Reservation Blues #1

While reading the first section of Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie, I came to realize that throughout the novel, so far, I am able to make connections with my own experiences. Although circumstances may be very different, I realize that after beginning to read about the Native American's, my entire perception of them has been wrong. Being a musician, I usually consider myself aware of the different types of music around the world but it never occurred to me that Native American's had any type of interests in music other than the typical songs one would hear at a powwow. One example in the text in which I felt I could relate to my own experiences is when the narrator is explaining the story of Big Mom and her horses. They explain, "Big Mom played a new flute song every morning to remind everybody that music created and recreated the world daily" (10). This quote in particularly to me, hits home. Being a passionate flute player who wants to continue through college, I can completely agree with the statement that music creates and recreates the world constantly. I feel as though if we did not have music, there would be no soul to this world. The fact that through her sadness, Big Mom played music also reminds me of myself. That is an exceptional example as to why I can connect this quote with my own experience. Having been through a great deal at only sixteen years old, my entire life I have turned to music to be my back-bone. Since I was four years old, music has been my world. Another example as to why I feel as though the text relates to similar instances in my life time is when the narrator is explaining Junior's character. They explain, "Junior based all of his decisions on his dreams and visions, which created a lot of problems" (18). Although I do not have visions, it is crazy to explain the fact that I do base many of my decisions off of things that have happened in my dreams. I am one of the only people I know who can consistently remember every single one of my dreams, every night. I am able to explain everything that happened and remember it for weeks later because for some reason, I have insane nightmares almost every night. By explaining Junior's character as someone who bases reality off of his dreams, I can completely relate because I have dreams that someone has died, I am being kidnapped, etc. and when I feel as though I am in a scary situation, I immediately think of what I did in my dream to get out of it. As strange as it may seem, it actually sometimes works. One last example as to why I was able to relate some of the text to similar experiences of my own is when Victor smashed Thomas's guitar and Thomas began to weep. The narrator explains, "Thomas started to cry. That was the worst thing an Indian man could do if he were sober" (17). Almost everyone in their lifetime has had an instance in which they were ashamed of being upset over something, but could not help but cry. My example in particular, is when I came back to school after my brother had passed away. Not that I thought I was over it, but I figured that I was to the point where I was done crying. Evidently, I was wrong. My first day back, I couldn't even make it through second period and although everyone told me that I shouldn't be, I was so ashamed that I had let myself get to the point of being upset in front of everybody. This is a different situation, but similar to the fact that Thomas was ashamed of crying over a guitar in front of other people in the tribe, but he clearly had other things making him upset. Evidently, through just the first section of Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie, I was able to relate a number of examples to similar experiences I have gone through in my life.