This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

While driving through the desert on their way back to the reservation, Victor and Thomas remark on the “lack of animal life, the absence of water, of movement” (326). This setting evokes Victor’s Loneliness and Self-Isolation, as well as the broken links between many Indigenous Americans and their ancestral homelands. The jackrabbit that appears in the desert therefore initially comes as a sign of hope, hinting at the possibility of renewed cultural life. However, Thomas accidentally strikes the rabbit in his distraction, and the men pull over to find the animal dead. They joke that the rabbit must have died by suicide, further sealing its connections to the story’s depiction of reservation life, where despair is prevalent. However, they also accept the death and travel on. In a work that deals heavily with movement and the natural course of life, this suggests Victor’s acceptance of his father’s death.

Victor’s story is set into motion by the need to travel to Phoenix, Arizona, to settle his departed father’s affairs. Phoenixes—mythical birds that die and then rise again out of their own ashes—are symbols of rebirth and new beginnings. By traveling to Phoenix, Victor is metaphorically heading toward rebirth and reclamation of his Spokane identity. Significantly, Victor also goes to Phoenix to retrieve his father’s ashes, creating a parallel between the phoenix’s life cycle and the cyclical nature of human generations. By traveling to Phoenix, Victor becomes a part of the immortal life cycle of his culture, which passes from parents to children and is renewed with each new generation.