His innocent, adolescent action gives one the idea that Alexie continued to struggle with his identity by showing that his contempt for his classmates had been extended to include his entire tribe. This is further enforced by the words, " I was saying goodbye to my tribe, to all the Indian girls I might have loved, to all the Indian men who might have called me cousin, even brother." (Alexie, 485). Through this action, Alexie essentially abandons his culture, a culture that, in Alexie's eyes, never really wanted him around in the first place.
Alexie first learns of the way in which white society views Native Americans in second grade when his teacher punishes him for drawing a picture of her as a witch and not apologizing for it. She even resorts to physical punishment as a way to reel in the wild Indian boy, to make him, in the teacher's words, " learn respect." (Alexie, 483). In addition to this, the teacher sends him home with a letter telling his parents "to either cut [his] braids or keep [him] home from class."(Alexie, 483). Alexie views this as an affront to his heritage, as he very well should. After all, the teacher is not punishing him for acting as all young boys do, but for being a young Native American boy who, in her opinion, is acting out inappropriately. The actions of the second grade teacher plants a seed in Alexie's young mind that he will never be viewed as an equal by white society. This is furthered by what happens to him in the ninth grade when he passes out at a dance following a basketball game as a result of his diabetes. A teacher runs up, not to help the young Alexie, but to assert that he had been drinking. The teacher states, "I know all about these Indian kids. They start drinking real young." (Alexie,486). This statement demonstrates the stigma surrounding Native Americans within the culture of white society. However, in Alexie's mind this demonstrates a radical form of derogatory stereotyping focused on his Native American culture, which is a thought that will stick with him up until his graduation, and past it, into the rest of his life.
