Tan 1

Lash Tan
Professor Ogbara
English 1A
8 April 2015
Anticipation Guide: Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Pre-reading
History has never been one of my strong points, and because of this I admit that I have a
limited understanding of Native American history and with Indian reservations. From my limited
understanding, I feel that the U.S. has a bit of a guilty conscience when it comes to how it has
treated Native Americans in the past. I have found conflicting reports on the formation of
present-day reservations, one stating that the U.S. government established these lands and the
other stating that Native Americans initially gave the U.S. land through treaties and that
reservations are simply the leftover land that has been retained by various tribes over the years.
Whichever the case, it makes sense that our government has allowed these reservations to remain
in existence. On one hand, it is an attempt (however feeble it may be) to make reparations to the
Native American people. This may actually be an effective way to preserve the more indigenous
Native American culture in a country where technological advances seem to be flushing them
out. On the other hand, it is also a way to push our guilt to the back of our minds by isolating
these groups from the rest of society. Because of this isolation, I think most American citizens do
not really know what life is like on a reservation. I think most of what we believe to be the
Native American way of life is through Hollywoods portrayal. From this, Native Americans
are shown to be very serious, very much in tune with nature, heavy drinkers, and very
community-oriented.

Tan 2
Through a Google search, Ive found that Robert Johnson was a real-life blues musician.
Much of his popularity seems to stem from one particular legend stating that he sold his soul to
the devil in order to be proficient at the guitar. I also found that this person is a character in
Alexies novel.
Reservation Blues seemed to receive very respectable reviews from readers on Goodreads
and Amazon. I didnt want to read too deeply into the reviews for fear of spoiling the story, but I
did note one reviewer praising Alexie for his insight on Native American life, especially in
relation to white America.
The cover art for the book is simple. I see five objects: a horse, a feather, a guitar, some
trees in the background, and an airplane. From this, all I can guess is that the novel will be a
combination of these objects. When combining it with the title of the book, I can guess that most
of the story will take place on an Indian reservation and will have something to do with the blues
genre of music, which happens to be predominantly African-American/deep south oriented.

Post-reading (to chapter 3)

After reading the first two chapters, I realize that I was partially correct in some of my
assumptions, but mostly incorrect with the rest. Robert Johnson only played a small role in the
introductory pages, although the story of his guitar seems to be one of the key pieces in this
novel. The story seems to humanize its Native American characters to the reader, which Im
guessing Alexie assumed would be Americans with little understanding of the Native American
way of life.