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Sherman Alexie's Evolution

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The three central images in Alexie’s “Evolution” are Buffalo Bill, the pawn shop, and the museum of Native American Culture. In the poem, Sherman Alexie exemplified the degradation of the Native American people and their culture. The language used by Alexie in this poem illustrates a clear image for the audience of how the Native American people were not respected by outsiders. By using “Indians” instead of Native Americans portrays the historical time setting of how the people were seen by the white man. From the beginning to the end of the poem, the speaker discusses how Buffalo Bill took everything the Indians wanted to pawn even down to the heart of the last Indian. The speaker even shows how ruthless the white man was when it is illustrated that …show more content…
During the poem, the image of Buffalo Bill shows the action of how the white man treated the Native Americans (Kim, 2015). One could also say that the image could represent the American Government of the historical era. How the white person regards the Indians is seen by the language of the poem. The illustration of how Buffalo Bill opens a pawn shop right next to the reservation and takes all of the Indian valuables and turns it into a museum in the end. This shows the history of how the Americans took everything from the Indians.
The pawn shop represents how the white man took everything from the Indians that was important to their culture. Even in the sentence when it opened up, the speaker states the shop opened across the street from a liquor store (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). This paints an image of the Indians were alcoholics also. The pawn shops main image is how historically the Americans took the valuables from the Indians and gave the Indians very little respect. One could say the American Government was deceitful toward the Native Americans including the infringement on their land, culture and

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