War Dances by Sherman Alexie is a fascinating story about a man and his deteriorating hearing who fears he has a brain tumor. The story intertwines with the author's last memory of his father before he died. It also explores the author's struggle with embracing the Native American side of his heritage while still remaining connected to the modern world.
The story begins with the author arriving home from a trip and discovering a dead cockroach in his luggage. This causes the author to gather all his things from the suitcase and throw them outside for fear of bringing an infestation into his home. This one action starts a train of thought from the author that leads him to believe the reason for his hearing loss is two cockroaches in his ears. This is because he recalls hearing of someone who had the same experience in the emergency room. Later on, he decides to go to the doctor to get to the root of his hearing loss. After the doctor performs an examination and orders an MRI scan the author goes home and starts to tell us about his father.
He recounts the time after his father's foot amputation surgery when he was cold and asked for a blanket. The author requests an extra blanket from a nurse and is given a thin, useless sheet. His father continues to complain about the cold, and so the son embarks on a quest to find a proper blanket. He describes how he was searching for a specific kind of person and eventually finds another Indian man. He engages in conversation with the Indian man and asks for a blanket. The Indian man is offended that the author expects him to have a blanket because of his heritage. In the end however, the man does indeed have a warm blanket and gives it to the author. Before he can leave though, the Indian man's father chants a healing song and blesses the blanket. The author internally mocks the man's faith in the blessing and proceeds to take the blanket to his father. Then the story shifts back to the author's life post-MRI and awaiting results.
The story has various cultural references. The blanket being useless and bad for his father is alluding to when Europeans brought the Native Americans blankets infested with smallpox, which resulted in many deaths. The author seems to want to distance himself from that side of his heritage by mocking and dismissing Native American traditions. Interestingly, the author does let his Native American beliefs creep into his life, whether he is aware or not. One example of that is when he joins his father...
