"Class"- Sherman Alexie

In Class by Sherman Alexie, I chose to focus on Edgar Eagle Runner, the main character in the story. This character is very observant, to an almost crazy stage. He notices every detail about every room he’s in, every place he’s gone, and everything he’s done. First off, when Eagle Runner is talking about how he met his wife, he mentions that “she was the tenth most attractive white woman in the room” which exhibits the fact that he payed close attention to everyone who was in the room especially to have noticed that she was the tenth (Alexie 37). Another thing he mentions, with great detail, later in the story is all the things he did in the first two years of his marriage with his wife such as “thirty-seven cocktail parties, eighteen weddings, one divorce, seven Christmas parties, two New Year’s Eve parties…” (Alexie 42). It seems to me that Eagle Runner pays so much attention to detail because he’s just bored with his life. He’s an American Indian but he’s a lawyer and he’s upper class, or at least he pretends to be. He doesn’t necessarily live his life to enjoy it but more because he has to. It seems that he just goes though the motions of living day after day. He seems to have lost who he is in his attempt to live his boring, non eventful life. The attention to detail of the character sort of contradicts the lack of detail in his everyday life. 

Alexie, Sherman. The Toughest Indian In the World. 1st ed. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1966. 35-56. Print.