Reservation Blues

The first example of how hunger and the depravation from appealing food comes on page 12. Alexie writes of the Trading Post, “ Its shelves were stocked with reservation staples: Diet Pepsi, Spam, Wonder bread…” (12). To me this shows exactly what the characters in the book consume. These food items are not nutritious or satisfying, they are only unhealthy fillings that will leave a person hungry soon after eating them. These foods are also the lowest foods one can have. The government gives to worst food possible to the people who originally developed some of the best foods, like cor

Another common theme throughout the book is anger and Victor is a perfect example. He is constantly angry and he takes it out mostly on Thomas. But because Thomas knows why Victor is angry, he does not take this violence personally. Alexie writes of Victor, “ Thomas was not surprised by Victor’s sudden violence. These little wars were intimate affairs for those who dreamed in childhood of fishing for salmon, but woke up as adults to shop at the Trading Post…” (14). Victor knows he has no control over what he is going to eat and he knows it is Government Issue food and that angers him. He feels deprived of the traditional way of getting food and therefore he goes mad and becomes very violent. I think Victor’s madness also comes from the fact that he has a deep desire to do something meaningful with his life and he is stuck on the reservation and feels unable to do anything positive. Victor hungers for more in his life and that leads to his hostility and madness.

The characters in this novel deal with their hunger in many different ways. For example on page 187 Chess and Checkers ate “wish” sandwiches. This means they are eating two slices of bread with only wishes in between. I think this shows the resistance to madness these two characters have. They don’t get angry, they just eat what they have and hope for more.

But physical hunger is not the only type of hunger that drives the people to madness. On page 69 Alexie writes about Chess and Checkers Warm Water and how their father often got so angry about food that he seemed crazy. For example, one time he bought them bottles of Pepsi and when he found out they had left them in the snow and the bottles had exploded, he lost his temper. Most people would not get very upset over two bottles of Pepsi, but when Pepsi is the only treat you can give your daughters it is easy to see why he lost his temper. I think t

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