A Drug Called Tradition Summary

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There are multiple times when readers get the chance to see that the Spokane Indians on the reservation lacked a sense of hope and community. We see these claims in all four of Alexie’s stories “A drug called tradition”, “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona”, “The only traffic signal on the reservation doesn’t flash red anymore” and “ The trial of Thomas Builds- the- fire” . In each story, the thought of why they are not there for eachother will come across readers minds. In “A drug called tradition” we see the boys on the reservations first interaction but something disturbing is the way they treat people who are supposed to be like family. For example the way they treat Thomas “..You can only come with us if you don’t tell any …show more content…
This shows a sense of hopelessness, indians need heroes to learn from but those heroes can't even afford to live themselves and they know it. When someone tries to be a hero for the reservation they are ignored and treated wrongfully because they are speaking the truth that no one can face. We see this with Thomas in Sherman Alexie’s last story “The trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire”. In this short but fulfilling story we see that Thomas goes to trial for being a dangerous threat to the reservations so called “community” for telling the know truth. There have been multiple of times where we see Thomas’s stories get shut down by people that are supposed to be like a family to him. The BIA officials wrongfully treat Thomas, for example “Thomas surrendered voluntarily and agreed to remain silent.In fact, Thomas had not spoken in nearly twenty years.All his stories remained internal; he would not even send letters or christmas cards”(Page 94). What kind of community would force a member to remain silent because they didn't like what the person said. They took away his freedom of speech when they should be supporting and allowing him to express what he believes.The BIA forced Thomas to stop telling his stories, doing this means they are ignoring Thomas’s constant attempts to alert the people on the reservation. The crazy part is they knew that what Thomas is saying in the end would help the community to better themselves instead they chose for a community to barely be present. The BIA was full of corrupted people inside of the court and outside of it, and readers see that multiple times throughout the story. An example of showing how corrupted
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