Victor Junior Thomas Victor's parents' divorce was the beginning of the adversity Victor faced at a young age, and was the start of Victor's drinking habit. The writing style – it’s unusual. Reservation Blues Alcohol. Many of the themes in Reservation Blues are also drawn from the music of the Blues itself, including the figures that play some part within its cast of characters, like Son House and Robert Johnson. Meredith AP English August 17, 2016 Reservation Blues Reservation Blues, a novel written by Sherman Alexie meant for anyone with the ability to understand its words to be read. How did it work for… Chess and Checkers Warm Water watch the band and discuss how they … When Victor was 9, Victor's step-father moved in with him, which caused Victor to drink even more. Reservation Blues Themes. Reservation Blues: the Power of the Guiter. Because they cover the entire novel, there are spoilers. One symbol that stands out to me is Big Mom. (pg.85) Alcoholism is rampant in the reservations as they try to get their minds off of the hardships of living in poverty, hopelessness, low life expectancy, alcoholism… At various points in the novel they are confronted, individually or collectively, with the painful memories of alcohol abuse that broke up each of their families, in a way that was simultaneously predictable and seemingly impossible to stop. For example, a lot of Indians in the reservation … Alcoholism is a thread that weaves its way across life on the reservation, and directly affects the lives of each of Coyote Springs’ members. Thomas-Builds-The-Fire and his friends talk about the dark aspects of their families and the reservation all of the time, but they say it in such an understatement that it seems like such tragedies are normal, in which it seems like they aren't joking about. The book “Reservation Blues” is about five Native American adults living on the Spokane reservation. The discovery of his own She is the woman who lives in the mountain and hardly every comes down, and no one from the reservation … The book “Reservation Blues” and the movie Smoke Signals were both written by Sherman Alexie. With the characters of Sheridan and Wright, however, the past interacts with the present in a very literal way. One symbol that stands out to me is Big Mom. ... for example, by struggling with the hereditary nature of alcoholism. A lot of impossible, mythic things are mixed in with ordinary, everyday events, along with ironic commentary on reservation life. Reservation Blues By Sherman Alexie 1794 Words | 8 Pages. The past’s effect on the present . The sisters had a tragic childhood, suffering from the fatality of their brother and mother, and their father’s alcoholism and abrupt absences. A second example is how Thomas’s father would drink himself drunk and roam the reservations soiled and covered in piss. These questions were developed by the Spring 2013 Reading Workshop class. Reservation Blues is a story of three Spokane Native Americans creating a band.The reason the band was created was because the character Thomas Builds-the-Fire had this feeling that through music, they would be able to save what is left of their Spokane culture. Reservation Blues Important Quotes 1. “Thomas thought about all the dreams that were murdered here, and the bones buried quickly just inches below the surface, all waiting to break through the foundations of those government houses built by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”(Chapter 1) In Reservation Blues, almost every Native American is an alcoholic. How would you describe it?