance to active retaliation. Finding his voice is a way for Thomas to find solidarity in the face of his oppressors. Alexie also uses animal diction in his first story to represent the inhumane treatment of the natives, to infuse his story with the attention to animals and nature pervasive in Native American culture, and to insert a fantastical aspect, thus exemplifying the realism of the reservation . His first story begins in 1858 and Thomas is a “young pony” who is taken prisoner (96). An American general writes a letter describing stolen “captured animals”; the “poor creatures” he regrets killing to avoid a “stamped escape” (97). Although the general refers to real horses, in dialogue describing racial conflicts, members of the offending side often see the minority in animal terms. Native Americans were herded onto reservations as if they were horses or cattle. The metaphor is then extended as Alexi personifies the “mother” horses who “cried for their dead children.” Native Americans traditionally believe that humans share a brotherhood with animals. Here, Sherman Alexie is exemplifying one of the cornerstones of reservation realism, an infusion of Native culture into American literature. The structure of this story allows Alexi to show the ways in which Native responses to American oppression have evolved over time. The story continues as Thomas describes how, as a pony, he allowed himself to be “saddled” by a man but then “suddenly stood up, unhorsed him, and broke his arm” (98). This single act of defiance marks the beginning of the natives' progression from hopeless victims to worthy adversaries. However, it is important to note that defiance occurs as a response to imposed hardship and oppression. This parallels the Natives' experience of their colonial captors. Native Americans were exploited and massacred by European settlers and forced to leavethe communities they had occupied for centuries. Just like the “young pony”, they did not start the conflict. Also, in Thomas' second story, he is a man named Qualchan who fights in an Indian war. Qualchan was a real Yakima chief and Thomas' version of his story is accurate ("Spokane History Timeline"). This is an example of the real story seeping into Alexie's fictional story; the “realism” part of reserve realism. Qualchan was hanged along with six other “Indians…who had never raised a hand in anger toward any white man” (98). The hanging is another example of native reluctance towards violence, compared to white brutality. He points out that Thomas, although on trial for some unidentified crime, is a victim because he shares a past with his suffering ancestors. Finally, in Thomas' third story, he is a man called Wild Coyote, who is also engaged in a conflict with the whites. Although he desires peace between “whites and Indians,” he notes that the whites have “cannons and had lied before” so he decides to attack the men rather than broker peace (100). This means the complete escalation from passive resistance to violent conflict. Although Wild Coyote's murder and scalping of the white men is brutal, Alexi makes the reader sympathetic to the plight of the natives with the previous stories. It shows that this crime committed by Thomas as Wild Coyote is a response to the previous atrocities he has suffered. The author also manipulates the imagery to portray those who wish for Thomas' incarceration in a negative light. It is prudent to remember that this unusual story is Thomas's testimony at his trial. Alexie wants the reader to be the jury and decide that the plaintiff is innocent. When the judge asks Thomas what his purpose is in telling this story, he informs the judge that Spokane is “building a golf course” named after Qualchan located in the same valley where he was hanged (99). It is telling that the predecessors of the men who hanged him are now commemorating him publicly. However, this seems like a feeble attempt at repentance. The fact that the monument is a golf course detracts from the action. Golf is a sport synonymous with the white upper class. White, privileged men are undoubtedly building this golf course and putting Qualchan's name on it as a consolation prize. At least that's what Alexie lets on. This is an example of the bias present in reservation realism. Alexie wants the reader to be incredibly prejudiced against Thomas and the Natives, so he embellishes historical events and uses images, such as the golf course, that emphasize a negative prejudice against whites. Furthermore, Alexie portrays the injustice that Americans perpetrated against Native people through representation. of the legal officials at Thomas' trial as reckless and corrupt. Furthermore, the theme of injustice permeates this story. Since Thomas represents the Native American community, the guards and the judge represent white America. While Thomas is in prison, officials are deciding what to charge him with. They are making up a “felony charge” for Thomas because they “don't need his kind around” (94). Members of the justice system are corrupt, which connotes universal social corruption towards minorities. If the system designed to uphold justice fails to do so, it is logical to assume that justice does not exist, at least in the world of Thomas Builds The Fire. When Thomas finally admits to the murder of Wild Coyote, he expresses his remorse by admitting that he is “sorry that those men had to die” (102). He is even “happy” for the surviving soldiers who “have.