Study Guide - Chapter 3

#32464
Myrna, Enzo, Traci, Homar, Scott

#32469 Captain: Ryan, Scribe: Kim, Editor: Janet, Researchers: Cruz, Steward, and Lucero

Plot : 

In the beginning of Chapter 3, Coyote Springs is welcomed with a loud audience as if it was a real concert. And so the atmosphere was going to get even louder after a few drinks, this shows that when people are at concerts, and after a few drinks, everyone gets into problems. For example, “Victor strummed an open chord continually because he forgot how to play,” the band fell apart (Alexie 56). Throughout the novel, judging the beginning, band members act very different on stage than they would sober off stage. Band members feel they are on top of the world but in reality they’re not, but fame brings out the worst in people. After playing at the Tipi Pole Tavern, Thomas, Victor, and Junior go to Chess, and Chequers’ house. Thomas talks with Chess about each other’s family and events that occurred through out their life. Chess snags Thomas that night. Next day, they need to drive to Ellensburg, Washington to perform but the blue van has mechanical problems, and need to push the van to a town called Vantage, when a cop pulled over and helped take the van to Toadstools. Van was fixed and were able to drive back home. The purpose of the book is to possibly allow and observation into the hardships that come with living on the Indian reservations, as is mentioned in the title “reservation blues.” There is internal conflict between Chess and Checkers with their feelings and past, and also external, with Victor vs. Thomas, and all the reservations with the American government. Foreshadow: Perhaps Victor and Junior will succumb to alcoholism?

Setting : 

Chapter 3 starts out in the Tipi Pole Tavern on the Flathead Reservation, then after playing at the Tipi Pole Tavern they proceeded to Chess and Checkers’s house where they spent the nigh. The coincidence that Thomas, Victor and Junior playing at the Tavern resulted in founding a new singer and a piano player to join the Coyote Springs’ band. Alexie’s description of the Tipi Pole Tavern and Chess/ Checkers’ house did not convey a serious mood in the tavern because everyone except Thomas was drunk. The mood at Chess and Checkers’ house was more serious, with the sisters talking about their dark memories as young girls including the death of Backgammon (aka Bobby, their brother). Chess told Thomas (now sober) the story of her past and the two get very emotional and share secrets. With these two different settings the guys and girls act one way when they’re performing and they act a different, more serious talks among the group, outside of the stage. Indian’s in the reservation are told to follow traditional cultures especially when Indians mix with white people. Not a lot of Indians want to have mixed-blood marriages or have half-breed kids running around the reservation. Indians that do mix are said to betray their DNA and are looked down on. Indians are judged by who they “snag” and what is their family background. Indians are aware that their race needs to grow, not involve outsiders but pure breed Indian blood. Chess told Thomas that she didn't like seeing mixed children in the reservation because it changes the values of the townspeople. This is why she doesn't like white woman. The author's attitude towards society and the individual is that society still looks down of you regardless of what is your way in living. They still going to judge you on how you live your life. 

Characters :
Alexie’s protagonist (Thomas-Builds-the-Fire) is seen as a heroic figure because once he saw the Robert Johnson’s guitar, he knew he had to do something about it. So, he told Victor and Junior they needed to be in his band and bring life to the reservation. Thomas thought that the reservation needed something to move people, to gather them, to have a great time, and the only way he thought of was to use Johnson’s guitar to create music.

• Speech: Thomas takes control; the leader of the band says what to do and where to go for the next gig. He responds to Chess with “no thank you” words, indicating that he’s very polite and considerate toward other people and that he thinks before speaking. 
• Action: He is a very polite Indian, which we notice when he speaks to Chess at her house. His actions are respectful because of his parents drinking habits that made them act irresponsible. Thomas doesn’t want to be like his parents; he wants to act with responsibility and authority. 
• Appearance: Thomas and his blue van do not change; just because he has money that doesn’t mean that he needs to look rich or important. 
• Background and History: Thomas is a true blood Indian, who grew up poor with a drunk dad who walks around the reservation and a mom who died when he was 10 years old. He practically grew up by himself and taught himself everything he knows. 

The Opening Poem

This love song at the beginning of the chapter was intended for someone that swept someone’s heart by entering a sweatlodge/bar with dark legs. He hears her problems and says that if she needs a shoulder to cry on, that he’ll be that person she can fall on. He just hopes that she’s the right one to leave loneliness once and for all. It seems like the poem is from someone who is offering emotional support to someone in distress; as it states on line 5, “If you feel the need I can help calm all your fears,” and on line 8, “I’ll catch you sweetheart when you feel you may fall.”

Chess and Checkers
Chess and Checkers Warm Water, Flathead Indian sisters are very well known in the reservation. Checkers also known to be Miss Native American, Chess is more of a people person that knows how to handle a situation. Checkers is more frightened of what other people think of her and her actions. The Warm Water sisters are natives to the Flathead Indian reservation, and their addition to the novel is to provide a bit of information on the effects of alcoholism and death on the reservations.

Themes

• Insight that the novel gives us into heavy alcohol consumption by Indians is that it is usually used as an escape from harsh life realities. Indian’s in the novel drink alcohol as a way to relieve themselves from their life problems. Alcohol consumption also brings self-destructiveness on native men. An example is the father of the Warmwaters sisters, Chess and Checkers, who would force himself on his wife when he arrived home. A second example is how Thomas’s father would drink himself drunk and roam the reservations soiled and covered in piss. (pg.85) Alcoholism is rampant in the reservations as they try to get their minds off of the hardships of living in poverty, hopelessness, low life expectancy, alcoholism, crime, violence and misery.
• Backgammon (Bobby) is Chess and Checkers brother that died of coughing too much, no white doctors close by or Indian doctors at all. There’s no health care system in the reservation, otherwise they would have had some medicine for Backgammon. After a great loss of a family members, individuals often fall back on depression which leads to alcoholism weather it may be on the reservation or a city. Backgammon was the baby brother of Chess and Checkers Warm Water, and he passed during a particularly bad winter when Chess and Checkers were very young, presumably from pneumonia. This information gives us insight into how the Indian Healthcare system operates. On Location 877 of the digital version of Reservation Blues (perhaps change to page number in actual book), Chess Warm Water says “those winters were always awful back then. Ain’t no HIS doctor going to come driving through the snowdrifts and ice to save some Indian kid who was half dead anyway.” This tells us that the Indians are still mistreated and overlooked as people. The pneumonia could have easily been cured with antibiotics (invented in 1928). This anecdote also gives us some knowledge into alcoholism in the reservations, as they look for means of escape from the pains of living a poor and dark life.
• The power of music is important in the book because the soul is released from pain that the body is experiencing. Chess explains how her mother would have the most beautiful voice in the whole reservation. When backgammon passed away, she cried and cried while raising him up like an offering. She would played the piano when her husband wasn’t there. She mention that her father Luke Warm Water scream after backgammon pass away. Chess state that “Colors poured out of him.  Red Flowed out of his mouth, and black seeped from his pores. Those colors mixed together and filled the room” (Alexie 66).
• Thomas was attracted to Chess because of her dark black eyes. Even though Chess’s sister had a bigger chest and guys would usually aim for Chester, Chess’s sister, Thomas fell for Chess. This tells us that Thomas is not controlled by lust or impulses such as other guys in the reservation. Thomas an extra mile to perform a song, even if he had to do it solo, in order to grab Chess’s attention. Thomas appears to be an honorable man. The attraction of Thomas to Chess is very interesting because both share some similarities; for example, both share the same passion in music and also have had their mothers pass away, so they can relate with each other. This adds more understanding to Thomas character because we know why he found an attraction with Chess. In addition, both agree that with each other about mixed children. For example “He worried about the children of mixed-blood marriages. The half-breed kids at the reservation school suffered though worse beatings than Thomas ever did” (Alexie 82).
• In Thomas’s dream, television revealed all the things he didn’t own; while sitting down lonely and hungry, he watched what white people did have and was curious to know if his band mates would want the same riches as seen on TV once Coyote Spring becomes a hit band.
• Chess list of qualification for a mate is traditional old fashions Indian pure blood. However, white girls not Indian girls in the reservation are snagging all Indians. She doesn’t like Victor and Junior getting snagged by white women because she said it was all about preservation. Chess feels as if they were raised by Indian women only to turn on them for white women.

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