Escaping the Blues
Escaping the Blues
Reservation Blues begins with the tortured soul of a musician, and his guitar. The blues musician, a reanimated form of the late Robert Johnson, hands his enchanted instrument to Thomas Builds the Fire. This guitar possesses skill, precision and soul, no matter who its owner is. Johnson had given his soul to the Devil in order to acquire these powers. When Thomas was given this guitar, he too felt the music radiating with its strings. This power, compelled Thomas to create a band of his own. Comprised of two of his former bullies and two women from another tribe, joined together to form Coyote Springs. The band became successful, performing at other reservations and ultimately in New York City where they played for a record company. In a turn of events, the auditions went horribly. The guitar wouldn’t play and the magic that the band had once poured from their original songs was if it hadn’t existed. This was indicative of the plight of Native Americans in what is now the United States. When things seemed to turn up for them, everything tends to fall apart. The bitterness and resentment I imagine that Native Americans feel, is well represented in this book. Throughout this book the theme of escape was present through out each character’s back story. Sherman Alexie's characters illustrate a sort of bittersweet resentment for what it means to be Native American today living in a reservation. He discusses the ways that Native Americans try and escape the mold that has been cast for them, in an often overlooked portion of American life.
In the novel, the first instance of 'escape' was with Robert Johnson, he was a troubled soul looking for the mystical mother figure 'Big Mom', who he swore was the only one who could set him free of his curse from The Gentleman. In this novel its quite clear that The Gentleman is the devil, and his race is clearly defined as a "handsome white man [who] wore a perfectly pressed black wool suit" (Alexie
Reservation Blues begins with the tortured soul of a musician, and his guitar. The blues musician, a reanimated form of the late Robert Johnson, hands his enchanted instrument to Thomas Builds the Fire. This guitar possesses skill, precision and soul, no matter who its owner is. Johnson had given his soul to the Devil in order to acquire these powers. When Thomas was given this guitar, he too felt the music radiating with its strings. This power, compelled Thomas to create a band of his own. Comprised of two of his former bullies and two women from another tribe, joined together to form Coyote Springs. The band became successful, performing at other reservations and ultimately in New York City where they played for a record company. In a turn of events, the auditions went horribly. The guitar wouldn’t play and the magic that the band had once poured from their original songs was if it hadn’t existed. This was indicative of the plight of Native Americans in what is now the United States. When things seemed to turn up for them, everything tends to fall apart. The bitterness and resentment I imagine that Native Americans feel, is well represented in this book. Throughout this book the theme of escape was present through out each character’s back story. Sherman Alexie's characters illustrate a sort of bittersweet resentment for what it means to be Native American today living in a reservation. He discusses the ways that Native Americans try and escape the mold that has been cast for them, in an often overlooked portion of American life.
In the novel, the first instance of 'escape' was with Robert Johnson, he was a troubled soul looking for the mystical mother figure 'Big Mom', who he swore was the only one who could set him free of his curse from The Gentleman. In this novel its quite clear that The Gentleman is the devil, and his race is clearly defined as a "handsome white man [who] wore a perfectly pressed black wool suit" (Alexie