In Sherman Alexie’s comedic short story, “Gentrification”, Alexie recounts the racial dynamics that caused him to be circumspect with his actions in his neighborhood, from not voicing his concerns to his neighbors, to cautiously avoiding detection while removing a rat infested mattress. Through his clever use of ambiguous narrating, seamless streams of consciousness, use of colorful metaphors and parallels, and discreetly establishing to the reader his unreliability as a narrator, Alexie shows to the readers that even in modern society, racism still exists. He shows us that “despite our surface friendliness, we didn’t really care about one another”. As we are introduced to conflict of the story, Alexie exhibits his wish to remain anonymous, stating that “I’d thought to call the city and tell them about the mattress, but I doubted …show more content…
Following this, Alexie establishes his social position in the neighborhood as the only Caucasian in a neighborhood of African Americans, clarifying that “We live as people live, aware of racial dynamics but uninterested in their applications as it applies to our neighborhood” (616). Alexie does not explicitly supply a reason for his wish to remain anonymous, but he goes on to comment on the disinterest of racial dynamics pertaining to his neighborhood, an almost completely unrelated topic to the issue at hand. By telling the audience, “Don’t get me wrong”, Alexie ties together these two situations together. Without explicitly stating it, Alexie establishes that the audience assumes Alexie is in some way, shape or form, prejudice and aware of the racial dynamics that play part in his neighborhood. Alexi exemplifies this overt awareness of racial dynamics ad nauseam throughout his story, when he questions “Who was the most racist in this situation?”, when contemplating how the police would say, “Buddy…You don’t fit the profile of the