War Dances, by local author Sherman Alexie, was a thought provoking piece about life, love, and social interaction. There were too many unnecassary f bombs, which I didn’t like at all. But, if we ignore the controversial diction and focus on the positive aspects of this piece, we can see that as a human being, Alexie is very honest about himself. He admits that he stereotypes his own ethnicity, Native Americans. First of all, that’s a rude but all too common trait to display. But I guess it’s good that he at least realizes it.

I think that Alexie is a very cynical person who thinks he is better than everyone else. The way he responded to the lady behind him in line at Bartell Drugs was a good example of this. Also, just analyzing the way he describes just about any of his interactions with anyone. The one person he is nice towards, though, is his father.

I don’t really see this piece of writing as very literary. It seemed like a lot of dialogue and a lot of Indian jokes to me. But it was surely not a very good commercial piece because it was not very entertaining. Nothing seemed to really happen plot-wise. So I guess I will say that this short story is sitting right on the fence between literary and commercial. It is thought provoking in that it makes you analyze yourself. After seeing how Alexie thinks and acts, I am very comfortable with who I am as a person.