Broken hands
One of the most important images in the novel is the one constructed when Thomas’s hands are described. Despite being a musician, his hands are scared, with various cuts and bruises on them and with new cuts that appear out of nowhere. The image of Thomas’s hands is important because it helps the reader visualize the condition of the Indians who are hurt by their environment and who cannot escape the vicious circle they find themselves trapped in.
Brutality
Another important image appears in the first chapter when Big Mom describes a scene in which men in uniforms kill white horses without any remorse. The image is suggestive because it makes reference to the brutality that took place in the past when the Indians were systematically killed by white men trying to take their lands. This also suggests that the Indian tribes did not forgot about what happened and that for them the atrocities that happened in the past still affect their present lives.
Rotting father
After a night out spent drinking, Victor falls asleep in the back of his truck and then dreams about his dead relatives and about his dead biological father. In his dream, Victor sees the dead body of his biological father, a man who died in his own apartment but who was discovered only weeks later so he was left to rot on his couch. The image of the rotting father is important because it shows just how little those from the outside cared about the lives of the Indians and how unimportant they were for the rest of the world.
Though people
In the second chapter, Father Arnold talked about the Indians in the reservation where he served as a priest and he described them as being positive despite the suffering they endured and willing to persevere through anything life throws at them. The priest portrays the Indians in a positive way and choses to stress their positive sides instead of focusing on the negative ones.
