Leads from
the early claim that need exploration/development:
-Unique narrative style: What about this
narrative makes it unique? How does Alexie tell the story and how is it
different from the work of other authors?
-Humanizes his characters: If this is so,
what is he doing to humanize them? Do they seem humanized? Can we as readers
relate to and understand them?
-Flat Stereotypes: If these are not flat
stereotypes, what are they? What makes them 3D and not flat? How are they
different from other stereotypes?
Text
Exploration
This passage is
on the bottom of page 46, continuing through the top of page 47, and it’s when,
after Julius and his friends have walked by, Victor is reminiscing about his
past as a ballplayer, and the experience that led to the end of his career.
“While I looked
at those close-ups of death and destruction, I lost it.[1]
I think everybody[2]
in that room, everybody on the team, lost[3]
that[4]
feeling of immortality.”
1: It’s
been a few paragraphs since we’ve heard from Victor about this need for
immortality. Now, when it gets brought back into the story, it is in this
sentence reintroduced as just “it,” not as immortality. When I first read this,
I didn’t make the connection that it was immortality Victor was talking about.
I thought he meant he lost his sanity, which would seem logical after looking
at graphic pictures of gory injuries. This has the same effect as the very
beginning of the story, when we are told there’s a gun but don’t find out till
later that it’s a BB gun. We are only provided with limited information. But
although this narrative style makes for a bumpy ride, it definitely helps
humanize the characters. This is Victor’s train of thought, and like any real
person’s, it is not neat and organized – it’s messy. He is not filtering his
thoughts so they will make sense to us. For him, this immortality concept is so
significant he doesn’t even have to refer to it as immortality, just as “it.”
He knows in a heartbeat what “it” signifies even if we don’t.
2: There’s
an emphasis on “everybody” here. Victor uses the word once, and then in the
same sentence after the comma he uses it again. He somehow is able to know that
every single person in that room lost that feeling of immortality at the same
time and for the same reason as he did. How can he know that they all had the
same experience? This seems like a stereotype in itself. Victor is prone to
these sweeping generalizations – before he talked about the things that drive a
ballplayer as if they’re true for every player (Alexie 46). We never actually
hear from any other ballplayer during the course of this story that immortality
matters to them. So why does Victor do this, and is it more than a flat
stereotype? Well, in recounting the story of the lost game that led to him
quitting his career, it’s likely easier to talk about it as if the team lost
together because they lost the feeling of immortality, not that it was just him
to blame. He’s stereotyping himself on purpose so as not to take individual
responsibility. This is more than flat. This is something we do all the time,
to make ourselves feel included, to avoid blame. So some stereotypes in this
story humanize the characters rather than dehumanize them.
3: Saying
they “lost” this feeling of immortality implies that at one time they had it,
which seems true, because before Victor said it’s what “drives a ballplayer”
(Alexie 46). For me, this “lost” idea brings to mind lost innocence, which
essentially is what I think this is. There’s a hint of a coming-of-age story
here. Everyone on the reservation roots for these heroes, these beings who will
make them proud. Most of us have been someone’s hero, whether it be a younger
sibling or a friend, and if you’ve ever done something that ruined you as a
hero in their eyes, you know it hurts them as much as it hurts you. They say it’s
hard to watch your idols fall. These Indians are living a very mortal life (if
that makes sense?). They drink beer, sit around, get sweaty and drunk. But
someone who could go farther, who could do better, has definite appeal. Being
that reservation hero, that Indian who does not waste their time drinking,
brings that feeling of immortality. They are the people who are expected to
transcend the stereotype. But when these “heroes” are reminded of their
mortality, of how easily they could die and be no one’s hero, they lose their
immortality.
4: It may
be insignificant but I was noticing the interesting pattern (or lack thereof)
of articles in this sentence: first we get “that room,” then “the team,” then
“that feeling.” The middle one with “the” is more vague, while “that” seems
more specific, like gesturing to one specific thing. I think this could be for
a reason. “That room” – that’s our setting (in Victor’s mind) right now – makes
sense for it to be specific, and “that feeling” is the one and only feeling of
immortality. But “the team”… I don’t know… I get the feeling this happens to many teams on the reservation, not just
the one. Victor and Adrian discuss how many players have failed, and since
Victor names the loss of immortality as the reason for change in a ballplayer’s
performance, I’m assuming that elsewhere, with other teams on the reservation,
they too lose their immortality. Maybe not by looking at pictures in a book,
but by something. I think you can only pretend to be immortal for so long.
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