Archilde's Inability To Kill

An obvious underlying theme of McNickle’s, The Surrounded, deals with Archilde’s confused self-identity and internal struggle with White and Indian cultural influences. The scene we spoke about in class in which Archilde is unable to pull the trigger and shoot the buck contrasts the gruesome situation that occurs a few pages later. The warden does not hesitate to shoot Louis and expresses little remorse as he approaches his dying victim. Suddenly, Archilde’s mother strikes down the warden with a hatchet as he stands over Louis. McNickle uses the emphasizes murder in this scene to juxtapose Archilde’s failure to kill the buck with the warden and mother’s ability to kill. Archilde’s struggle to identify solely with either the White or Indian culture throughout the novel is clearly represented by this struggle to kill the buck. Archilde’s mother moves swiftly to kill the warden in retaliation for Louis’ death just as the warden does not hesitate to shoot Louis. The warden and Archilde's mother represent White culture and Indian culture having a similar ability and tendency to kill when necessary. Archilde though, on the other hand, is incapable of shooting the buck because he sees that “lying in wait and killing, when no one’s living depended on it, there was no excitement in that” (121). McNickle uses these scenes and the element of killing to highlight Archilde as a character that cannot really identify with either culture (the warden or his mother). He finds himself somewhere between both the White and the Indian ways of life as he cannot find any ability within himself to kill.