5) 1. Explore the irony of the discussion about Thanksgiving.(Katie C)

Thanksgiving for the Indians is ironic because Thanksgiving was a sign of alliance which was then broken and the Indians are thankful that they are not dead despite their hopeless life. In the beginning of “Thanksgiving”, Junior explains that it is funny that Indians still celebrate Thanksgiving, the holiday of being thankful. During the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and the Indians were best friends. It is ironic because three years after the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims were shooting the Indians.The Indians are celebrating a lost alliance with the Pilgrims. When Junior asks his dad what Indians have to be thankful for, his dad says “‘We should give thanks that they didn’t kill all of us’”(Alexie 102). The fact that they are thankful that they are alive is ironic because the Indians don’t have hope. Without hope, the Indians are not living, there is no room for a better future. In a sense, the Indians are not living and are being thankful for being in poverty and having hopelessness which means Indians Are thankful for a broken life. The fact that Thanksgiving is  a celebration of a broken alliance and a gratitude towards having a broken and impoverished life shows how thanksgiving is ironic