Love and Hatred Theme Analysis

One review of this collection refers to it as a series of “cultural love stories,” and Alexie himself, in the foreword, writes that “[in] trying to figure out the main topic, the big theme, the overarching idea, the epicenter” of the collection, he arrived at “the sons in this book really love and hate their fathers.” The line between love and hatred—for many of Alexie’s characters, not just the sons and fathers in the text—is a fine one that is traversed back and forth time and time again. On the reservation, care and community are important but often overlooked, and treasured friendships and partnerships are similarly both valued and easily or thoughtlessly discarded. By the same token, hate and resentment spring up in many small or unexpected ways; pockets of reservation communities are again and again torn asunder by violence and ill will.

In “Every Little Hurricane,” Victor’s uncles “slug each other which such force that they had to be in love”—the narrator describes how, during the fight, “Victor watched as his uncle held his other uncle down, saw the look of hate and love on his uncle’s face.” In another story, Victor says of his parents’ tumultuous marriage that his mother loved his father “with a ferocity that eventually forced her to leave him. They fought each other with the kind of graceful anger that only love can create.” In one of Victor’s major romantic relationships, things come to a close on a note of both love and resentment. “I love you. And don’t ever come back,” one of his girlfriends tells him as he prepares to leave their home in Seattle and return to the Spokane Indian Reservation. Victor and his classmates, growing up, “hate” Thomas Builds-the-Fire “for his courage.” Thomas is an important person in Victor’s life, and Victor does seem to, in a way, grow to love him throughout the course of these stories. However, the foundation of hatred and jealousy speaks to the complicated emotions that define so many of the relationships that appear in these pages.

Because the narrative isn’t linear, the rise and fall of love and hatred throughout the book doesn’t necessarily resolve itself or point to any kind of conclusion. Rather, the chopped-up, ever-changing narrative acts as a metaphor of sorts for the tumultuous nature of human relationships, and especially of relationships whose surroundings and foundations are calibrated by an atmosphere of poverty, violence, cultural loss or pain, and personal isolation. Alexie demonstrates the volatility of both familial and romantic relationships that come to fruition within the borders of the reservation.