Basketball, a sport that is an outlet to some,and a lifestyle for others, displays far more than just a game in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. Sherman Alexie’s collection of short stories ultimately take place in the nineteenth century Native American Spokane Reservation, but I want to take you back further. Native American ancestors struggled to survive in a time of despair and loss. Think about a basketball team,it is a group of players working towards a common goal. The players in the game of basketball, much like the Native Americans on Spokane Reservation require unityand endurance. While they also, long for individuality.
Unity is displayed in the words tribe and reservation. There are various passages that illustrate unity, such as, “and all the Indians, the eternal survivors gathered to count their losses” (11), and “When great spirit comes this way, then all Indians go to the mountains, high up away from the white. Whites can’t hurt Indians then” (104).
Endurance is a theme demonstrated on the basketball court and also within the ancestry of the Spokane reservation. When you think of endurance within a basketball game, you see a player dripping sweat and under pressure. When you think of Spokane ancestor, you see a Native American dripping blood and experiencing challenges. Many passages demonstrate the endurance within a Native American. Lines suchas ,“You know how to tell the difference between a real Indian and a fake Indian? The real Indian got blisters on his feet. The fake Indian got blisters on his ass” (91). As well as, “I knew how to live inpoverty, having grown up on an American third-world reservation, so my urban six-dollars-an-hour job was almost luxurious” (xiii). This explains it all, just like a basketball team must push through the pain and exhaustion; Native Americans must put up a fight against poverty, oppression, andalcohol.
The entire book, it is made clear that the “heroes” are the basketball players of the reservation. I find meaning in the quote, “And, just like everybody else, Indians need heroes to help them learn to survive” (49). These basketball players are far more than “heroes”, they are Native American’s pasts and Native American’s futures; they are their understanding of survival. Their heroes from the past paint a picture of unity and endurance and exemplify means of survival in asevere conditions; their heroes in the future display a need for something different, because they longfor liberty and expression within close knit relationships and daring trials.
Individuality is another common theme within the stories. The characters spend every wakingmoment together, and typically get stuck in a cycle that causes them to tend to the tribal stereotypes for a lifetime. Basketball players are very similar, although they are part of group; they long to display their personal and distinct talents. They will always be part of their team, because what is a team with out bonds? But, every once in a while they need to be known for whom they are as individual players. Victor says, ”the only thing he shared with anybody was a bottle and broken dreams” (74). Deep in their hearts, it is known that the Native Americans are desperately trying to create independent dreams for themselves. That is one of the main reasons why they found basketball players to be such heroes, the talented ones, were going somewhere, somewhere far from the reservation.
The bond within the reservation full of Native Americans is extremely similar to connection of a basketball team. They work together; they lose and win together; they are a team.
Veronica,
ReplyDeleteYou're post is great. You clearly answer the questions, and give great evidence for your answers. Being a basketball player, I can relate to what you are saying. "They work together; they lose and win together; they are a team." That's my favorite thing that you say in your post because I believe that it represents the Spokane Indians as a whole. Most tribes are very fond of the group perspective, and through spiritual guidance, Indians found individualism, such as in the chapter "A Drug Called Tradition".
To further discussion, I would like to point out characteristics of a basketball team: five players with hard work, dedication, and a coach. Although the stories really don't depict anyone as a coach, or a tribal leader, do you think a tribal leader would have been effective in being a role model or a hero for Victor? Do you think that he had characteristics of a guy who could follow rules? Again, great post.
David
Veronica,
ReplyDeleteYou're post is great. You clearly answer the questions, and give great evidence for your answers. Being a basketball player, I can relate to what you are saying. "They work together; they lose and win together; they are a team." That's my favorite thing that you say in your post because I believe that it represents the Spokane Indians as a whole. Most tribes are very fond of the group perspective, and through spiritual guidance, Indians found individualism, such as in the chapter "A Drug Called Tradition".
To further discussion, I would like to point out characteristics of a basketball team: five players with hard work, dedication, and a coach. Although the stories really don't depict anyone as a coach, or a tribal leader, do you think a tribal leader would have been effective in being a role model or a hero for Victor? Do you think that he had characteristics of a guy who could follow rules? Again, great post.
David
Thank you so much for your compliments! David, that is a very good question. When I think of the character Victor that I have begun to understand throughout the reading, I definitely think of a rule breaker. But then I wonder, is he a rule breaker when it comes to the his interaction with the whites? The stealing of the car, and other instances are portrayed as him trying to appeal against oppression.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you pointed that out. I tried my best to compare somewhat how a team operates, as well as the tribe, it is really interesting to think about the presence of a coach. Sherman Alexie says that often times in the story he defines himself as Victor, and personally I think he is very well off. Maybe that is what is so amazing about success. Like Mrs. Grover said about a Brave New World, you work your way up in society. Maybe his destiny did not require a coach, and if it did, I am sure he would respect that coach. Being that coach did not make him feel oppressed or of low significance. But, I also have a feeling that he is very independent, and would do his best to show the coach what he could do on his own.
There are so many themes within this book, what is y'alls favorite theme and why does it stand out to you? I think individuality is the key theme for me. It is very hard for me understand how America, an individualistic country would still allow Native Americans to feel as they cannot make it out. It is a true eye opener, because most of us know the stereotpyes and common history, but until reading this, do we now truly understand the feelings and pain they experienced?
-Veronica
As I read through this discussion, I can definitely see similarities between a basketball team and a Native American reservation or tribe. So many different elements in each realm, but they still are all very interchangeable.
DeleteWhen I think of basketball, I think of the roles that each character plays. Just as in an Indian tribe when each member has certain talents or special traits. From what I can see, and from what I already know about modern day reservations in New Mexico, a lot of the idealistic characteristics of Indian tribes come from long ago. Members like the shaman and chief aren't as prominent in the present day as they were years ago. There isn't such an obvious "leader" that has to be followed. Has the oppression of Native Americans caused this? Have tribes slowly lost tradition because they have no hope for a future?
The reason I bring this up is because of what you (Veronica) and David are speaking of. Would Victor be flexible if rules were established by a leader (hence a basketball coach) to keep order? Would he abide? I think this is the major issue. Indians lost scruples because of learned hopelessness. Just think. If when you were a child your mother and father told you over and over again that you would be a fireman some day, it would get ingrained in you. You would believe it. Although we would like to think that this phenomena only applies in happy situations, this is not the case. Victor watched his parents be alcoholics from the time he was young, and was basically told over and over that he would be one too when he was an adult. That nothing would ever change. He learned it.
I honestly think that rules might just be the thing that is missing here. You point a great aspect, David. I also think that just as a child wants rules and guidelines, Victor does too. He needs something to be accountable to. Someone or something that relies on him, possibly?
Veronica,
DeleteI really enjoyed your post. Before reading it, I kind of summed up the "basketball players=heros" thing as a simple physical show of strength.
I kind of fixated on what you said about how you can "work your way up" through society. Perhaps basketball provided a way for people to "work their way up," kind of like Alexie did through his writing and education.
As far as the "rules" thing, as all of you have pointed out, maybe we have to look at this from another perspective. Perhaps it's not that Victor's NOT abiding by the "rules" but that he's having to do so at a disadvantage.
Rules and regulations are established by noneother than those in charge. In this case, the adults (when Victor's a child) and the government/the majority of USA society (when Victor's older). When Victor's a kid on the reservation, I'd argue that he DOES follow what his coaches (adults, older kids, etc.) delineate for him. It's okay to drink, it's okay to party, it's expected that you live the way we do.
When Victor's older, it seems that he tries to abide by the rest of (white) society's rules by attending non-reservation schools and making good grades. He even lives for a while in the city and holds a job and relationship there. He DOES follow the rules. He even thinks it's kind of funny in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto" on 184, when he plays the part of a normal customer at the 7-11.
My point is, I think Victor DOES follow the rules set to him, though they may not be the ones we follow as simple observers of Alexie's microcosm.
I think Alexie's point is that the rules just don't work out that great, if you begin the game at a disadvantage. Native Americans have the same rights, use the same currency, and are subject to the same supreme justice and legal system as everyone else is. They are allowed and encouraged to go to the same schools, work in the same areas, etc. I think maybe what Alexie is trying to tell us about the reservations is this:
It's like the US Government invited the Reservations to play in a game of monopoly with the rest of the States. They play by all the rules in the rulebook, except they start them off with 1/3rd of the money everyone else gets.
I think this ties in with the basketball players in that it's one of the few places that the playing field is as level as it can be. Perhaps that's why those participants are so admired.
Great post veronica! But to answer your last question I don’t think we will ever truly understand the feelings and pain they experienced unless we have lived that way outselves. But are Native American reservations the only places in America where they are made to feel as though they "cannot make it out"? What about the "ghetto"? And do you find it ironic that whenever the Jews were driven from their homes and forced to live in poverty that they also called where they lived the "ghetto"?
ReplyDelete