Reservation Full of Pain
”You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep” - Navajo Proverb. There is no denying the fact that there are times when people bunker down because it's all too hard, they pretend to be asleep, because everything seems overwhelming and too large to tackle. Native Americans, who have been moved on reservation land that the white government didn’t value, suffer poverty that is so systemic that it seems impossible to solve even on an individual level. Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, tells the story of Arnold Spirit Jr, a Native American teenager that lives in an Indian Reservation. He isn't really satisfied with his life, since he's pretty poor. He doesn't really accept …show more content…
He has seen how alcohol has ruined the lives of a variety amount of his fellow tribespeople such as Eugene’s death when his friend killed him,“Way drunk, Eugene was shot and killed by one of his good friends, Bobby, who was too drunk to even remember pulling the trigger” (169). Alcoholism can cause many accidental deaths but it doesn’t stop them from drinking. Arnold says that Bobby doesn't remember pulling the trigger which just explains the effects of alcoholism; blacking out, loss of memory, pain free, etc. Most Indians in the Reservation prefer to drink to make the pain go away. Arnold’s grandma disagrees in making the pain go away, “Drinking would shut down my seeing and my hearing and my feeling, she used to say. 'Why would I want to be in the world if I couldn't touch the world with all of my senses intact?”(158). Arnold’s grandma is one of the few Indians who doesn’t drink alcohol. She basically says that unlike everyone else she wants to feel, she doesn’t want to be lost/asleep like the rest of the Reservation. His Sister, Mary also dies because of alcohol. After his sister's funeral, Junior cries, thinking, "I was crying for my tribe, too. I was crying because I knew five or ten or fifteen more Spokane's would die during the next year, and that most of them would die because of booze" (216). Alcoholism is one of the biggest parts in which Junior is determined to move out of the reservation as he describes it as a "death camp" (217). He knows that alcohol will cause many deaths but no one is willing to change.This hopeless reservation is a widespread cycle of alcohol, death and
”You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep” - Navajo Proverb. There is no denying the fact that there are times when people bunker down because it's all too hard, they pretend to be asleep, because everything seems overwhelming and too large to tackle. Native Americans, who have been moved on reservation land that the white government didn’t value, suffer poverty that is so systemic that it seems impossible to solve even on an individual level. Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, tells the story of Arnold Spirit Jr, a Native American teenager that lives in an Indian Reservation. He isn't really satisfied with his life, since he's pretty poor. He doesn't really accept …show more content…
He has seen how alcohol has ruined the lives of a variety amount of his fellow tribespeople such as Eugene’s death when his friend killed him,“Way drunk, Eugene was shot and killed by one of his good friends, Bobby, who was too drunk to even remember pulling the trigger” (169). Alcoholism can cause many accidental deaths but it doesn’t stop them from drinking. Arnold says that Bobby doesn't remember pulling the trigger which just explains the effects of alcoholism; blacking out, loss of memory, pain free, etc. Most Indians in the Reservation prefer to drink to make the pain go away. Arnold’s grandma disagrees in making the pain go away, “Drinking would shut down my seeing and my hearing and my feeling, she used to say. 'Why would I want to be in the world if I couldn't touch the world with all of my senses intact?”(158). Arnold’s grandma is one of the few Indians who doesn’t drink alcohol. She basically says that unlike everyone else she wants to feel, she doesn’t want to be lost/asleep like the rest of the Reservation. His Sister, Mary also dies because of alcohol. After his sister's funeral, Junior cries, thinking, "I was crying for my tribe, too. I was crying because I knew five or ten or fifteen more Spokane's would die during the next year, and that most of them would die because of booze" (216). Alcoholism is one of the biggest parts in which Junior is determined to move out of the reservation as he describes it as a "death camp" (217). He knows that alcohol will cause many deaths but no one is willing to change.This hopeless reservation is a widespread cycle of alcohol, death and