Cowboys and Indians

Cowboys and Indians

Summary

This story takes place in New Mexico, and is about the narrator, a young woman. The story begins at narrator’s grandmother’s funeral. All relatives and friends are gathered at the grandmother’s house, and the narrator is helping her aunts serving coffee and appetizers. The narrator’s cousin David, who is the ‘Rebel’ in the family, comes and takes her out. They drive away on his Ducati and goes to a bar for drinks. They eventually end up watching the sunset and eating chili. They talk about David should have visited their grandmother more often, after watching the sunset and talking, David drops the narrator of at the funeral feast.
David end up driving away from the house, he can’t handle coming inside, but the narrator is again the polite young woman, and she wonders why David can’t be polite and helpful like her.

Characterization

The narrator is this young woman from Connecticut. When we first meet the narrator, she is attending at her grandmother’s funeral and the funeral feast. She seems to be this nicely and polite young helpful woman, but that changes as soon her rebellious cousin David is with her. She ‘turns in to him’ with the whole attitude. At the funeral feast she is thanking everyone for attending, but she wants to escape the responsible role, and unleash her wild side. She describes that her relationship with her isn’t the closes one, but she was a role model. Her whole relationship with David is slightly different than with her grandmother, her responsible side vanishes. She is after all David’s favorite cousin. She feels stronger and tougher, and isn’t afraid when Davis is around, she is almost like a teenager with her.

Similarities and differences between David and the narrator

The similarities between David and the narrator, is easy to spot. They have the wild side and enjoy the feeling of freedom. They have been seen as the black sheep’s in their family, and they are also seen as outsiders. But the differences between them are very obvious; David looks like a Native American with the ‘wildlife’ running through his veins, and the narrator is from the East coast. She is more responsible than he is, and does a great effort to her duties. Their looks is very different, she has soft hands, while he has burn marks on his hands, that he has received at his job. All the difference can be spotted easily, but most of them are small details.

What makes people an outsider?

Often it’s really only your own mind and emotions that tell you that you don’t fit in. You may actually fit in fine, you just think of yourself as an outsider. It definitely doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. It’s important to know that feeling like you don’t belong isn’t always a bad thing either. Emily Dickinson wrote a poem called, "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" where she describes how being an outsider can actually be helpful. It can allow you to concentrate on your own ambitions and goals without feeling like you have to conform to other people's standards. You can do your own thing. You don’t want to change yourself just to fit in with a certain group of people. That's where a lot of people go wrong. They end up wanting to gain approval from others and end up losing themselves in the process. You have so much more to offer by being true to yourself. So, don't limit yourself to being the same as everyone else. Challenge yourself to be the absolute best you can be. When you feel like you're not fitting in, ask yourself if it's because of what you're thinking? Are you thinking thoughts like:

I'll never be good enough

I'll never fit in

No one likes me
Thinking thoughts like these doesn't help you. All it does it get you stuck feeling bad about yourself and you have no way to move forwards. These thoughts may not even be true. It may be just because you continue to tell yourself these thoughts over and over that they become true for you.