What Hotel From Reservation Blues Does Coyote Springs Arrive at
Reservation Blues | Chapter 8 : Urban Indian Blues | Summary
Summary
Coyote Springs arrives in New York, and the chapter appropriately kicks off with a song called "Urban Indian Blues." The band members head straight to the recording studio, where they tune up and wait for Mr. Armstrong, the boss, to arrive so they can begin their audition. Soon after they start playing, Victor Joseph loses control of the guitar and it cuts his hands. The band falls apart, and Mr. Armstrong leaves. Everyone erupts in anger, including Mr. Sheridan, and the band trashes the studio in anger. Victor immediately heads off to find a bar, Junior Polatikin trailing after him. Chess Warm Water, Checkers Warm Water, and Thomas all head back to the hotel, and then Chess and Thomas head out to look for Victor and Junior.
Victor and Junior move from bar to bar, commenting on all the beautiful white women they see. Junior remembers his white girlfriend in college, who got pregnant and left him. Meanwhile Chess and Thomas are trying to check every bar in Manhattan for Junior and Victor. Checkers stays in the hotel room and falls asleep. She has a horrific nightmare in which Mr. Sheridan enters the hotel room, ties her up, and describes horrible things he's done to Native Americans in the past. He rants like a lunatic while she struggles. George Wright, who has come to apologize to the band, hears Checkers screaming and busts into the hotel room. He wakes her up from her nightmare and stays there until the next morning, when everyone returns.
Analysis
It isn't completely clear what happens to the band when they get into the studio. More than a case of mere nerves, something important passes between Victor and the guitar. In his egoism and his overconfidence, Victor loses control of the guitar. In fact, it seems to physically fight him, "buck[ing] in his hands, twist[ing] away from his body." The reason for the guitar's betrayal is still unclear, however. The conflict between the band and Sheridan turns into a nasty revisiting of Native American versus white, where the white man holds all of the power and dangles it over the band. There is a moment when Sheridan is overcome by anger and says, "I tried to help these goddamn Indians"; then he complains they "don't want help." This echoes the way the U.S. government "helped" Native Americans by forcing them to convert to Christianity, forcing them onto reservations, forcing them to rely on government aid and commodity food, and so on. Sheridan feels he is doing a favor to lowly Native Americans by trying to commercialize them; then he gets angry and blames them when his plan doesn't work out.
Both Sheridan and Wright manifest white behaviors toward the Native American community. Sheridan comes to Checkers in a dream and abuses her; he makes her feel powerless and forces her to live through the crimes he has committed. He cannot hold himself accountable; instead he blames Native Americans for not taking responsibility for the crimes committed against them, asking Checkers, "When are you ever going to take responsibility for yourselves?" He's enraged because the Native Americans won't do what they are told and fight back, which forces him to keep fighting too. He is a racist abuser who cannot take responsibility for his own part in the pain and suffering of the Native American people. Though Wright comes from the same place—an executive with power over the band, or a white general who fights and kills Native Americans—he chooses a different way to move forward. He tries to speak up for the band, and he comes to talk with the band members in their hotel room, apologizing for the way things went. He rescues Checkers from her nightmare and stays with her. When the band asks why he is helping them, he replies, "because I owe you." He refers to much more than the botched audition. He owns up to his actions, looking "at his own white hands and [seeing] the blood stains there."
Have study documents to share about Reservation Blues? Upload them to earn free Course Hero access!
dominguezpedularave.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Reservation-Blues/chapter-8-summary/
0 Response to "What Hotel From Reservation Blues Does Coyote Springs Arrive at"
Post a Comment