Indian Killer is a book within a book, written from several point of views. It has a complex structure, as the reader has to read between the lines several times to understand what really has happened, and the book is also open for interpretation, as the end isn’t explicitly explained. Jack Wilson is the author of the book within Sherman Alexie’s book, as well as one of the characters.
John Smith, the main character in the book, is the son of a fourteen-year-old Native American. After his birth, he was taken away from his mother and adopted into a loving, white family and named John Smith. As he grows up, he is happy and content, but as he gets older, he sees that he is treated differently because of the color of his skin.
He wants to learn more about his culture, feeling as if a piece of himself is missing. Therefore, instead of going to college, John moves to Seattle to work as a construction worker, as he seeks native American relations. He doesn’t find what he is looking for, as those he works with are all white. He becomes plagued with dreams and hallucinations.
John believes that killing a white man will bring him closer to his roots, as he would redeeming his people and culture for the wrongs they have committed against the Native American community. He gets great satisfaction from killing the man, and decides to continue, which makes him a serial killer, under the name “the Indian Killer” for the two feathers he lays by his victims.
Jack Wilson, a man that thinks is highly involved with Native Americans, and believes he has Native American Roots, is attacked by John, but not killed. A wind comes and makes John fall from a roof. People believe that he was the Indian Killer, though the readers are not sure, as all the sections of killings were written from the victims’ perspectives.
The Native American spirits dance and leave the place, as if it was a spirit driving the Indian Killer and not John himself. It is implied that they have gone for now, but might return.
