Answer:
1. Zeugma. The incongruous elements in Alexie's list are governed by the verb lived. The quality of Alexie's life was determined by the economy on the reservation, and the economy on the reservation was dependent on the government; thus, their internal hopes and fears were especially vulnerable to these uncontrollable outside forces. Alexie uses this figure of speech to illustrate the uncertain nature of life on the reservation.
2. The main stereotype of American Indians is that they are dimwitted. However, Alexie’s father loves to read, and the text says he was one of the few Indians who went to Catholic school willingly to learn.
3. By saying that everything has a fence, he is trying to tell the readers that there is a wall we all put up around ourselves. These boundaries restrict us from being the best that we can be, and also shut other people out who may want to help us instead of hurt us.
4. His childhood was painful to him, because as a student growing up he was always different for going up against the stereotype. By referring to himself in the third-person, he can almost pretend it didn’t happen to him, that the memories he has belong to someone else.
5. He is getting his point across in a powerful way by not saying, but implying what he means. Despite the lack of words in each sentence, it holds even more power and significance than if he had written out the meaning of the words.
6. First, it enforces the analogy about fences that Alexie says early on in the essay. Also, it is divided between the first, bigger half about the obstacles he faced fighting back against the Indian stereotype as a child, and the second half is about the struggle he now has with trying to help other young Indians growing up do the same.
7. In both paragraphs, Alexie repeats “I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky.” However, the last sentence of both paragraphs is slightly different from each other. While the first says, “I was trying to save my life”, the second says “I am trying to save our lives.” Both sentences are talking about the barriers American Indians must break through to achieve their goals. In the last paragraph, it also says that the students Alexie visited “look at me with bright eyes and arrogant wonder. They are trying to save their lives.” These students will be the ones to take up the battle that Alexie started all those years ago when he refused to be a failure. He also repeats the word “read” a lot. Through repetition he is getting a better point across than if he had just said “I read a lot.”
