Cockroaches and Death in “War Dances” Anonymous College

The stigma of death can be traced to many factors, including the fear of life’s end and the anticipation of pain. It is clear that although death is a natural process, the fact that so little (if not nothing) is known about it provides a source of stress for many people; this feeling does not escape Sherman Alexie. In his short story collection War Dances, Alexie begins by describing an experience in which he discovers a dead cockroach in his suitcase. He finds himself asking of the cockroach, “As he died, did he feel fear? Isolation? Existential dread?” (Alexie 29), not knowing that he would later be able to ask himself the same questions with all affirmative answers as he thinks he is dying. The lifeless cockroach in Sherman Alexie’s suitcase, and the many thoughts and inquiries that it inspires, represents the role of death in the story "War Dances" as well as the fear that death stimulates.

As often follows the realization that one is or might be dying, Sherman Alexie exhibits growing intensity of his fear as he learns more about his condition. Throughout these moments, the cockroach that he found in his luggage is revisited at multiple points in the story in which Alexie speaks of health and medicine with distress....