Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Indian Killer
Initially after finishing the book I thought the Indian Killer was the souls of Indians who had been killed or Indians who have been re-incarnated into owls. But it can’t be that because the killer talks of sitting, running, holding the knife, sharpening the blade and other things that would have to make him human. Due to the physicality I don’t think the killer could be a woman. I don’t believe it is one of the characters that Alexie clearly develops for the reader. I think the Indian Killer is Indian but not one of the Indians that was part of the story elsewhere. I came to this conclusion through process of elimination while reading. At different times throughout the book I thought the killer could be John, Reggie, Dr. Mather, Truck ect. but for each one I found reasons that it couldn’t be him. John was a paranoid schitzo who would literally run away from situations that caused him too much anxiety. I don’t think he would have been able to kill people during one of his psychotic breaks either, John’s delusions and hallucinations, that were played out for the reader, were all about the life he never had on the rez or Father Duncan, they never seemed to be violent episodes that he was suffering from. As I said before, I don’t think Alexie shares the Indian killers background with the reader, it is not one of the characters that we can put a name to. I don’t think it matters who the killer is but how all the other characters act because of his actions. It allows Alexie to dive in and show the injustice and prejudices that Native Americans have to face in this country, in modern times.
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I don't think that any of the characters are the Indian killer either. The author allows the reader to see into the mind of almost all the people he wrote about and none of them had anything in common with the Indian killer. For one of them to be the Indian killer, they would have to have another personality completely than the one Sherman shows the reader. The Indian killer is either anonymous or someone in the book has a secret case of multiple personality disorder. John wasn't functioning at a high enough level to manage the killer's actions even if he was schizophrenic and had more than one personality.
ReplyDeleteI think that even though the Indian killer was performing actions such as sitting and holding the knife, which imply that he was human, he could still have been a spirit taking on human form. The killer was also described as walking right by people who didn't notice him, which could be attributed to him being a spirit. Also, the Indian killer's appearance as described by the young boy, having feathers and wings, makes him seem spiritual. But who knows, I think that Alexie wrote the book to leave deciding who the killer is up to the individual reader.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to figure out who the indian killer was through the whole book. After reading through the whole thing there is no true indian killer. I think John was my best guess for the indian killer. He was confused but people with schizo still know how to cause destruction. I think there was a voice telling him to do all those killings. All of the other characters could have been suspects but John is the most favored suspect. I think the author was trying to leave it up to the reader to guess who the killer was. If Sherman told you who the killer was than it wouldn't be as mysterious.
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea that it does not really matter who the Indian Killer is. Everyone (myself included) has been so focused on who performed the heinous acts of murder and scalping, but perhaps Alexie intended for the story not to be about the murderer and the murdered, but instead about how the murders affected all the other people in the community, whether they be Native American or causcasian. I think the importance of the novel lies with how the different groups of people interact with one another and commit acts of injustice against eachother after the killings begin.
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