The Indian Uprising (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Donald Barthelme
- First Published: 1968
- Type of Plot: Parody
- Time of Work: The early twentieth century
- Setting: “The city”
- Principal Characters: unnamed narrator, Sylvia, Miss R., A Comanche brave
- Genres: Short fiction, Parody
- Subjects: Culture, Self-discovery, Art or artists, Native Americans or American Indians, City life, Ethics, Life, philosophy of, Materialism
- Locales: United States
The Story
Donald Barthelme constructs “The Indian Uprising” as a battle-scene progress report. However, the narrator, clearly one of the leaders of the city forces, shows none of the tactical or organizational skills of a military officer, and his fragmented account mixes very detailed front-line news, sentimental love talk, asides directed at persons about whom the reader knows nothing, information on torture methods, and so forth. There is no story here in the conventional sense, but rather a collage of smug observations leading to a surprising reversal in the final...
[The entire page is 1688 words long]
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