Walker, Baldwin, Alexie -- Short Essay

Thomas took the ashes and smiled, closed his eyes, and told this story: "I'm going to travel to Spokane Falls one last time and toss these ashes into the water. And your father will rise like a salmon, leap over the bridge, over me, and find his way home. It will be beautiful. His teeth will shine like silver, like a rainbow. He will rise, Victor, he will rise." Victor smiled.

"I was planning on doing the same thing with my half," Victor said. "But I didn't imagine my father looking anything like a salmon. I thought it'd be like cleaning the attic or something. Like letting things go after they've stopped having any use.

"Nothing stops, cousin," Thomas said. "Nothing stops."

Thomas Builds-the-Fire got out of the pickup and walked up his driveway.Victor started the pickup and began the drive home.

At peace, then, are parts of the characters in each story; Walker's narrator with her new realization; Sonny and his brother knowing that the negativity of the past need no longer haunt either of them; and Thomas and Victor -- knowing that superficially life goes on, but that a bond and "agreement" has been reached, and is forever sealed.

REFERENCES

Grassian, D., Understanding Sherman Alexie. University of South Carolina

Press, 2005.

Lester, J. "James Baldwin -- Reflections of a Maverick." The New York Times.

May 27, 1984. Cited in:

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-reflections.html?_r=2

Obstfeld, R., Fiction First Aid. Writer's Digest Books, 2002.

Pickering, J. Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Fiction. Prentice Hall, 2006.

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