War Dances Carson Patterson

"War Dances" weaves together two major parallel stories, the story of the narrator's father's life and particularly death, and the story of the narrator's panic about a tumor, in order to illustrate the relationship between father and son and how being Native American defined both of their identities. These two stories, split into separate, numbered sections, do not frequently reference each other; the narrator only mentions his father twice in the present time. However, they are connected by similarities between the two. For example, the narrator's worry about dying and leaving his sons fatherless is paralleled by his father's being orphaned as a child. The overarching story of the narrator's trips to the hospital, worries, and medications with numerous side effects is also similar to his father's story of alcoholism, illness, and eventually death. Through keeping these two stories separate until the end yet implying parallels between the two, the author is able to subtly illustrate the relationship between father and son, and the son's feelings towards him after his death, without directly referencing either of these things.