Kayley 1

Reservation Blues starts off with a song ending with two lines saying, "And if you ain't got choices ain't got much to lose"(1), which relates to the Spokanes Reservation. It saddened me when Thomas was talking about all the murdered dreams and how the government put the Spokanes on this reservation and how Thomas grew up sleeping "in the half-finished basement, with two blankets for walls and one blanket for his bed"(7). It reminded me of learning about how Indians were stripped from their homes and forced to live on horrible, limited-sized reservations instead of roaming free. I wonder why Robert Johnson is such a brief character in these first two chapters. He just seems to pass his guitar to Thomas and is running from the Gentleman. It perplexes me that Robert has a magical guitar that Thomas picked up, "strummed the strings, felt a small pain in the palms of his hands, and heard the first sad note of the reservation blues"(9). Music is most symbolic in this book and it relates to dreams of Indians. Dreams decide everything. Some people have dreams that represent actual events of the past, present, or future. It's cool how dreams revolve around so much of their lives. Thomas's stories are also important and connect with the same feelings and emotions as music. Another relatable aspect is bullies and how they're always in everyone's lives. I see them walking the halls and I see them in this book. Victor and Junior are the mean kids. They're "two of the most accomplished bullies of recent Native American history"(13). Those boys relate to bullies everywhere and how they exist even among Native Americans. Thomas is also an easy target and people like Thomas are the first to get picked on. Thomas is also the typical victim, being "the weakest Indian boy on the whole reservation, so mall and skinny, with bigger wrists than arms, a head too large for its body, and ugly government glasses"(14). His character agrees with the stereotype of victims who are bullied. Not that I've been bullied, but I can relate to Thomas being nice to everyone, including Victor and Junior who have always bullied him. He does a lot out of the kindness of his heart such as paying for Victor's airplane tickets to go pick up Victor's father’s ashes in Arizona. Even though Victor is a horrible person to Thomas, Thomas still "kills him with kindness" which is a motto that I live by. Everything seemed pretty normal until the guitar started talking... personification at its finest. The guitar is cool though and represents someone that is there to listen to Thomas. I can relate to being lonely and wanting a friend, which the guitar seems to be his friend. Also, Thomas, Victor, and Junior's band formed as Coyote Springs, which I was surprised because they're total opposites, but I guess it's true that music can bring everyone together.