#8 Why does Rowdy tell Arnold, “You killed her” (211)? Is there truth to this statement? (Katherine U.)

Rowdy tells Arnold “you killed her” because he believes that Arnold led to his sister Mary’s death by leaving the rez and going to Reardan. Because Arnold dared to leave, Mary felt like she needed to do something daring and brave to, so she eloped and went to live in Montana. When she had a party at her house, it caught on fire and she was “too freaking drunk to feel any pain when she burned to death” (Alexie 205). Arnold believes there is truth to this statement. He says she only “left the rez because I had left the rez first” (Alexie 211). There is some truth in this statement because Arnold did leave the rez first, and Mary almost certainly left the rez because he did. Mary had been living in the basement for seven years, and Arnold says she left because “I’d kind of shamed her” (Alexie 89). When Rowdy yells at him, Arnold is blown away and realizes “it was all my fault” (Alexie 211), in a moment of stunned realization. Rowdy tells Arnold that he killed his sister because it was his actions that started a chain of events that led to Mary’s death.