Coyote Springs

Music is meant to be felt from head to toe, and down all the way into your toes. It is supposed to make you feel every single note and hang on to it until the next note goes back. Coyote Springs had the ability to do just that, but with fame comes misfortune and it is a never-ending cycle. Alexie demonstrates how suffering has left a powerful impact on his characters dwelling on the Spokane Reservation, and how they are left to find their own way out by using music.

Sherman Alexie puts at each chapter a song from the band that they created, and these songs leave such a lasting emotion. The first song, reservation blues, when you read it makes you think about on a superficial level, that he is poor and unhappy. Taking a better look at it makes

The only person he claims to be scared of was Michael White Hawk, but other than that any and everyone was fair game for him. The problem with the way Victor went about is that he had to hide behind a mask of masculinity. The song Father and Farther captures his essence completely by stating “Are like a warrior. Who can only paint half of his face. While the other half cries and cries and cries.” (Alexie 93). It helps the perception to see that just because Victor is considered a bully, he had a rough past that he may not be able to cope. The built-up rage that he feels over situations that were out of his control is the reason why he became such an aggressive person. The incident with the pastor that was noted but wasn’t a topic that went into detail about. Andrea Smith, a Native American studies scholar, and activist, in her book, Conquest, goes into how rape was used as a tool for genocide. Smith goes into what rape is “...’nothing more or less’ a tool of patriarchal control...” (7). That’s exactly how it is said to be in many cases, a power play. It is used by men with high standings, typical a white man, to belittle someone they feel is less than them. The pastor using a young Native American boy for his own sick pleasure is nothing short of an injustice, but the problem lies with that many won’t convict them based off this alone it needs more than just a child who is a minority. Victor was also ruled by his abandonment issues which

If you take Checkers, for example, she was a coward that hid behind a fake name and persona, but she always knew what she wanted. She was a bold woman who knew what she had and didn’t mind flaunting it if it was necessary. Deep down she was scared, scared of being unwanted. She looked for men, who wouldn’t be a good match for her and rode it out until it came to a screeching halt. For her, nothing ever seemed to go right in her love life and the song treaties explains it with “Somebody breaks a hard promise. Somebody breaks your tired heart.” (Alexie 30). She is this lost torn soul who couldn’t help, but to want to be out of her own skin. She is missing out on the enjoyment of herself by embracing what she only has to offer. She has more than just her body to give. She can give so much more but is limited to the way she views herself. Smith goes into detail about the hierarchy of how it is viewed being a woman, man, and then a priest. Smith notes that “They had to convince ‘both men and women that a woman’s proper place was under the authority of her husband and that a man’s proper place was under the authority of the priests.’” (23). By trying to align herself with Father Arnold, she would have a lot more influence than those around her. Janicki even realizes that Alexie uses her own wants against her by playing up that she would rather