I am not sure who or what the Indian Killer is. At first I was sure it was John Smith; however by the end of the book I had changed my mind. I am at a place where I am not sure of who it was, but I have two strong possibilities. The first possibility is Reggie, he had the violent childhood, he does not trust white men, and he has worked to learn more about his Indian background. Reggie was beaten by his white father, who wanted him to be more white than Indian, if he did not study and answer the "pop quizzes" he was given. Then when he went to college Professor Mathers lied time and time again, it showed him that white men cannot be trusted. When he attended college he learned more about his heritage because that was expected of him by others.
I also thought that it could be the spirits of Indians that have been repressed and mistreated since the white man came to this land. I could see this being true because nobody ever saw the killer. He was able to take the little boy out of and into his home and stand over the mother with no one knowing he was there. When the police questioned him the boy called the killer an it not a he and described his kidnapper as having feathers. The real killer is left in shadow even in the last pages of the book. I don't think we were given enough information to come to a conclusive decision on who the true Indian Killer is.
Who is the Indian Killer? Will we ever truly know the answer to this question? I really do not think that we can pinpoint exactly who the killer is. I mean we can look at all the evidence in the book for each character and make our best guess, but unless someone can get a hold of Sherman Alexie and ask him, I do not think we will ever have a definite answer. Sad. But, I think it was John. I think all the problems that he had throughout his life would have caused him to do what the Indian Killer did. Just my thought on the matter.
ReplyDeleteI still feel that I want the killer to be John. I have said this before but I feel that Alexie didn’t want us to know exactly who the killer was. I think he wanted us to pick our own. Anyway I can see why you would think it was Reggie. He is definitely very disturbed and did have the violent home and being that his father for so many years told him that the Indian in him was his flaws he could be hating the white man like his father for saying things like that. I agree that a resentment was formed between him and the white culture because of his father and it is possible that Mathers just fueled the fire by introducing him to the positive aspects of being Indian and in doing so Reggie may have felt that the white man, like his father, has not aloud Reggie to be who he truly was.
ReplyDeleteAs for the killer being a spirit it is possible but that spirit would have to embody a physical being, like John maybe. I say this because in the beginning the killer was seen. He was seen carrying his first victim by a drunken college student. And though he was drunk the student still sees him and points out a few features. As for the spirit I was pondering with others that if it was a spirit what if it is Father Duncan’s Spirit. Just another possibility to think about. =)