Reservation Blues Literary Elements

Fantastical novel

The action takes place in a Reservation in America but also in other various towns all over the country. As for the time when the action takes place, the events are placed somewhere in the beginning of the 20th century.

The narrator is for the most part Thomas and he recalls the events from a first person subjective point of view.

Violent, tragic, remorseful

The protagonists are Thomas and the other members of his band and the antagonists are the white society who has prejudice against them.

The major conflict is an internal one and is the result of the band’s members desire to succeed and their incapability of giving up various habits that affect their lives in a negative way.

The story reaches its climax when the band is rejected by the record company in New York and are told to return back to their reservation.

The band’s failure is foreshadowed by Big Mom who mentions other artists she allegedly taught and how they all failed because of different vices.

When Big Mom assures the band that they are prepared to go to New York is an understatement as the band fails to impress the producers and land a contract.

Throughout the novel, the writer alludes to the fact that white society in general is the reason why the Indians are unable to succeed in life. The author points out that the Indians are trapped in an endless circle from which they cannot escape and the reason they find themselves in that position is because they white men and the prejudice they had against Native Americans influenced the group negatively.

N/A

After Junior dies, Victor promises to never drink again and to turn his life around. He then goes to a lake where he throws the beer can he had in his truck, promising to himself that he will never buy alcohol again. Paradoxically, in that moment, Junior appears and offers him another can of beer. The situation is paradoxical because when he was alive, Junior always tried to convince Victor to drink less and to be more responsible but then after he died he was the one who pushed Victor to drink and engage in dangerous behavior.

At one point, when Checkers talks about two white girls she used to know in her childhood, the author draws a parallel between the two white girls and the two Indian girls. The parallel has the purpose here to highlight just how much harder the lives Checkers and Chess had and just how carefree and happy the other two girls were because they were white. This also has the purpose of showing the injustice the Indian people were forced to suffer at the hands of their white neighbors.

When Bib Mom talks about white horses, she usually refers to all the Indian men who were killed in the past by the white men.

N/A