Violence In Reservation Blues

Thomas C. Foster explains in Chapter 6 that religion is always tied into books and stories. No matter how unrelated religion may seem it’s always in there, just not in the way you expect it to be. The author may not stand before you and part the Red Sea however Foster says “Many modern and postmodern texts are essentially ironic, in which the allusions to biblical sources are used not to heighten continuities between the religious tradition and the contemporary moment but to illustrate a disparity or disruption.” Page 47 In Reservation Blues it shows religious traditions and disruption through religion. While boarding a plane for the first time to meet some record producers, Victor is extremely frightened. Victor has a little bit of an aviophobia

Foster says that violence is “One of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings. “ Page 95 The author of Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexia uses so much violence however in different ways. The first way was like how Foster said it was personal. Chess was having a nightmare and in the dream she witnessed a soldier attacking an unpainted indian. “A soldier lunged forward with his bayonet and speared the unpainted one once, twice, three times. The indians gasped as the unpainted one fell to the ground, critically wounded.” Page 85 In the beginning of the dream there had originally been another indian who had started the commotion. Indians were often rash and not only seen as violent however when angry they WERE violent. The soldier was stepping in to “help” the best he could. This dream was personal to Chess because the violence in her dream was a simple way of recalling her father who was not only an indian but often angry and violent because of his large alcohol intake. However Alexie does not stop there. Alexia brings the reader into a more intimate relationship with the characters by describing the fighting and murder of a young indian boy and there horses. In short a young indian was shot from his mount and fell dead and then shortly afterward they shot his horse as well who also died from the bullet. Where it gets

Foster explains how sex in chapter 16 is always tied up with something else. Foster says “Cover for espionage,personal sacrifice, pychological neediness, desire for power over someone else.” Page 155 in Reservation Blues there is an example of pychological neediness when checkers dreams of Father Arnold coming into her room. She definetly lets her imagination wander to the point where it was “Father dropped his robe to the floor. Naked. Checkers studied him.” Page 155 And from there on you can imagine how her dream went on, more graphic and more imaginative. Chess explained how Checkers always sought for a relationship with older men and not men closer to her age. Her phychological neediness of THIS kind of attention is easily explained by the bad relationship she had with her father. When Checkers has a dream where she raped her, theres much more to the scene. First of all it was really like her personal sacrifice because she felt like she was giving in and giving up a part of her. However how it is written is just like Fosters chapter everything except sex, where it tells you what is happening however skips over it at the same time. Checkers describes the dream with the words, “ Those men, those ghosts, crawled into her bed at night, lifted her nightgown, and forced her legs apart. After they finished with her, those indian men sat on the edge of the bed and cried.” Page 114 It was really