Revenge
Quote from chapter 9 “I stare at the white soldier in front of me. He’s probably eighteen. Or younger. He’s seventeen or sixteen or fifteen. He’s a child and I’m a child and I’m supposed to slash his throat.” (Alexie 78)
Quote from chapter 10 “This all belongs to Gus, and his grief and rage are huge, so my grief and rage are huge, too, and I scream as I lead one hundred soldiers down the hill into the Indian camp.” (Alexie 87)
Quote from chapter 12 “I take careful aim. I don’t know if I have the heart to Kill them. Isn’t it odd? I once filled a room with bullets. I shot people who would never do me harm. And now I’m not sure I can shoot at men who plan to kill me.” (Alexie 106)
These quotes all show that revenge was placed on Zits to handle.
I think this because when he was in the Indian boy’s body his father wanted revenge on a white soldier that didn’t even slash Zits’ throat. Next, when he was in Gus’s body Zits felt Gus’s revenge through one of his memories of a daughter and mother getting killed and being left by an Indian group. Lastly in Gus’s body, Zit takes revenge on the white army that Zit helped lead to Bow Boy’s village. Also to buy some time for Bow Boy and Little Saint to escape on horseback.