Where Do We Belong?

No matter where we are in the world, and how hard we try to integrate cultures and convince everyone of equality, discrimination and segregation will forever exist. Sherman Alexie’s story “The Toughest Indian in the World” presents such issues. He describes the harsh feelings many of the Indians have towards white people and shares their hopes and feelings about the world they know. They learn to be silent in crowd of white people, or they are likely to get hurt.
This is a story of family, love, loss, and sense of self. It is hard for anyone to know exactly who they are or what they want to be, and to try and understand life. Life is one big roller coaster ride-a ride in which anything can happen. I think that most of this story was a journey of a man trying to discover who he was. His life was simple but full of questions. There was pain, hatred, fear, but also love. Is the narrator happy or sad? Where is he going with his life? He didn’t seem to be too excited about anything that had happened in his life so far. He just kept moving along with the routine. Yet what are his feelings after his encounter with the Indian fighter? The narrator even says “but I wanted him to save me.” What is the significance of this statement? As he watches the man walk off into the distance, he is a changed person. I’m not really sure in what way but I feel that the narrator, after his experience, has more sense of self. He goes to bed, “lonely and laughing.” The next day he walks barefoot toward his home. Maybe his experience is just what he needed to reassure himself that he was on the right path. He was heading back to a place he could never leave.