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Jack Federici

Schendel

CCP 1110

20 Dec. 2022

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In most cases, people turn to violence to try to solve their problems. This idea is not a

reasonable solution, even though they may think it is. The same case of this stands with John, the

main character in author Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer. John feels that if he kills a white man, it

will solve all of his problems. Based on John’s mental health, thoughts, actions, and views of

himself, John is the Indian killer.

To support this, John is the Indian killer because of his mental health. John has some sort

of mental disorder, which makes him act weird and his thoughts toward those around him are

morbid. He has shown this in chapter 3 through his thought process on who he wants to kill.

Alexie states, “John could stick a bomb in one of his aluminum cans. A mercury switch,” (29).

John was watching him take his cans from his residence’s window, which is creepy. The beggar

takes John’s cans to sell them and make some money, which he only spends on alcohol. This

quote directly shows that John has a problem. This is due to his idea to stick a bomb or mercury

switch into a can for the poor white man to set off, killing him. John is an obvious mental person

because he had wished this on another.

John is indefinitely the killer because of his actions. John is known for being different, he

is indian, and he has a mental disorder, which is shown in his actions. The way John being indian

is incorporated, is because he says that he is “older than the hills,”(41) trying to push authority

over another man, with an indian idea. In chapter 3, John was walking on the street and ran into a
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group of people. Alexie Sates, “‘Calm down there dude’ he said…. [While John was] Holding

his hands toward the white man,” (42). This quote shows that John was mad about the people,

the man told him to calm down even though he was being rude. After they had their slightly

heated conversation, John got prepared. John held his hands toward the man in an attempt to do

something to him, but the man put up a peace sign and left. John followed him, and he was

probably an idea for a victim at the start.

Another idea that makes John the killer is that he has some morbid thoughts. For

example, he had a fantasy about the foreman at his job. Alexie states, “‘Help me!’ the foreman

would shout…. John would look down to see the foreman’s eyes wide with fear,” (25). John was

eating his lunch, and then the foreman came in and told him he was needed on another floor. This

quote explains the fantasy that John had about the foreman. He had imagined that the foreman

was hanging off the side of the fortieth floor, and he grabbed him and waited. The foreman

would have got mad at this, and then he would have helped him. This in itself is very awful,

because they would “sway back and forth like a pendulum” (Alexie 25 ). This is also very

dangerous and it seemed like John wanted the foremen to be killed. This goes to show that John’s

morbid thoughts are another reason why he is the killer.

The final reason for John being the killer was his look at where he wanted to be in his

life. John would not have been in Seattle if he was never adopted. In the start of chapter 4, John

makes up a little scenario if his mother kept him, and they lived together on the reservation.

Alexie states, “‘He’s my son’ she’d said. ‘He will always be my son,’” (43). John was making up

this scenario to imagine his life on the reservation. John was making up what his mother would

say to him to support him. He states that he would “live with a large extended family,” and he

would “share a bedroom with two girl cousins,” (Alexie 43). This shows that John is making up
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a living situation for himself and he is making up this to cope. He is also making this up to try to

find a way to find who’s responsible for this situation. John is the killer because of his ideas on

his look on where he wants to be.

Once again, based on John’s mental health, thoughts, actions, and views on himself, John

is the Indian killer. John feels that if he kills a white man, it would solve all of his problems. This

case stands with John, the main character in author Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer. This idea of

violence is not a reasonable solution for solving their problems, even though they may think it is.

Once again, in most cases, people decide to turn to violence to solve their problems.