This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

“‘I can’t take your money,’ Victor said. ‘I mean, I haven’t hardly talked to you in years. We’re not really friends anymore.’”

This dialogue reveals that Victor feels pressure to reject Thomas despite needing his help; his reluctance hints at the guilt he feels about beating Thomas up. It also indicates that Thomas was once Victor’s friend and that things have changed.

“Which Junior? Everyone on this reservation is named Junior.”

This joke is shared between Thomas and Victor as children. It shows the hereditary nature of cultural identity: The fact that the reservation is full of “Juniors” indicates that many aspects of their culture are generational.

“If it had been someone else, even another man, the Indian boys would have just ignored the warnings. But Norma was a warrior. She could have picked up any two boys and smashed their skulls together. But, worse than that, she could have dragged them to some tipi and made them listen to some elder tell a dusty old story.”

This description of Norma embodies the simultaneous reverence and disdain the Spokane youths feel for their own culture. Their admiration for and fear of the warrior-like Norma are juxtaposed with their distaste for “dusty old stories” of their heritage.

“A tiny white woman had the window seat. She was busy twisting her body into pretzels. She was flexible.”

This description of Cathy symbolizes white America in relation to Indigenous Americans. Cathy is literally twisted up, suggesting the contortions required to twist Indigenous history into something the US cannot be blamed for.

“He might have died there, stung a thousand times, if Thomas Builds-the-Fire had not come by.”

In a flashback, Victor remembers a time his foot became caught in an underground wasps’ nest. That it was Thomas who freed him foreshadows Thomas’s importance in Victor’s journey: Just as he once saved Victor’s physical life, he now helps him recover his father’s ashes, reintegrating both Victor and his father into the cultural life of the tribe.

“For a long time I was mad because I thought my dreams had lied to me. But they didn’t. Your dad was my vision. Take care of each other, my dreams were saying. Take care of each other.”

Thomas says this when telling Victor about meeting his father at Spokane Falls. Victor’s father’s kindness and determination to look out for Thomas inspired him to do the same for Victor. He realizes that the survival of their culture depends on the compassion and understanding they have for each other.

“‘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.”

In one of Victor’s flashbacks, he recalls Thomas jumping off the roof of the school. He was suspended for a moment before falling and breaking his arm. This quote reflects the boys’ attitude toward Thomas. Though outwardly hostile, they secretly admire and envy him. This admiration is at odds with the social pressure to “other” their Indigenous American identity.

“Victor carried part of his father and Thomas carried the rest out to the pickup.”

Victor’s father’s ashes fill the wooden urn and part of a cardboard box, which Thomas and Victor split upon returning home. Thomas helping Victor carry his father’s ashes evokes the role he plays supporting Victor throughout his journey to find his identity.

They set him down carefully behind the seats, put a cowboy hat on the wooden box and a Dodgers hat on the cardboard box. That’s the way it was supposed to be.”

The two hats represent a confluence of cultures that influenced Victor’s father’s identity. Accepting the various elements that comprise postcolonial Indigenous identity is what Victor means by referencing “the way it [is] supposed to be.”

“All through Nevada, Thomas and Victor had been amazed at the lack of animal life, the absence of water, of movement.”

This description of setting represents Victor’s lifeless emotional state. Many Indigenous American cultures are rooted in spiritual connections to land and wildlife. The barrenness of the men’s surroundings suggests alienation from that aspect of their culture.

“Victor looked around the desert, sniffed the air, felt the emptiness and loneliness, and nodded his head.”

After assessing the “loneliness” of the environment, Victor agrees that the jackrabbit likely died by suicide—a commentary on what such Loneliness and Self-Isolation can lead to. He accepts Thomas’s mistake in hitting the rabbit and realizes that they must continue onward and complete their journey. Victor’s acceptance moves the plot forward and pushes the men homeward.

“We are all given one thing by which our lives are measured. Mine are the stories which can or can change or not change the world. It doesn’t matter which, as long as I continue to tell the stories.”

Thomas says this when he reveals that he is an orphan with no siblings. He admits that the world may not care about the stories he tells, but he is compelled to tell them for his own reasons. This symbolizes a determination to preserve one’s cultural traditions despite interference and shaming.

“Victor was ashamed of himself. Whatever happened to tribal ties, the sense of community? The only real thing he shared with anybody was a bottle and broken dreams.”

Victor realizes his journey may not change his treatment of Thomas and reflects not only on his own inadequacies but on the emphasis on community and shared culture that his tribe has lost over time. He recognizes that his addictions and jadedness are not just things he “shares” with others but rather symptoms of community malaise, as well as a hindrance to cultural identity.