Symbolism

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See the following discussions on symbolism from your classmates:

Thomas-Builds-the-Fire (Protagonist Name)

• The name of Thomas Builds-the-Fire represents the pastime in telling stores. This is why his name symbolizes “builds-the-fire” because he is a great person to spend the time with. This is what the author is trying to convey to us. For example, Alexie describes Thomas as an amazing, talented story teller. He writes, “Thomas builds-the-fire’s stories climbed into your clothes like sand, gave you itches that could not be scratched” (Alexie 15). What I am getting from this author is that Thomas is an incredible story teller that you can spend time with him regardless of whether the dark approaches. He would built a fire for you so the dark would not scare you.

Big Mom

• Reservation Blues, written by Sherman Alexie, uses many different forms symbolism book. One symbol that stands out to me is Big Mom. She is the woman who lives in the mountain and hardly every comes down, and no one from the reservation goes up. In the story, she is meant to be more than a hundred and thirty four years old. To me, she is seen as a spiritual leader that can be seen as like a god or mythical character or Zeus. She is only visited by special people that the people in the reservation.
• My symbol is about Big Mom. Big Mom was known as a Shaman, who lived on a mountain top above the Spokane Indian reservation in Washington. Throughout the book it is made obvious to the reader that Big Mom is a God like figure. “’Creator help me, I have only a hundred pieces of fry bread to feed two hundred people.’ Big Mom held that flat bread tightly in her huge hands and then tore it into halves” (302). This symbol almost foreshadows that big mom sees all considering her “long life” history from the time we hear that she saw men round up a group of Indians and shoot them then the horses with them. So it is safe to say that big mom has been around for quite some time. Even so, the Indians who live on the res still look to her for guidance and reassurance. A perfect example would be Robert Johnson who later would have the drive to find big mom in order to obtain what he has lost.
• I think Big Mom is going to be an important symbol person because everyone in the Spokane reservation knows she can cure any evil spirits. Any one that needs to go up Wellpinit mountain too see her, must be an important visitor. As Thomas said to Robert Johnson that “there are things you don’t want to see, you know (8)? Big Mom was the person Johnson needed to see, to rid of his evil spirit. Everybody on the reservation knew “ain’t nobody goes up the mountain to see her”(8). This meant that only special visitors, like Johnson knew “she had to be” the one (8). Big Mom was magical because she went to Johnson’s dream so he can come and see her. If Big Mom came in dreams that meant that you needed to see her because she knew you need her help.

The Man-Who-Was-Probably-Lakota

• One of the symbols that caught my attention was the character the-man-who-was-probably-Lakota. This specific character caught my attention because he is somewhat of a mysterious character. In the beginning of the novel Lakota kept yelling, “The end of the word is near!” People in the novel may think he’s out of his mind but he’s probably one of the smarter characters in the reservation.

Chess and Checkers

• Chess and Checkers are first introduced in the Tippi Pole Tavern while their younger brother Backgammon is introduced through a story in the Reservation. When we hear these character's names, we immediately think about board games and wonder how this plays a role in the story. When you think about games in general, they are supposed to fun, challenging, and difficult. There is always a winner in the end and usually it is the best player. This is how Alexie intends to get his message across: life is a game and how it ends is in your control. When Chess mentions how his brother "was always a sick baby coughing in the middle of a bad winter and died coughing in a bad winter" (63). She says how her father "walked into storm like he was praying or something" (64). This would lead us to suggest that as Backgammon was dying, the only solution he had was to run around in hopes of finding help. This decision didn't work however, as their baby brother died waiting. This could have been prevented if the family planned ahead, a better strategy you can say. This is how the game of life works; you can change certain events in history, solve problems as well as prevent unwanted events simply by how you move the pieces.

Coyote Springs (Band Name)

•  A symbol used in Reservation Blues is the name Coyote Springs which seems to symbolize the Native Americans in the band as wild ones who travel around the land, in this case I refer to the reservations. Within chapter three Thomas’s friends get drunk after their successful gig in the last club mentioned by the end of the chapter. After the gig the two other band members are found having sex with two other women by Thomas, Chess and Checkers. This might refer to the name Coyote Springs, since coyotes usually wonder around different environments and the spring part of the name might be the reference to spring where most animals breed. From the beginning of chapter three you can get a sense of how the band members aside from Thomas seem to only think about sex. This can be found in the beginning of chapter three when one band member expresses his thoughts on the size of Checker’s chest size. Coyote meaning for traveler and spring meaning for breeding season can be the translation of the symbols. Coyote Spring can also symbolize a bath spring where coyotes go to relax. This can mean that the band is the spring, the commodity and entertainment for travelers going to bars and other places where bands perform, and coyote symbolizing the fans or people who travel and stop by bars and other entertainment areas. Therefore Coyote Spring Symbolizing a sanctuary for travelers. It might symbolize this because many who saw the band perform would love their music and through away all bias and stereotypes that they believed about Natives. This is shown towards the end of chapter three when the owner of a club who hired Coyote Springs says that he was skeptical at first and almost regretted hiring Natives because of stereotypes he believed in before but changed his whole mind as soon as they finished performing in a musical passionate way.

The Gentleman

• “The Gentleman” is one symbol that is mentioned in the beginning of Alexie’s novel. Main character,”Thomas builds a fire” comes across a stranger in his small town of an Indian reservation, town Wellpinit. The stranger is only notified as The Black Man who is carrying a guitar. After talking to the stranger, he tells Thomas that a entity none as “The Gentleman” would be looking for him if he were to play the guitar or to even mutter the name he had place on his guitar “. We later see The Gentleman as a symbol for Satan in this story.
• One of many symbols in the book is the gentlemen,in other words the Devil.The gentlemen is portrayed as manipulating and controlling,specifically to Robert and Victor but by doing so sets up a story for Robert and his new talent with the guitar.The gentlemen illustrates Sacrifice: Robert selling his soul to become an expert with the guitar and a hit sensation overnight.however he ends up regretting selling his soul and needs the help of big mom which another burden or sacrifice is made to get rid of the curse.The gentle manipulates for instance when victor was playing the guitar and started to backfire and break on the ground.

The Horses

• In Reservations Blues, by Sherman Alexie, one of the symbols in the following first three chapters of the novel is the group of horses that sung and were then slaughtered. They were Indian horses that could be considered part of an analogy or personifications of hardworking people, specifically people that are referred in chapter one: "the horses arrived in different forms and with different songs, called themselves Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, and so many other names"(9-10). The Indian horses were introduced in the first chapter by how they were able to sing songs, and the event of their massacre by the soldiers on horseback. 
• The horses represent a different generation of music which illustrates the central theme of the book. In chapter one Robert Johnson is introduce as a man lost but then as time goes by we find out more about his haunting past; more so what has cursed him. As I mentioned before the horses represent a wave of diverse music every generation. When Robert Johnson seeks out Big Mom for assistance- she is aware that his presence was made more that is wasn’t one of her horses coming to sing her a song. In Sherman Alexie’s “Reservation Blues”, he writes. “Big Mom still watched for the return of the slaughtered horses and listened to their song. With each successive generation, the horses arrived in different forms and with different songs, called themselves Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, and so many other names” (10). The uniqueness of the horses in terms of music is what illustrates one of the motifs of Reservation Blues and that is music. 

Robert Johnson

• In Chapter 1 of Reservation Blues the story begins with a man arriving at the Spokane Indian Reservation. This man that arrived at the reservation wore a brown suit and seemed to look good from a distance, but up close was ragged and frayed at the cuffs. His name was Robert Johnson and he was there to speak to Big Mom. When Thomas offered to shake Johnsons hand Johnson hesitated saying "I'm careful with my hands. He might hear me if I use my hands." Johnson refers to "he" as "The Gentleman." Robert Johnson was a famous guitar player who was rumored to have sold his soul to the devil so that he could be the best guitar player ever. Johnson goes to the Spokane Reservation and wants to talk to Big Mom so that in a sense can get his soul back from "The Gentleman." The journey that Johnson has to take up the mountain to meet Big Mom can symbolize his journey and the battle he will have to go through with the devil to get his soul back. Later in the conversation between Thomas and Robert Johnson "The Gentleman" is brought up again by Johnson. "The Gentleman might hear and come runnin'." Johnson seemed scared and tired as if maybe he had been running from the "The Gentleman" himself. I chose to use the symbol of "The Gentleman" because I feel like it is one of the most important symbols that Alexie uses in Reservation Blues 
• In the novel Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie one of the main characters Robert Johnson, an African American musician who plays the guitar, comes on the the Spokane Reservation in search of a woman to cure him form a curse.Johnson traded off his soul in order to become a fine musician when playing the guitar. His guitar that he carries with him for a period of time not only symbolizes the pain and struggle of his past, but also reminds him of the music and agony he experiences when playing the instrument. "I can't play nothin," Johnson said. Robert Johnson raised his hands , palms open, to Thomas" (6). Thomas Builds-the -Fire asks Johnson to play a song before seeing how scarred his hands were. His hands are the result of playing the guitar. Every time he happens to strum the strings they seem to penetrate his flesh with a hot burning sensation. The guitar is symbolizes something important and apart of Robert Johnson's life that he can't seem to let go of no matter how hard he tries. No matter how bad it hurts him. Even when Thomas has given Johnson a ride up to Big Mom's cabin feels the same pain Johnson felt when playing the guitar."Thomas picked it up, strummed the strings, felt a small pain in the palms of his hands, and heard the first sad note of the reservation blues (9). 
• Robert Johnson gave his soul to the Gentleman because he wanted to play the guitar like no other. He then gave his guitar to Thomas and its music was beautiful and alluring. The entire band was starstruck and couldn't believe that a producer came to visit them. The man-who-was-probably-Lakota, warning Thomas when he sees him holding the guitar, says “Music is a dangerous thing” (12). This is a perfect example of foreshadowing. At the New York City audition, the guitar seems to almost betray Victor when it bucks away from him and the song falls to pieces the band simply watches as “Victor’s guitar kept withering in his hands until it broke the straps and fell to the floor in a flurry of feedback” (226). Later, the guitar comes back to haunt Victor. Even though he left the instrument in New York, he convinces himself that it followed him when he sees a guitar case at the airport. There is no shame in aspiring to a career in music. However, Coyote Springs became caught up in the quest for fame, and it eventually tore their lives apart.

The Guitar

• In Reservation Blues, the guitar symbolizes negativity as it brings lust and fear to its' victims. In the first chapter we meet Robert Johnson who clings onto his magical guitar and is afraid to play any tunes or even sing as he is afraid that the Gentleman will hear him. In a conversation between Johnson and Thomas we learn the reason why Johnson is afraid and frightened by the guitar,"'I can't play nothin',' Johnson said. 'Not ever.' Robert Johnson raised his hands, palms open, to Thomas. Burned, scarred, those hands frightened Thomas. 'This is what happens,' Johnson said. 'This is how it happens sometimes. things work like this. They really do'" (6). After the two men make their travel to the bottom of the trail where Big Mom lives, Johnson had left his guitar behind and we see Thomas taking an interest in the guitar, "Thomas picked it up, strummed the strings, felt a small pain in the palms of his hands, and heard the first sad note of the reservation blues" (9). From this we get a foreshadowing of the guitar that is symbolizes something negative. Thomas who never ask for any trouble caught himself in a sticky situation when he kept the guitar,"'you named that guitar?' Junior asked. 'it's a secret name,' Thomas said. 'i ain't ever going to tell anybody.' Victor pulled Thomas into a quick headlock and cut off Thomas's air for a second" (14). From this we see Thomas for some odd reason that he feels as if he needs to protect only a guitar. 
• The guitar is the largest piece of symbolism in the first three chapters. You find much of the dialogue, and controversy stemming around it. People always seem to find a reason to bring it up. So you could say there is a large focus on the guitar itself. The guitar helps streamline the story line, and perpetuate the reader through his story. Almost as if it were the lighthouse guiding the way. Alexie’s personification, and personality he gave to guitar helps symbolize bringing the group of individuals together for a greater purpose. “I don’t even play the guitar,” and Thomas says “now you do”(28). This demonstrates the unity that the guitar brings to the band. 
• One symbol in particular involves Robert Johnson’s guitar. At a young age Johnson sold his soul for music and success. His dream was to play the guitar forever and the guitar symbolizes success because of how he’s able to play like no other. The guitar represents his dream of fame and the ability it had on affecting his music made him realize that that guitar is all he had. The guitar symbolizes choices and how choices may seem valuable but only at a cost. Because he sold his soul to music the guitar represents his whole life and his dream but in time things began to backfire. The guitar symbolizes the devil because of how when he plays the guitar it messes up his hands and the guitar has the ability to work and speak on its own. The guitar is another voice and another obstacle that symbolizes that you can’t always get what you want at the hands of evil because there will always be a price to pay. For example, “The man who was probably Lakota warns Thomas when he sees him holding the guitar, stating ‘music is a dangerous thing’ (12).