“Tony’s Story” by Leslie Marmon Silko

Hi, this is Lucy Liang. Half a page into the story, which seemed like a happy reunion of two buddies, I was shocked by the overwhelmingly violent scene where the big cop punched Leon in the face, causing blood to bubble out of his mouth and nose, with no apparent reason other than Leon holding a bottle of wine. Combining the knowledge that they are in pueblo, a mainly Native American community, and the mentioning of tribal policemen vs. state cop, the reader is given some idea that this is a matter of ethnicity. Fear of the white man, the big cop, immediately became the focus of the story. Tony tells us that the big cop always wears black glass. This increases the fear because of the fear of the unknown, of what is behind those dark glasses. They are followed by the big cop and chased by their fear. They see him everywhere, even in Tony’s dream. There seems to be no escape, giving the reader the feeling of hopelessness. As the story goes on, Tony started referring to the big cop with a dehumanizing “it” instead of “he”. At first, I was a little confused by what it was, but it became clear that it is the cop. This shows the reader that the idea of the cop has become like a demon, a deadly spirit to Tony that explains Tony killing the cop but not feeling any fear from killing but instead, relief.