In Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues, Alexie uses music as a way interweave the past and the present as it represents cultural identity and history, ultimately sending the message that music is an unforgiving but positive force in the Indian’s lives. The horses’ music plays an important role in the novel as Alexie uses their silence and screaming to demonstrate the connection music forms between the Indian’s past and present. Reliving her experience before and during the horse massacre by the white men, Big Mom recalls “She had taught all of her horses to sing many generations before, but she soon realized this was not a song of her teaching. The song sounded so pained and tortured that Big Mom never could have imagined it before the white men came” (Alexie 9). As the white men approach, the horses sing for the first time a song of pain and torture …show more content…
As they drive, the Indians sing, and Alexie writes “They sang together with the shadow horses: we are alive, we’ll keep living. Songs were waiting for them up there in the dark. Songs were waiting for them in the city” (Alexie 306). Throughout most of the novel music and the horses serve as reminders of the Indians’ past, but in this final scene, the horses are not screaming and the songs are about failure or pain. For once, the horses are with the Indians, running alongside and following them, serving as a reminder that the Indians’ history is important, and will follow them wherever they go. The songs they sing are now uplifting, music taking a positive role in the Indians’ lives. The music and the Indians’ history are not resentful that the band is breaking apart and leaving, but is supportive and “[wait] for them in the city” as the Indians go their separate ways (Alexie 306). Through this final scene, Alexie takes music, a symbol for history and suffering, and gives it an optimistic, positive