"War Dances" by Sherman Alexie

While reading "War Dances" by Sherman Alexie i thought it was fun and relate to due to the language that Alexie decided to use in it. It kinda of woke you up at parts. Aside from the language i felt myself interested in the reading but not really grasping the point in the long run.In the 1st chapter,"My Kafka Baggage", The son began to talk about how after he had returned home from LA he found a dead cockroach in his bag. First i asked myself why a cockroach? Why not something that dies regularly like a stink bug, or a lady bug. My initial thought was that Alexie used a cockroach because everyone knows that cockroaches don't die easily or very often. The rumor mill has it they could survive a nuclear war, so why a cock roach. It then makes a point to state that it was a single coach roach in his bag. Also unusual that there weren't more, because usually when there is one there is bound to be more. The son then looks at it sadly and says, "For who is lonelier than the cockroach without his tribe?" This made me start thinking about how you need a support system to rely on, otherwise you will die inside, and be left alone with no help. However in the next chapter the sons states he has become deaf in his right ear. After hearing myths about people who have had cockroaches in their ears he beings to pray that an angel is in his ear and she will fly out and kiss him for giving her shelter to complete her metamorphosis. I think the angle kind of resembled a blessing of silence. He could just shut off the sounds of his two little boys running around and finally just lay. When at the hospital with his father the only connection i could find was that while his father was dying he ran into another Indian family that was experiencing a birth. This made me think of the circle of life where comes a death a birth will follow. This also can go back to the angel finishing her metamorphosis. After these few chapter and the interview with Leonard Elmore, the man who fought next to the sons father in World War 2, i felt like the rest of the story was the son just complaining and whining about his benign tumor and the doctors requested treatment plan. The Tumor ended up not growing in size like the doctor had told him and then he seems unappeased with that information. It was lie he wanted something to be seriously wrong so he could be messed up like his dad. Did he crave attention because the lack tor of attention his father gave him as a younger boy? Overall i enjoyed the 1st five chapters then LE's story in chapter ten, but other than that i wasn't very impressed.