Structure

The short story “Tony’s Story” by Leslie Marmon Silko has a linear plot structure. The events are presented chronologically.

The story begins with a short introduction presenting the setting of the events: “It happened one summer when the sky was wide and hot and the summer rains did not come; the sheep were thin, and the tumbleweeds turned brown and died.” (p. 175, ll. 1-4). The mention of the drought and the dying tumbleweeds echoes the ending of the story, when the tumbleweeds are set on fire, and rain clouds are seen on the horizon (p. 181, ll. 25-26).

The story is structured into three parts. The first part introduces the main conflict, with the cop punching Leon. In the second part, there is no physical violence, but the cop uses his position of power to threaten and intimidate Leon and Tony, leading to an escalation of the conflict. In the third part, Tony kills the cop. However, despite Tony’s belief that “ ‘everything is O.K. now’ ” (p. 181, l. 23), the conflict is not resolved, and it will likely lead to worse problem...