The cockroach in this piece of work by Sherman Alexie obviously was a metaphor for something. I think the cockroach may have represented his father. The father and the cockroach were both dead. He considered the cockroach at one point the angel, something he could also have called his father. He wanted his father back, and he believed a dead cockroach may have represented his father perfectly. He even said at one point, “For who is lonelier than the cockroach without his tribe?” Not only does this work perfectly towards the fact that they are Native-American, it also works because at the end he wants to tell his father about how the white doctor thought that his brain was beautiful. He only really wanted to tell his father, but his father is not there. Sherman has lost his tribe, his father.
I feel this piece points out a lot of problems in healthcare and a patient’s feelings towards it. The most random of encounters in a pharmacy line really put it all into perspective for me, showed the true pain of Sherman, who tries desperately to hide behind his humor. “Miss, how is this any of your business? Please, just fuck all the way off, O.K.?” She was just trying to join into the conversation and have this connection which so many of us wish to have. She was basically trying to show, yes I too know what happens on these drugs. Sherman blew up at her, not because she was being nosy or anything, but because he does not want to accept that there are others like him. Finally, at the end, he understands that he is one of those people who have had fingers in their brain. This explosion at a random women shows that he could not hide and that he had to accept the reality of his situation.
Good exploration here! Tribe is certainly a strong metaphor here. And it seems the main character has a complicated relationship with his own tribe (his family, especially his father).