Brill in his essay remarks on this, writing "a boy named Victor - one of many characters who, along with Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Junior, are vaguely after Alexie” (sn). While Junior is only briefly mentioned in this story, Victor and Thomas struggle throughout the storyline between being polar opposites and being two peas in a pod. Victor Joseph, the name alone says a lot about Alexie, who was born Sherman Joseph Alexie openly stated that Victor was a representation of himself. In Brill's essay, she comments on this alter ego, writing "a boy named Victor – one of several characters who, along with Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Junior, are loosely based on Alexie" (np) . While Victor seems to represent not only Alexie, but also the adoption of Western influences on Native Americans, Thomas Builds-The-Fire is a storyteller. Whose stories are often ignored, and Victor and the others find him boring. “It's like being a dentist in a town where everyone has false teeth” (61) But perhaps the honesty is that Thomas Builds-the-Fire represents all of Spokane's Indians. Both Victor and Thomas being a link to the past and the traditions they are losing, giving deeper insight into his relationship and providing a framework for the internal conflict with Alexie and his personal struggle with American Indian tradition and from the West.