Reservation Alcoholism: Serious Or Overrated

Bird’s statement concerning Alexie’s embellishment of Native American despair due to alcoholism is an accurate interpretation of Reservation Blues. In Reservation Blues, almost every Native American is an alcoholic. Two of the main characters, Victor and Junior, spend all of their money on booze and get wasted on a regular basis. “After the tavern had closed, Junior and Victor climbed into the water truck and passed out.”(p.24) It is reasonable for there to be a few drunks, but Alexie introduces or makes references to too many Indians who either lost everything or their lives because of alcohol. When Thomas’ father Samuel is introduced he is drunk, and Alexie explains that thi

s is normal, for “Thomas…had lost count of the number of times he’d saved his father… Once, a month, he bailed his father out of jail for drunk and disorderly behavior.”(p.95) Even though Thomas didn’t drink, he was always around drunks for even his father was a drunk. Even Thomas’ mother drank for most of her adult life. Chess asked Thomas if his mother drink when she was alive, and Thomas responded with “She did. Bu she quit. She was sober when she died.”(p.118) Thomas goes on to say that she quit because of an incident during a New Year’s Eve party. “Dad got real drunk, kicked everybody out, and then took all the furniture out on the front lawn, and burned it.”(p.118)

Alexie does not just mention that Samuel is a drunk; he goes further to say that Samuel was an extremely talented basketball player, but alcohol caused Samuel to throw his basketball future away. Even when Samuel was a young man he was drinking, when the tribal cop, Wilson, asked Samuel and Lester, “You two been drinking?”(p.102) Lester responds with “I’ve been drinking since I was five…Kindergarten is hard on a man.”(p.102) Lester is another secondary character that is introduced who happens to be a drunk, for that is how he got his name Lester FallsApart. “Lester FallsApart, the most accomplished drunk on the Spokane Reservation,”(p.151) However, It could be worse for Thomas, because both Victor’s and

Some topics in this essay:
Native Americans, Junior Victor, Native American, Reservation Blues, Year’s Eve, Spokane Reservation, Samuel Lester, Chess Thomas, Alcoholics Americans, Victor Junior, native americans, native american, reservation blues, native americans drunks, spend money, americans drunks, major role, junior’s parents, people race, hardships poverty, home drunk,