Reservation Blues

Why does Alexie choose Robert Johnson — a Black blues musician — as the figure who brings the cursed guitar to the Spokane Reservation? What does this cross-racial connection suggest about the relationship between African American and Native American histories of oppression?

Thomas Builds-the-Fire tells stories that nobody on the reservation wants to hear. Why does the community reject its own storyteller? What does their rejection reveal about the psychological effects of colonialism on cultural self-regard?

Alexie names the record company 'Cavalry Records' and its executives 'Phil Sheridan' and 'George Wright' — historical U.S. Army officers who committed atrocities against Native peoples. Is this heavy-handed, or is the heavy-handedness the point?

After the failed audition, Cavalry Records offers a recording contract to Betty and Veronica — two white women — to play 'Indian-inspired' music. How does this scene function as a critique of cultural appropriation? Is the critique still relevant today?

Junior Polatkin's suicide is described without dramatic buildup or shock. Why does Alexie refuse to sensationalize this death? What does the community's unsurprised grief reveal about the normalization of loss on the reservation?

Big Mom has taught music to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Robert Johnson. What does this fictional history suggest about the origins of American popular music? How does it challenge the standard narrative of rock and blues history?

Victor Joseph is violent, alcoholic, and self-destructive. Is Alexie reinforcing stereotypes about Native American men, or is he doing something more complicated? How does the novel contextualize Victor's behavior without excusing it?

Chess Warm Water is Catholic. How does Alexie handle the fact that Christianity on reservations is both a tool of colonialism and a genuine source of comfort for the colonized?

Compare the guitar in Reservation Blues to the green light in The Great Gatsby. Both are objects that symbolize desire. How do they function differently? What does each object reveal about the nature of the dream it represents?

Betty and Veronica are named after Archie Comics characters. Why? What does this pop-culture naming accomplish that 'realistic' names would not?

The novel ends with Thomas and Chess driving away from the reservation. Is this a happy ending, a tragic one, or something else? What does it mean to 'escape' a place that is both prison and home?

Alexie uses humor throughout the novel, even in scenes of genuine suffering. How does humor function differently here than in a conventional comedy? What is the relationship between laughter and survival in Reservation Blues?

The reservation community turns against Coyote Springs, accusing them of selling out. Are these accusations fair? How does Alexie present the tension between individual ambition and communal obligation?

Robert Johnson's guitar burns anyone who plays it. What does this physical detail suggest about the relationship between artistic creation and self-destruction? Does Alexie ultimately endorse or reject the idea that great art requires great suffering?

How does Alexie's depiction of the reservation differ from Hollywood's? Identify three specific ways the novel contradicts or complicates the 'Noble Savage' or 'Vanishing Indian' stereotypes.

The novel is set in the 1990s. Has the relationship between Native communities and mainstream American culture changed since then? What would a 2026 version of Reservation Blues look like?

Why does Alexie make Thomas Builds-the-Fire — the most physically unimposing and socially marginalized character — the novel's protagonist and moral center? What does this choice say about where Alexie locates power?

Alexie writes entirely in English, yet the novel is deeply concerned with the loss of the Spokane language. How does the novel address this paradox? Can a work written in the colonizer's language be an act of cultural resistance?

Compare Junior Polatkin's suicide to Willy Loman's in Death of a Salesman. Both men are destroyed by a dream that was never available to them. How do the systems that destroy them differ?

The chapter 'Every Reservation Is the Same' makes a universal claim. Is this true? Is Alexie arguing that all reservations share identical conditions, or is he making a different point about systemic patterns?

Alcoholism appears in nearly every character's backstory. How does Alexie present alcoholism — as individual weakness, as colonial weapon, as communal disease, or as something else entirely?

Big Mom is a mythological figure in a novel otherwise grounded in social realism. Why does Alexie include magical elements? How does the magical realism serve the novel's political argument?

Alexie has been criticized by some Native readers for reinforcing stereotypes of reservation dysfunction — alcoholism, poverty, suicide. How would you evaluate this criticism? Does depicting these realities perpetuate them or combat them?

The novel is structured around music — chapter titles reference songs, the plot revolves around a band. Why is music, rather than any other art form, the vehicle for this story? What can music do that visual art, literature, or film cannot?

Compare Reservation Blues to Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. Both novels use music as a metaphor for cultural memory. How do the two works differ in their treatment of whether the past can be recovered?

Phil Sheridan and George Wright evaluate Coyote Springs the way anthropologists evaluate 'specimens.' How does the gaze of the record executives mirror the colonial gaze of earlier centuries? Is being looked at always a form of being consumed?

Chess and Thomas's love story is built on shared grief rather than romance. Is this a healthier foundation or a more fragile one? How does their relationship compare to conventional love stories in American fiction?

The reservation is described as both prison and home. How does this dual nature complicate the idea of 'leaving'? Can you leave a place that is simultaneously your cage and your identity?

Alexie published this novel at age 29 — young for a novelist. How does the novel's energy, anger, and humor reflect a young writer's sensibility? Would an older Alexie have written this differently?

The final image: Big Mom plays the guitar and the note 'shook the foundation of the world.' What does this ending mean? Is Big Mom healing the guitar, destroying it, or simply demonstrating that she is stronger than its curse? Why does Alexie end with her rather than with Thomas?