Reservation Blues Essay

It can be very difficult being different. Sometimes being different scares people. Being judged by people have never met and who do not even know you and they have already labeled you, can lead up to suicide or depression. This feeling was described in the novel Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie. There is only one reservation in Wellpoint, Washington and it is really never reached on accident because it is not on most maps and it is very rare to find this small city. One of the main characters of the novel is Robert Johnson and he tries to find the women in his dreams to get back the soul he once lost. The novel makes the audience feel what it is like trying to find your identity, race, and suffering. It also makes you realize who the people

to trust and which one’s are deceiving.
           The main character, Robert Johnson, is a african american man that ended up in Wellpoint on the reservation. He was considered one of  the creators of the blues but many people did not know this. Everyone was more curious about him because there were not many black people that lived in Washington on the eastern side. When Johnson was first noticed, he was standing at a crossroads and he was carrying a guitar. He had been wandering for a very long time trying to escape the man called,” The Gentleman”. The Gentleman was a figure of the devil who had taken Johnson’s soul and freedom from him. Johnson had died under mysterious circumstances and the legend tis that he made a bargain with the devil to become the best guitar player of all time.
           Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a Spokane Indian that is an unofficial storyteller on the reservation.

Most of the novel’s narration follows his perspective to some point. He is an outcast on the rez and is considered odd and strange. Thomas is lead of the band Coyote Springs, and is the songwriter, bassist, and lead singer. He falls in love with Chess Warm-Water. Johnson said, “ They are naturally quiet, do not drink, and full of stories and secrets and they are perfect for each other”(Alexie 92). At the end of the novel they decide to leave the reservation and get married. All hope left at the end of the novel goes with the couple and they wanted to give their kids a better life than what they

had.
           Big Mom is a deeply mysterious woman who lives on Wellpoint Mountain. She watches over the Indian Tribe. According to the Indian tribe, she has the power to walk on water and read dreams, and even speaks to animals. Coyote Springs spends one week with Big Mom before their audition in New York. She had taught them music that she adapted during the Indian Wars.
           Junior Polatkin is the drummer of the Coyote Springs. He is best friends with Victor Joseph and they are always there for each other even through the rough times. He is a hardworking man who tries to be good but is hard because of Victor and he is haunted by the death of his parents in a car driving accident that scarred him. After him and his girlfriend decided to have an abortion and other defeats in life, he had to make a decision that he cannot take back. Junior was a character who others had believed that he was doing better than he was and he was often pulled back constantly doing the same things over and over when he knew he needed to change.
           Victor Joseph plays the guitar in Coyote Springs.

Victor is a drunk and a bully, whose rude behavior is a result of his actions upon others. His biological father left him at a young age and his stepdad was abusive and mistreated him. When Victor was young he was abused by a Catholic Priest at summer camp. This made him always mad at the world and he does not show his emotions and reflects with anger. With the magic of the guitar, he was made the best musician out of the band. Being the best comes at a cost. When he became the best, he began to hallucinate. Victor was seeing white women when there was none around and dreaming that the guitar is asking him for a sacrifice just before Junior’s big

decision.
           In the novel’s setting, Robert Johnson, an African-American stranger formed after the real life blues musician, appears on the  reservation, waiting at the crossroads in the dark of night. Thomas Builds-the-Fire stops to talk with him, and ends up giving him a ride to Wellpoint Mountain, sending him to see Big Mom. She might be able to save him from the mysterious Gentleman who is chasing him. Johnson leaves Thomas with his guitar, which seems to be empowered with magical powers. After a violent dispute with Victor and Junior, the guitar, is now broken. The guitar is not broken for long because it some how fixes it self. The guitar tells Thomas, “You three of them are destined to start a blues band, to give the reservation the music it needs”(Alexie 30).  Thomas soon gets the idea to start a band and he envisions a bright future for the band.
           The new band forms, with Junior on drums, Thomas as the lead singer, bassist, and songwriter, and Victor playing the mystical guitar. They call themselves “Coyote Springs” and practice in an abandoned grocery store in the small town.They would draw only  small crowds of tribe members and they would listen and relax as they listen to covers of famous songs. As their fame grows, they have their first paid gig on the reservation in Montana. The show goes dreadfully since both Victor and Junior get very drunk early on in the performance. By the look of the audience, they were very disgusted and they wasted their. At the show Thomas meets the sisters, Chess and Checkers. Thomas said ,”Chess is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen”(Alexie85). He sings a love song to Chess, and then pulls her onstage for a duet. The band crashes at sister's house, and Thomas convinces everyone that the sisters should join Coyote Springs as backup singers and keyboardists. Throughout the book Victor wanted to be become the best musician but that always comes at a price for being the best. He would do anything and everything to be the best. Most of the times he does not think before he shows his actions to other.
This book made me realize that I should be grateful for all that I have because many people in this world have nothing. A lot of people go through personal things that we would never think they would go thorough. That is why “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” is really true. Just because a person looks the way they do or act we should not judge. We should go off on the way they think and process the memory. Even though in real life guitars do not talk and there is no magical ghost, I still will understand why people do what they do and do what they say. Everyone has a purpose in life, I strongly believe that. I strongly believe that everyone deserves second chances and when they get that second chance, they need to cherish it.
           If I had given my soul away to be the best musician, I would have not. I would want to work hard to be the best that I can be. Cheating comes with a consequence and I would not want to give that up. I believe that I understand why Johnson and Victor wanted to become the best musician. After they were the best, bad things started to happening to them. This would lead up to depression and not knowing what Is real and unreal.
           Even though there were many casualties, Reservation Blues was very interesting book to read and there was romance, betrayal, and storytelling throughout the book.  Robert Johnson is a character that fell down a dark path and now is trying to find refuge and stop running from his past.  I would recommend this book for those readers who love mysteries, storytelling, and some blues.