The Role of Music in Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues

Abstract

The present research analyses the decisive role of music in Sherman Alexie"s Reservation Blues (1995). The study focuses on the role that music can play in the spiritual life of people in general and of the Native American people in specifics. Sherman Alexie"s novel, through presenting several examples and various characters, highlights and points out the cultural, social, psychological, and political functions of music in the Native American communities, especially in the reservations built allegedly to protect the identity of Native Americans across the United States. The research examines the tremendous role of music in preserving the Native American culture and identity through refreshing and reviving Native American people"s collective unconsciousness that will create a collective mentality among them. Such a collective mentality will finally be a bridge between the old and the new generations.