In the novel Reservation Blues, most of the characters struggle with their identity at some point. Victor has an especially strong urge to rebel against his Native American heritage, which is apparent in his violent, arrogant demeanor and his obvious problem with alcohol. Victor is tied to his past and has trouble coping with his life as it is, and is in a constant battle with himself, his surroundings, and other people. Early in the book, Victor is portrayed as somewhat of a bully, and he and Junior are even referred to as, ‘two of the most accomplished bullies of recent Native American history.’ (page 13) Victor’s closest and most meaningful relationship in the book is his friendship with Junior.
It’s unclear why Junior is best friends with Victor, but both of the men seem to need each other and depend on each other more than they might be willing to admit. Victor never had a real relationship with his father, who moved to Arizona and then died of a heart attack. His mother had met another man and fallen in love with him very soon after Victor’s real father left. Victor doesn’t seem to be very attached to his Native American culture. When his father left, his mother married a white man, so Victor grew up with a significant figure in his life being white. He seems to follow his mother’s example to some extent, and is frequently attracted to white women.
Although Victor doesn’t seem to care about being Native American, in some way, his tendency to turn to alcohol to solve his problems suggests that he’s more tied to his culture than he knows. Throughout the novel, Victor repeatedly gets drunk and ends up passed out in a car, or somewhere else. While he may think that drinking is a way to escape being Native American, in actuality, it just perpetuates the cycle of alcoholism on the reservation. In the early stages of starting the band, it becomes clear that Victor will be the guitar player.
The Essay on Native American Women
On few subjects has there been such continual misconception as on the position of women among Indians. Because she was active, always busy in the camp, often carried heavy burdens, attended to the household duties, made the clothing and the home, and prepared the family food, the woman has been depicted as the slave of her husband, a patient beast of encumbrance whose labors were never done. The ...
Since Robert Johnson’s guitar seems to be somewhat evil, and maybe even possessed or cursed by the devil or the Gentleman, it makes sense that the guitar would end up in Victor’s hands. Victor’s playing of the guitar, along with the cuts and blisters on his hands, could be a sign of his slipping further away from his culture, and the eventual suffering and pain that will come from that. Rock and roll seems to be Victor’s escape from life on the reservation, and in his mind, the only way that he may ever escape it. However, it is mentioned that, “Though they always pretended to be the toughest Indian men in the world, they suffered terrible bouts of homesickness as soon as they crossed the Spokane Indian Reservation border,” (page 61) which suggests that perhaps Victor is more attached to the reservation and Native American life than he seems to be. When Victor was nine years old, he was molested by a priest at a Mission School. Because of his experience, he distrusts and avoids most aspects of the church.
Religion plays little, if any, part in Victor’s life. Throughout the book, it became clear that Victor wasn’t interested in changing, and that his culture wasn’t very important to him. In the end of the book, he makes an effort to stop drinking and to get a job, but he doesn’t get the job and ends up stealing money to buy alcohol. The way that Victor ends up at the end of the book just goes to show that he never did really make a change in his life, and that just like other Native Americans before him, he will most likely spend the rest of his life on a reservation, trying desperately to drink all of his problems, his culture, and eventually his life away..
