Study Guide - Chapter 4

Father and Farther

The Title
The title of the chapter conveys the meaning of how distant the characters are with their dads because they were usually drunk and went to the bars, and as a result, they were never able to open up to their fathers, especially when they’re gone. From this title, the reader can also convey that Thomas, Victor, and Junior do not have close relationships with their father, or even have a father around anymore. Victor and Junior’s fathers are not alive anymore, which means they will never get to see them again in this lifetime. Thomas as a father that is an alcoholic and only goes to Thomas when he needs to be bailed out of jail or picked up from a bar. From Thomas’s father asking him all these things, Thomas might be over helping his father since he won’t change, which pushes him further from his father.

The Epigraph
The poem symbolizes the struggles that Alexie demonstrates throughout the novel between fathers and sons (and daughters). A “three-legged horse/Who can’t get across the finish line” represents how individually, the father and son may be able to function in their own ways, but they cannot work together to work towards anything meaningful in life. A “warrior Who can only paint half of his
face/While the other half cries and cries and cries” can symbolize how one person may need to act strong-willed and might even “paint” his face to appear brave, but in reality they are simply hiding the pain. The “two old drunks/Who spend their whole lives in the bars Swallowing down all those lies and lies and lies” is more of a literal depiction of their relationship. They probably spend a lot of time together in bars, one of the only places they can bond, and there they can drown away their failures. The “dirty ghosts Who wear the same sheets every day” might represent the fact that they live their lives partially as dead people; every day as their relationship with each other falls apart, they lose hope and succumb to a ghost-like existence. The fact that they are “dirty” might illustrate their physical appearance. As they become habitual alcoholics, they stop caring about their physical appearance and they wear the same old clothing. These tropes relate the struggle of father-to-child relationships in the Indian culture with the feelings that Alexie associates from his experiences. He chooses to preface chapter 4 with this poem so that he can lead into a chapter which highlights each of the main characters’ relationships with their fathers (93-94).

Fathers and Children 
The men in the Spokane reservation are drunks. If they have to celebrate or whether it is grieving over something they turn to liquor and drink until they can't drink anymore. The men in the reservation are known for being drunks. The exchange between Victor and Junior is significant because it looks like that all the adults are drunks who are not fit to be parents. Later it shows that Junior's parents weren't paying attention to him and were too busy being drunks. Later on it
resulted in his parents dying. The book is making it look like the sons usually help clean
up after the mess the fathers have caused. Thomas and his father have always been butting heads in conflict with each other, and so they never really accomplish anything. The two can’t accomplish anything mainly because both can’t take the lead nor can both accept be led when it comes to devising a solution a problem. The preface provides foreshadowing to the relationship each
character has to their dad. A father and son relate in the sense of struggle. From their short exchange readers can understand the relationship sons have with their fathers in the community. The relationship between the fathers and the sons are rather fragile, as it doesn’t really matter if the father is present or not since it doesn’t really make a difference.

Alcoholism and the Native American Community
The short exchange suggests that alcoholism is something as normal as breathing and it is not out of the ordinary when an Indian man passes out drunk. Chess and Checkers hate to see Thomas’s father’s features in his son’s face because their father, too, was a drunk. This suggest the endless cycle of Indians’ alcoholism and that this cycle will somehow never end as drinking alcohol is as essential as breathing. The story shows evidence that Spokane Indians turn towards alcoholism to escape from
reality. But since they do not know how to control their limits, they eventually head down a spiral staircase far away from reality. Chess and Checkers are meeting Samuel for the first time, and the only context they have seen him in is in this drunken state. From this, it is obvious that Samuel’s life is basically dominated by his alcoholism. When they see that Thomas’s features resemble his father’s, they hate to think that Thomas can end up going down the same path that Samuel has. Thomas hates how his father has ended up this way, but every Indian person knows that it is still common for children to end up just like their parents. This shows how hopeless it can be for
members of this tribe in avoiding the same mistakes and failures that most of their ancestors have gone through. Just as the narrator states, “It’s hard not to see a father’s life as prediction for his son’s.”

Lack of Choices
Even though there is nothing at the reservation, the reservation is still filled with all sorts of emotions. The Indians doesn’t have a choice since, “the reservation tugged at the lives of its Indians, stole from them in the middle of the night, watched impassively as the horses and salmon disappeared” (96). The reservation serves as a metaphor for the white people and since the Spokane Indians never had a chance to fight back; the white men took away their precious land and secluded them into a bubble. The reservation as a whole seems to carry only bad memories among its inhabitants, a sort of forgotten black hole with a history of alcoholism as well. A majority of the main characters no longer have their parents or lost touch with them.The band is a sort of way out of reservation. but it seems that no matter what great defeat a member makes, the town has a way of keeping its residents from moving on.

The Importance of Family
The absence of parents definitely shows in the characters. Chapter 4 opened the door to
this reality for the characters. Junior and Victor clearly not caring about their father show
that affect from parenting. To living in that type of environment where the significance of
"gone" is the norm for this group of people. And to some degree these characters have to
deal with this reality by showing emotion by means of alcoholism — there is this sense of
drowning those emotions to which they can be shown through demeanor or in the various
personalities they each have. 

 For Thomas there is that privilege to still having a father
around— leaves that door open to rebuilding a fallen relationship; that isn't something the
others have. I also think that plays into jealousy or a sense of envy by the others yet
Thomas has always been the smallest Indian in the reservation that's been a victim of
abuse. This far into the story I think he is fortunate.

The Effects of Childhood
Victor and junior are young Native Americans that were raised on a reservation and
belong to the Spokane Indian tribe. They both have had troubled childhoods, which lead to
then being troublemakers on the reservation. Their attitudes towards drunks are very clear
when there actions of taking things from drunks, robbing drunks and messing with them
while they sleep occur. Their attitudes towards the drunks in on the reservation is that
they feel connected to the drunk Indians because of their thoughts of lack of usefulness
and fulfillment in the community. Also resentment towards the Indian drunks because life
on the reservation has the ability to tear you down mentally and physically.

Checkers and Her Indian Identity
Checkers sometimes hates to be Indian. She clearly states, "I hate being Indian." She then tells Thomas how every time she's walking in downtown there is a drunk asking for money when Chess and Checkers barely have any enough for themselves. Checkers feels bad and gives in to the feeling of guilt. Checkers refers to the homeless drunks as "brown skinned zombies." Once Checkers saw a white man spit into a zombie's open hand. The zombie wiped his hand clean and the white man spit on it again. After that Checkers ran up and gave the zombie her last piece of candy which he ate with a smile. From Checkers' behavior, one can argue that the author demonstrated a sense of loyalty
within Indians. Although, Checkers referred to the Indian man as a zombie, she quickly offered her “Last” piece of candy to the man after having witnessed the injustice committed by the white man towards the Indian beggar. It can also be argued that the Indian culture is very humble. When “The zombie wiped his hand clean on his pants and offered it again,” this demonstrates the serious level of poverty and the severe need. Lastly, this can also symbolize humbleness. Secondly, this scene where “Checkers watched the white man spit into a Zombies open hand. Just spit into his palm.” This can also project the belief of white superiority, white power, and the lack of respect towards the Indians. As Thomas's dad is laying on the table in front of Checkers and Thomas, Checkers sees her dads face in Samuel's face and in Thomas's eyes. She hated seeing not only Thomas's dad drunk but most of the men on the reservation. On page 114, Checkers has dreams in which Indian men visit her. They crawl into her bed at night, lift her nightgown, and force her legs apart. Checkers holds onto them tightly. The truest test of being Indian means in some point in their lives, they aren’t really Indian unless
they considered not wanting to be Indian. Thomas also stated this leading Chess to remind him,
she told him this when they first met.

Samuel Builds-the-Fire
Samuel's story was introduced to mainly because he was the protagonist's father. Thomas and Checkers sit on his kitchen table while they look at his father Samuel. Thomas tells Checkers "My father was Washington State High School Basketball Player of the Year in 1956." Thomas goes on to explain the skill his father had back in his youth. Thomas says "When any Indian shows the slightest hint of talent in any direction, the rest of the tribe starts expecting Jesus." If Samuel had would have kept working hard with basketball instead of drinking as much as he did he could of gone off to play professional ball. The significance of the basketball game might be that Samuel and Lester were trying to prove a point by going against the cops. Samuel and Lester take the lead and then the cops begin to play dirty. Checkers asks Thomas who won the game and he responds by saying, "Who do you think won?" indicating that the cops had won. It was hard for him to be a basketball star because he was constantly being defeated and it may have discouraged him. It doesn’t seem like he would’ve been able to handle being a star. The significance of it is to show us the true strength of the Indians. It was Samuel proving more of a point to himself and heritage than to the cops. It was a test to himself.

Samuel’s story also implies the epidemic of alcoholism in two ways. First, Samuel shows promise in his youth through his basketball talents. Even someone who has such high hopes for the future is shown to be susceptible to alcoholism in this tribe. Second, this story shows how drinking affects the lives of the children. Through Thomas’s point of view, we can see his despair and anger toward his father, and we can imagine how this is a typical theme throughout Indian culture. And while Thomas may not agree with his father’s drinking, Thomas might end up just like his father as well. I think that, at times, Alexie is projecting his own life story onto Thomas, and this is one of those times. Alexie speaks about how his father was a drunk, how he would wander around for days, and how he would hate to see his father in this state. He also talks about how he eventually adopted this lifestyle as well.

The Reservation Police
They are portrayed to be a bunch of big bullies. They have this hate towards the
Indians. There’s always tension and anger between both.

The significance of the names: Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle Heavy Burden. 
Plato was a philosopher in Greece, Socrates was a classical Greek/Athenian philosopher, and Aristotle was a Greece philosopher and scientist. Each one of them were well known, influential philosophers. They were all historical figures, which probably indicates that these 3 mentioned in the book are looked up to.

The significance of both Victor’s and Junior’s Dreams
The Significance of Victor’s and Junior’s dreams is to show the reader the reason why Victor and Junior drink. Their dreams explain to the reader how their parent’s died. After their parents died, they felt the need to drink and soon they became “alcoholics.” Their parents died when both Victor and Junior were at a young age and because of this, both did not build a strong connection with their fathers. Victor and Junior don’t show much of a change of attitude towards drunk Indians from the beginning of the book. If anything, Victor shows slight concern over Samuel, but still he seems mostly indifferent. In the beginning of the chapter, both Junior and Victor believe that the best way for Samuel to recover is to let him sleep it off. Maybe as children these two were concerned about their parents’drunkenness, but now they have become desensitized to the effects of alcohol on their fellow tribesmen.

The Depiction of White Americans
In this chapter, White Americans were portrayed to be the devil. They seemed to have devilish ways about them, and the Indians didn’t trust them.They seemed to almost be envious towards the Indians and hated them.They are also depicted as ignorant. The Americans assume all Indians do the same as other Indians in different tribes. The Americans also thought all they ate was buffalo, but they were a salmon tribe. This reveals Americans aren’t as informed about the Indian reservations. The Americans are not aware of their hardship similar to theirs.