The Goal

Although we've only written two papers so far, and we may only be writing four in total, but I've been trying to write about the same topic in each of them. I've been naming in "gender roles," but if I am to be completely honest, I'm trying to write about sex and how it's used as a tool in the novels or in this case vignettes. Unfortunately, I am having some trouble finding examples of that in these stories. And I'm not complaining; though I may seem to be without a paper, I have found a quite fruitful one; not only does Norma showing characteristics of a hero show signs of the cycle of alcoholism and drug dependency, but also that they're fully returning to their culture from 500 years ago. This is not a sign of returning to the hero in the modern sense, where the all-to-general perception is male, but rather to the warrior definition of the Indians/Native Americans/Indian Americans/I don't even know anymore. I had originally seen this as more progressive, in the sense that they were traveling both forward and backward in time simultaneously, but upon further research it seemed like I was wrong. Names are another good topic. Anyway, does anyone have any examples of my original point to hopefully remedy my "problem?"

James Represents Hope, Strength, and Purpose to the Narrator

"Jesus Christ's Half-Brother is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation" is written in a first person narrative and is in chronological order.  It seems to me like this is a diary that the narrator uses.  Anyways, I found it interesting how the short story depicts the juxtaposition of the narrator and James.  Despite the fact that James hasn't talked or cried, the narrator believes: "he's waiting for that one moment to cry like it was five hundred years of tears" (115).  I think this quote refers to the eternal cycle we were talking about in class a few days ago.  Also, the narrator later mentions that: "Nobody dreams all the time because it would hurt too much" (117).  I believe these quotes prove the pain that the Indians on the reservation have been suffering through for years has been tremendous.

While the narrator may seem weak by himself (i.e. his drinking problem and his "exploded" leg), he seems to continue to move forward because of James.  With high hopes to hear James speak, the narrator explains: "But maybe [James] said I love you because that's what I wanted him to say" (127).  James finally answers all of the narrator's questions at Christmastime when he really talks to him: "[James] says the world hurts.  He says the first thing he wanted after he was born was a shot of whiskey" (128).  James admits at this point that life has been difficult ever since the beginning.

Nevertheless, the short story ends on a high note when they're at the fair in Spokane and James is regarded as "so smart for an Indian boy" (129).  The narrator then ends by saying James will end up caring for him and loving him when he is old.  This is certainly a promising way to end a sad story.

A shout out!

To Pedro, Greg, Callie, Jack, and Aashish--GREAT Bloggin' last night. You all made really interesting and well evidenced points, and Aashish even commented by disagreeing (and I agree with his disagreement!). Fantastic stuff, all of you. Pedro, you could write a paper about music. Jack you could write a paper about food.

The Importance of Imagination: A Mechanism for Survival

I found this short story, told in a first-person narrative, to have the same sad undertone as the other stories but also a strong sense of hope.  I noticed, particularly when talking about food, that imagination is the best mechanism for survival.  The narrator notes: "My sister saved up a few quarters and bought food coloring.  For weeks we ate red potatoes, green potatoes, blue potatoes" (151).  This seems like a futile attempt to add variety into their diets.  They talk about different food as if it fuels their imagination: "We imagined oranges, Pepsi-Cola, chocolate, deer jerky" (151).  It seems to me that this food fuels hope at the reservation.

For some reason I think someone already said this, but I'll say it anyways.

While I read Imagining the reservation, I thought about John Lennon's Imagine. They both use imagination as "the only weapon"(150) that they can use to escape the world surrounding them. But just like Lennon's song, the solutions they propose are, sadly, utopic and as unlikely to happen as "every Skin in the reservation [becoming] the new lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones[.]"(152)

the not so fun house

Okay, so out of all of the stories this was the only one I really even understood...and I'm not really sure who is telling the story. But I found it interesting that for the first time we see people acting like children... Usually with Victor we have seen kids that are growing up to fast but in the very beginning with the father and the boy laughing together, they are showing a bond between father and son as well as a sense of childhood that we haven't seen yet. Also, near the end of the story, when they aunt is attempting to try on the heavy beaded dress, we see someone actually trying to be a hero. A woman who could hold the weight of the dress on her back is "the one who will save (them) all" (67), and as soon as she could take a step with it on "she knew things were beginning to change" (82).

Paradox of "A Good Story"

So I just noticed that there is an endless paradox loop in this story because it's just a soty within a story within a story and so on because victor is telling the story about the grandpa who is telling the story about victor telling the story and so on. It's just so,etching weird that I noticed but I was also wondering why uncle Moses was so special. Why would Arnold skip seeing a baseball game just to see him. That seems unreasonable.

Imagining the Reservation a.k.a What If...

This story is told in first person by a nameless narrator. It explains the concept of imagination. It explores all the possibilities of what Indian life would be like if things were a little different. He/She even creates a math equation that says that "Survival = Anger x Imagination" (150). This actually caused me to think of change in a different way. I now see how any activism for or against a topic stems from anger. I never thought of it that way. They are so mad at something that they want change. They also have the imagination to create the idea that will change their situation too. But without one or the other, the chance of survival is zero. Relating this to other short stories, there is a common theme of cycles. Once they get into this cycle, there is no more imagination, and therefore no more survival. That is why the Indians stay in this horrible social state. They have lulled themselves (with the aid of the racial taunts from white people) into this state of hopelessness. Nothing is going to change, therefore imagination is gone, and there is no chance for survival.

Trial of Thomas Builds the Fire

This story describes the trial and sentencing of Thomas Builds the Fire to life in prison for premeditated murder. Some obvious injustices against Native Americans are touched upon when the Bureau of Indian Affairs officer says "What charges should we bring him up on?" and the other responds "Well it has to be a felony charge. We don't need his kind around her anymore." Also, regardless of the charge, he was going to be guilty which he seems to already know because "All that was variable on any reservation was how the convicted get punished." Prejudices like this have resulted in prisons full of Native Americans. Thomas's "extreme need to tell the truth" is what turns him in when he blatantly confesses. He knows that any attempts to defend himself would be pointless, as he is going to be convicted no matter what. This encompasses the theme that Native Americans are a defeated group of people who have basically given up.

Parents

Continuing with the discussion we were having at the end of class...I was not able to say that...
 When looking at the paragraph "She sent a letter home with me that told my parents to either cut my braids or keep me home from class. My parents came in the next day and dragged my braids across Betty Towle's desk."We talked about the concept of 'escape' and I think that escaping is hard to obtain because these characters are being raised this way, and this is what they have known their entire lives. Their parents are their oppressors too and are indirectly bringing their own kids down. It is hard to escape these trauma, obstacles and even the way of life that your own parents have taught you.

Change in Character: "Amusements" Exhibits Betrayal

This short story is told in first person and features the narrator, Sadie, and Dirty Joe.  Drunk at the carnival, Dirty Joe is unconscious.  However, the narrator notes that "Dirty Joe was no warrior in the old sense" (54).  He describes him as someone who drinks all the beer at the tavern.
Sadie, too, exhibits qualities of an affected person when described by the narrator.  When he mentions that it would be funny to put Dirty Joe on the roller coaster, the narrator notes: "[Sadie] smiled for the first time in four or five hundred years" (55).  While the idea of putting Dirty Joe on the roller coaster may have seemed funny to the two, all I could think of was betrayal.  Also, they both escape before the guards can get them; this is another cowardly act.  What do you guys think?  Am I reading into a harmless joke too much, or is it actually mean-spirited? 

Names are very relevant

         Thomas Build-the-Fire is Victor's cousin that helps him go get his father's ashes from Phoenix, Arizona. It's curious that Thomas' last name is Build-the-Fire, that Victor's dad was cremated and turned into ashes, and the ashes are in a place called Phoenix, right? Also, during this journey we see that Victor's friendship toward Thomas is "reborn", and he realizes that the only thing that's keeping them from being good friends is Victor's concern about what the other Indians in the reservation might think about him. To finish, Thomas states that Victor's father "will rise"(74). Victor also rises as he begins to see the world with a different perspective, starting with his father and how understands that despite his relationship wit his father wasn't the best, he still "searched his mind for memories of his father, found the good ones, found a few bad ones, added it all up, and smiled"(69).

Indian Education?

This story is told in first person by Victor and is mostly about Victor's life growing up, but includes various less important characters throughout. Although in the previous stories we've read, we see Victor growing up as he started off as a young boy in Every Little Hurricane and from there aged, in this story we get a recap of all of his younger years from an unknown later perspective. He begins as a warrior, but slowly but surely realizes his inevitable future. He not only begins to lose his innocence but losing a connection with his people after kissing the white girl. This story shows more racism and more stereotypes that people put upon Indians such as the assumption that him passing out due to diabetes was him being drunk, or that the white father beating his white daughter must have been Indian. As Victor graduates, keeps a straight face as he thinks about the future. In this moment, I saw this as a little bit of his warrior still being there was he graduated on top of his class. His friends however, graduating with smiles on their faces think about the partying they will take part in. Years later, Victor looks back and wonders what it was all for. While he got pushed around and grew strong, his friends were together and never thought there was anything they could do after high school besides drink and party. He is faced with the truth that although he received an education, in the end he has the same future as the rest of the people on the reservation.

Re-examine All That You Have Experienced, Dismiss What You Don't Like: An Intoxicated Interpretation of Walt Whitman in "Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' At Woodstock"

This story is, again, narrated by Victor. Also having repeated presence is his drunk father. I'm just going to start off saying, as I look at the assignment, that I really don't want to write them in this order, not because of teen angst, but if I do it'll come out even worse than it will now. I'm tired. Basically, his father continuously says "That's how it is," or something of that degree, even though he hasn't the slightest idea what's real and what's fake. Most of the time he's in a drunken stupor, and even when he isn't, he just ignores what he doesn't like, since "all you have to do is change the memories" (34). There's no way he was actually there when Jimi Hendrix was playing. This narrator is as unreliable as a drunk, overly-philosophical Holden Caulfield. One little piece of evidence is that he claimed to be in the "dark" (31) while watching him. He must have meant figuratively, as it was around midday when this happened. Unfortunately, Victor too desperately feels the need to make his father happy, which in this case is to go along with his fantasy, and serves no real purpose other than clarifying the father's unreliability.

Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play "The Star-Spangled Banner "At Woodstock

This story is told in first person by Victor, who has been in all the previous stories we have read. When I read this story, I find that Victor is finally realizing the reason why his father was so obsessed about the Star Spangled Banner played by Jimi Hendrix. His father was passionate about his guitar playing ability. It wasn't so much about how the song sounded, but the way he played the notes. He had a sense of pride for America, and that is why he believes that the song was directed towards him. Since then, Victor has grown, and has realized that the song has "made [him] want to learn to play guitar, not because I wanted to be Jimi Hendrix and not because I thought I'd ever play for anyone. I just wanted to touch the strings, to hold the guitar tight against my body, invent a chord, and come closer to what Jimi knew, to what my father knew"(28). That is what I take away from the story.

Jimi Hendrix and the Traffic Signal

The story "Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play "The Star Spangled Banner" At Woodstock" is told in the first person by Victor, a character who appears in the other stories as well. Victor describes some of the struggles of living on a reservation, but primarily family issues with his mother and father. The negativity stems from his father, as all of his relationships become strained at some point, either with his son or wife. The line "They fought each other with the kind of graceful anger that only love can create" reminded of the Virgin Suicides and Mrs. Lisbon. She battles her daughters to point of suicide to protect them from the world, apparently out of love. In this story, the characters also participate in unpleasant things that are not usually associated with love. The second story describes the perpetual cycle that I mentioned in my previous post. The characters reminisce their days as athletes in high school. Since then, not much has been accomplished and the days are spent drinking beer and thats pretty much it. Whenever a young kid shows any promise, they know nothing will actually come of it because once that kid starts drinking and embraces a stagnant lifestyle, they aren't going anywhere. Nobody ever leaves and nobody seems to think much of it either. Instead of being proactive and trying to improve, the characters that we see just brood and feel bad for themselves, and scoff at the idea of trying to go to college.

A Drug Called "The Past and/or Future"

So "A Drug Called Tradition" is told in the first person with Victor as the narrator. The main 3 characters in the story are Victor, Junior, and Thomas, who are celebrating a rare payout of money to Thomas. While most of the reservation is partying at Thomas', the three characters take it to the road and decide to do this "good stuff" (13).  However, the main point of this story comes near the end, where the narration switches to second person. This usually signals that the author is speaking to the reader. Basically, it's saying that as long as you live in the present, keep in step with your skeletons, you will survive. If you get too far ahead or too far behind, there will be problems. Sherman Alexie tells us that the Indians are "trapped in the now"(22). Again, this story shares a similar theme of hardship and drugs with Hurricane.

Every Little Hurricane: Nightma(d)re(am)s

If you do not understand the title (haha) I was interested in nightmares and dreams in Every Little Hurricane. During the story, Victor's nightmares are his reality. In the story he has figurative and literal nightmares; "In those nightmares, Victor felt his stomach ache with hunger" (6) I think that Victor may be hungry because of the lack of money for food, but there is also a "hunger" for something else too. I think he has many "ache(s)" in what he says is the nightmare of his life. Victor even refers to his parents as "dream-less" (10) because they are not even capable of having dreams or nightmares because they can no longer differentiate between nightmares and reality. It seems they have given up hope and that dreaming for something would be pointless (in their minds).

Banksy

"A lot of parents will do anything for their kids except let them be themselves."- Banksy

When I saw this quote it reminded me of English class. We have talked about this theme before and mothers who go as far as killing their children to protect them. This is a theme in The Virgin Suicides and Beloved. If you have never heard of him before, Banksy is a famous street/graffiti style artist.

Every Little Hurricane: What's a party?

Throughout this story, Victor is the main character and is a nine year old boy. Throughout the whole story (told in third person), Victor is young and in fear but seems to have an extremely mature and experienced outlook on life. However, it's unfortunate that he, as such a young boy, is forced to see situations such as his uncles beating each other bloody or his parents being drunk and passed out. Clearly the hurricane idea is a metaphor for the struggles of their lives. Each person is a storm cloud caused by their painful memories and emotions, and when they all come together in one place, the "high-pressure and low-pressure fronts" (2) cause a large scale storm. However, everyone at the party ignores it, as if they have been dealing with these storms forever. They all drink and fight and mess around without a shame or a care in the world because they want to feel something else besides the pain of their past. The same idea comes about in A Drug Called Tradition in which the boys attempt escape their world and find "a better world" (14) by using drugs. However, in their situation, there is a realization that they cannot escape the past or their memories because "the past (and) the future, all of it is wrapped up in the now" (22). Both stories show people attempting to escape their past and their lives by drinking till their sick, or taking trippy drugs to see something new. Doesn't sound like a party to me

Every Little Hurricane

This story is told from the third person and describes a party being held at someone's HUD home on a reservation. I looked up what HUD stood for and learned it was "Housing and Urban Development" meaning that home was sold from a foreclosure by the Federal Housing Administration. This relates to the recurring image of poverty Alexie is portraying with Victor's father not being able to afford any Christmas gifts. I also believe that the idea of good and bad parenting is in this story and "A Drug Called Tradition" because of the early age at which the Native American children are exposed to alcohol. I mean, this story is about a nine year wandering around a party full of adults binge drinking, two of which are fighting and no one seems to care. This also seems like a pretty regular occurrence for Victor. Another sad part relating to parenting is the way that Victor finds his parents passed out in a drunken stupor and how he describes the smells on both of them. It seems to be a perpetual cycle that is impossible to escape.

From AJ!

I was looking over some of my quotes; I came upon "where the prince gets lost" (130). It was at that point when I realized I actually had no idea what it was referencing. I searched the internet and I'm pretty sure it is the story "The Grateful Prince." What I really found interesting was that here also there were signs of subtle female dominance. Let me first give a rather short synopsis. A king gets lost in the woods; a creepy, old man helps him out; (skipping over another motif) now, the king owes him his son; he instead gives the old man a peasants daughter, having his real son be fostered in secret with the peasant family; he grows up, learns the truth, and out of guilt tries to seek out the girl; he find the old man in the forest with a maid, presumably the daughter given away; he does tasks for the old man and eventually escapes with the maid; when he arrives home, he find that his real father, the king, has died; the entire town decides that the two should be married and take rule of the kingdom.
Pretty run of the mill stuff. However, males, who are assumed to be dominant, aren't dominant here; the king in the forest has no governance over his direction nor the old man and is thus put into substantial debt with the old man. Also, this secret prince, under the shroud of subordinance, is originally exchanged without question with a girl, equating the two. In doing said tasks, the prince is guided through the old man's tricks by the girl, the same that was traded as a commodity. This creates this later of power, wildly straying from what would be considered the "norm"
When you then apply this to Rebecca, things get even funkier. Who the old man is is still up for debate.

I now realize that I could hasn't just connected things that weren't really connected in the first place, if that makes sense; however, it seems like too much of a coincidence to be untrue. I'm still accounting for my "goggles," but I think I can sleep fine now.