Sherman Alexie Reunion Analysis

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They say a picture can say 1000 words, but why can’t a story paint 1000 pictures? Well Sherman Alexie, Grace Paley, and John Cheever all paint 1000 pictures with their respected stories in the book Fiction: A Pocket Anthology by R.S. Gwynn. In the short story “Reunion”, John Cheever writes about a young man who has not seen his father in over three years and then reunites with him again. “Wants” is a story by Grace Paley and is about a recently divorced couple of 27 years running into each other unexpectedly. In the third story “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, Sherman Alexie writes about a man who loses his father he had not seen in a few years and his struggle to get to Phoenix to collect his ashes and belongings. Each of the…show more content…
Alexie wrote this story with the purpose of telling the reader that at the end of the day a friend will always be a friend no matter what. He set out to accomplish his purpose by putting Victor in a tough spot and needing help. Victor’s dad passed away in Phoenix, where he lived; Victor lived somewhere north of Nevada. He didn’t have any money to fly down to Phoenix to get his dads ashes or belongings and he went in search of a loan. He ran into Thomas who was an old friend, but they hadn’t spoke since they got in a fist fight back in school. Thomas heard about Victor’s dad and sent his condolences to Victor. Victor told Thomas about needing money to go to Phoenix and Thomas offered to pay, but he had to go along on the trip. Victor told him, “I can’t take your money, I mean, I haven’t hardly talked to you in years. We’re not really friends anymore” (Alexie 413). But in the end, Thomas paid for the trip and went along with Victor to Phoenix. Victor got his dads ashes and belongings and Thomas and Victor made the best of it while doing it. It isn’t until the end where Alexie wraps it all up and shows that even after all those years, Thomas and Victor are still really good friends. When they make it home, Thomas tells Victor one request and that is, “Just one time when I am telling a story somewhere, why don’t you stop and listen?” (Alexie 422). Victor agrees and that is when Alexie’s purpose of the story is accomplished. The two might have fought and stopped talking in the past, but now Thomas and Victor were friends again. “‘This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona’ really demonstrates how life creates a big circle and how thing will always work out in a way that is least expected” (Sherman Alexie (1966-)

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