Study Guide - Chapter 9

Summary
The chapter starts by telling what happens a week after Coyote Springs returns home to the Spokane Indian Reservation. Junior Polatkin steals a rifle out of Simon’s pickup truck and climbs a water tower where he commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. We don’t get anyone’s reaction yet because the story flashes back to the day before the suicide happened. The tribal police had ordered the band to remain in Thomas's house because the band had received many death threats from Indians on the reservation. Checkers continued to have nightmares about Sheridan, so she snuck out by climbing out of a window and went to the Catholic Church to find Father Arnold. When Checkers found Father Arnold crying as he knelt on a pew, he told her he wanted nothing to do with her and said he was leaving the reservation. Thomas and Chess had a discussion on the plane as they were coming home about leaving the reservation. Checkers asked where Father Arnold will be reassigned, and he said that he is not being reassigned. He is leaving the priesthood. There then was a dream Victor had about his guitar. There was a lot of dreaming in this chapter. Johnson is still with Big Mom. Thomas agreed to leave the reservation. Sheridan and Cavalry Records decide to sign Betty and Veronica. It ends with the group returning to the reservation in the back of Simon’s pickup truck. Checkers thinks that everything the band hoped for has been lost. They did not even bother to bring their instruments back from New York City.

The Epigraph

This epigraph that opens this chapter tells us ways how some Indian died. This song is sad and at the beginning of it, an Indian boy loses his loses his own life while under the influence of alcohol. It starts by saying the Indian boy took a drink of something that killed his brother, referring to alcohol, and then talks about someone going off the side of the road. In the chorus, it seems as though the life on the reservation gets ignored. No one outside of the reservation cares about the ones on it. There seems to be a connection between the way boy died and the way in which alcohol has taken so many Indian lives. The main focus here is on death and how Indians are not mentioned at all in modern America. It seems like they are a dying breed just watching this small world get torn apart. Towards the end of this song, there is an Indian girl who is put into different perspective where she either dies or disappears. It ends with: “One more gone, one more gone, and our worlds fills with all of our head.” This ending sums up the loss experienced by the Indians on the reservation. Chapter 9 has so much loss in it, from Junior committing suicide to the Victor not having his guitar, and to Checkers losing love. It also clarifies how they are a dying breed and they are just filling up this world with their dead. The song paints this picture in the reader’s head. Indian lives are just as important as Americans, so it is ironic to make them feel like they are outsiders in their own land.

Junior’s Suicide

It seemed as though the suicide with a main character was going to happen sooner or later because the Indians went through a lot. They struggled and stressed in their everyday lives. Junior must have had so much he was dealing with inside that it was built up enough for him to take his own life. We think the narrator recounted the events in non-chronological order to make us think. Maybe he wanted an element of surprise in this chapter. It was a way of putting all of the pieces together because throughout the book, there was a lot of events out of order.

How Spokane, Washington Got Its Name

Spokane got its name from the Spokane Indian Reservation tribe. This is ironic because they (“the Whites”) named the city for a tribe that was removed from their land by the Whites. The narrator explains, “Spokane, a mostly white city, sat on the banks of the Spokane River. Spokane the city was named after the Tribe that had been forcibly removed from the river.” This is ironic because it shows just why the Indians resented the whites. The white people removed the Indians existence from there and decided to rename the city after the tribe in order to seem as though they were doing the Indians a favor.

Victor’s Missing Guitar

To what extent does Victor's conversation in the airport with the young white man who claimed his guitar reflect confusion about Indian identity? To respond to this question, you may want to compare it with the conversation in the New York's Carson's All-Night Restaurant in Chapter 8 (238-9).  What is the effect of coming from a culture so widely known, but so misunderstood.

The Conversations conflict Indian because in the restaurant the waitress and cook stereotypes the Indians and thought of them as Puerto Ricans (something they were far from being). Also the incident at the airport demonstrated that Indians didn’t have a voice. Ultimately affecting coming from a culture that is wildly known and misunderstood is a form of cultural genocide. In the sense that they’re being discouraged of patriotism towards their culture. Due to the continuous misunderstanding of the true significance of an American Indian.

The Indians and Cultural Identity

It seems that the Indians really do have a complex about their identity and who they are. That incident reflects confusion because the Indians may not accept themselves fully. They’ve had so much taken from them in the past that they get attached to what they do think is theirs. When the Indians went to New York, the white people treated them like they were so strange and almost took them as a joke. They made it seem like most whites don’t respect the Indians as people. They are known but misunderstood because they haven’t given people the chance to get to know them.

Robert Johnson and the Gentleman

Throughout the novel the Gentleman is portrayed as an exterior force. Most of the time, the tone he is presented in is usually mysterious. The gentlemen was “The evil” the villain of the story. This story connected to other stories within the novel because “The gentlemen” was the reason why magical realism and religion were considered potential themes of the story. The message that the authors tries to convey through the presence of the gentlemen in the novel. Was that some take extreme actions in order of self-accomplishments. In the case of Robert Johnson he sold his freedom in order to receive something in exchange. The gentleman could be one of many things. We think the gentleman may be an angel. It is described that the man is white, so maybe he’s God. He is a higher power of some kind. He granted one of Johnson’s wishes, so maybe he is someone who will give you what is asked for in a sense. It seems as if when the gentleman is mentioned, it’s almost in a magical sense, like he’s not actually a person. This story with Big Mom and the gentleman connects to many real life events. Prayer and speaking to these higher powers seems to connect within real life. The author’s message could be comparing the good and the bad. It may be a message of the devil versus an angel.

Betty and Veronica’s Return

Sheridan sold Betty and Veronica to Armstrong, as He bragged about the uniqueness that Betty and Veronica held. Sheridan convinced that these they could be the next big thing. The group of girls were marketable according to Sheridan. Armstrong argued that the pair of girls looked nothing like Indians. However, Sheridan argued and proposed a “fixed image”. Tanning, cheekbone lifts, and hair dye were ways that would convey and convince the audience that Betty and veronica were in fact part Indian. Betty and Veronica merely agreeing to change their image and take the offer suggests that they will decide to move forward with their careers any cost. This was a great opportunity for them to become famous and nothing but Coyote Springs could get in the way of that. Anyone in their position might choose to take the opportunity to become successful. Becoming super stars is all they ever wanted. Therefore, anyone would agree with taking the agreeing to Cavalry’s terms and conditions.

George Wright's Story and the Screaming Horses

At the end of Wright’s story, George Wright admits to his wife that he was responsible for the murders of the screaming horses. His story shows that the screaming horses, that are mentioned throughout the novel, represent exaggeration of despair. The screaming horses also represent guilt. They expresses many different emotions such as hurt, anger, sadness, and many more. The screaming horses are almost like voices in your head, the characters’ conscience. The story at the end of page 270 is of Wright laying on his own grave speaking to his deceased wife. It’s confusing to know if he was a ghost or actually a person throughout the book.