34 pages • 1 hour read
Reservation Blues
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The past’s effect on the present
Throughout the novel, history plays a large role in shaping the events of the present, especially when this history is violent or traumatic. The characters are influenced by their own pasts, their family backgrounds, and important historical events. The past can appear in dreams, memories, or even physically.
For characters like Big Mom, with an unusually long lifespan usual lifespan, this effect is intensified, since they were actually present for events long past. Big Mom continues to remember and relive the moment when the US Army slaughtered Indian horses. It is this memory that encourages her to continue teaching music and attempting to help her people. Robert Johnson, when asked by the devil what he values most, thinks to his ancestors’ enslavement and answers that freedom is the most important thing to him. Although he did not experience slavery firsthand, its presence in his people’s history directly shapes his values and choices. Other characters feel the effects of the past in a more everyday manner, for example, by struggling with the hereditary nature of alcoholism. With the characters of Sheridan and Wright, however, the past interacts with the present in a very literal way. Sheridan and Wright are themselves figures from the past who have appeared in the present to perpetuate a cycle of exploitation and mistreatment.
This idea of an ever-present and influential past raises questions about fate and the possibility of redemption, questions that have no clear answer. Some characters, like Junior or Victor, seem stuck, overpowered by a past that has led to a system stacked against them. Others, like Thomas and Chess, find ways to imagine a new kind of future.
The power of music and stories
In some ways, the book’s answer to the bleak and difficult situations faced by its characters lies in the power of music and stories. Music is depicted as holding a redemptive and magical power. In particular, Big Mom believes strongly in its power to heal and help those who have suffered. Thomas starts the band partly because he thinks it will help his people. Occasionally, the characters are aware of the shortcomings of these forces. For example, Thomas is frequently frustrated by the inability of his stories to effect change and refers to his constant storytelling as a negative quality. Ultimately, however, music and stories are presented in an overwhelmingly positive way. When Junior explains his suicide, he says that when he closed his eyes, he did not see any songs or stories. At the very least, music and stories provide something to believe in.
The injustices faced by American Indians
A major theme in the book is the situation faced by American Indians, both historically and currently. Historical violence and injustices cast a dark shadow over a tumultuous present. Life on the reservation is marked by poverty, lack of jobs or opportunities, and alcoholism. The rest of the country, when it sees American Indians at all, tends to see only stereotypes. While this is perhaps the most persistent idea in the book, it is described subtly, in a humorous but morose tone.
Indian Identity
Throughout the book, many of the characters attempt to understand or define what it means to be Indian on a historical, cultural, or personal level. The struggle to understand that identity is ever-evolving and there are no correct answers. Often, the characters experience disliking or not understanding their identities. At one point, Chess says, “You ain’t really Indian unless there was some point in your life that you didn’t want to be” (Chapter 4). Another way of defining the Indian experience is in opposition to the white experience, a definition that plays a part in Chess and Checker’s feelings about white women.
Another issue raised in the novel is the way that outside views of Indians play a part in creating that identity. Stereotypes continue to affect Indians and so create shared experience. Mainstream representations of Indian life mix with the actual culture on the reservation. For example, when considering his dreams, Junior thinks, “Indians were supposed to have visions and receive messages from their dreams. All the Indians on television had visions that told them exactly what to do” (Chapter 1).
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By Sherman Alexie
