Describing Displacement: A Thematic Analysis of "Evolution" Sherman Alexie Anonymous College

The poem “Evolution” by Sherman Alexie is about the business ventures of a man called Buffalo Bill who does business with the Native Americans on a reservation, opening first a pawn shop where they pawn all that can be given away. Buffalo Bill then turns his shop into a museum and charges those same Indians to visit the remains of their identity. By analyzing this poem and examining its moods and the many meanings that can be gauged from it, a careful reader can discern Alexie's sense that Native American tradition has been transformed into signs of cultural loss and material profit.

Alexie's narration begins quite simply, as though told from the point of a view of neutral observer. A man named “Buffalo Bill opens a pawn shop on the reservation/ right across the border from the liquor store/ and he stays open 24 hours a day,7 days a week…” In response to the appearance of a pawn shop, “…the Indians come running in with jewelry/ television sets, a VCR, a full-length beaded buckskin outfit/ it took Inez Muse 12 years to finish…”. This is a crucial point in the poem, as it begins to sew a different mood into the formerly calm, casual fabric of the poem’s tone. From the description of their desperation, the Indians of the...