How Does Sherman Alexie Create Tension In The Jungle

As the two young men drive through the desert, Alexie applies significant imagery to show the isolation and importance of the situation. There is a certain tension in the air when the two old friends reconnect after their falling out. They are alone in the middle of nowhere: “Victor looked around the desert, sniffed the air, felt the emptiness and loneliness” (159). Alexie uses imagery to encapsulate the situation that the two young men are in. To help the reader feel the tension of the isolated experience, imagery is used to describe the spacious and lonely desert. As they trudged through Nevada they “had been amazed at the lack of animal life, at the absence of water, of movement” (149). Alexie’s imagery in this particular scene shows us the fog of tension between Victor and Thomas and gives the readers the feeling of tense isolation. As they travel the sixteen-hour-journey back home, they have hours and hours of desert to think about their shared past. The desert is vast and stripped, which forces them to either be deep in thought or forcibly converse with each other. All of this tension is shown through the description of the desert. The description of Thomas planning to spread Victor’s dad's ashes helps the reader understand how the young men feel about his death. Alexie
uses imagery to show the ashes set free at the Spokane Falls. Thomas passionately describes the scene: “‘Your father will rise like a salmon, leap over the bridge, over me, and find his way home’”(183). Thomas believes that this death is a beautiful and freeing event, this is shown through the imagery of the salmon swimming up stream. This description shows the reader how Thomas feels about the situation. On the other hand, Victor has a much more dull attitude about his father's death. After hearing Thomas’s description about his father, Victor has a different view of things: “‘Id be like cleaning the attic or something. Like letting things go after they’ve stopped having use anymore’”(186). This imagery of clearing out an attic shows the reader how Victor feels about his dad dying. He does not see this as a beautiful event but more of a necessary part of life--he is indifferent. This short story by Sherman Alexie is seemingly simple at first glance.
However, when given further thought, the reader will start to see small details which lead to a deeper meaning. Alexie uses imagery to reveal the complicated undercurrents of the relationship between the two men. He uses description to show how the men feel about each other and how they feel about different situations. Alexie’s imagery in “This Is What It Means To Say” helps the reader weed out the important aspects of the story in order to gain true understanding of the characters and the purpose of the story. Imagery reveals details about characters and setting that show the deeper meaning behind the short
story.