Basically, the main point of the story, Sundown, is that people cannot remain indifferent to the things happening around them and simply wait for things to change. In order to make something happen or in order to change something, people have to take matters into their own hands. In other words, the story points out that people have to take action if they want to achieve something, which the author emphasized throughout the entire story.
The attitude of indifference is shown by most of the characters of the story, in particular, Chal. In the story, Chal was depicted as more of an observer of events that took place around him. He was also more of an idealistic person who spends a lot of his time daydreaming of things that are beyond his reach.
When lightning struck a nearby village and caused it to burst into flames, Chal did not do anything to help the people and instead he simply watched them as they called for the help of their God, which basically shows how indifferent he is Moreover, at the start of the story, it was shown that the characters, which were called mixedbloods, did not want to do anything in life as they were already rich from their earnings, which further illustrated the author’s main point. Although these characters cared for their family, they didn’t want to do anything else in their life but remain idle and watch the world go by.
However, at the end of the story, Chal’s sense of indifference changed when he told his mom that “there isn’t anything to flying” and that he wanted to get into Harvard school to become a lawyer. Although the author effectively stressed his point in the story, his language use can make it difficult for readers to interpret the story and pinpoint the timeframe if it is read for the first time. Nevertheless, he was able to make his thesis clear at the end and in effect was able to convey his message in the story.