Quotation Analysis ("The Only Traffic Signal..." or "Imagining the Reservation") by Bill Davis https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes Write a quotation (properly cited) in the title of your padlet. In the space below, discuss and analyze its significance. en-us 2016-10-11 00:48:20 UTC 2020-08-28 19:02:38 UTC hello@padlet.com "I was born a goofy reservation mixed drink, and my father needed me just as much as he needed every other kind of drink" (Alexie 27). 6554wvcrep https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129663998 The narrator's suggestion that he "was born a goofy reservation mixed drink" emphasizes not only his "goofy" awkwardness  and his Native American "reservation" roots, but his deep entwinement with alcohol from birth. He underlines how much his father "needed" him, repeating the word twice in the sentence, and suggesting it is analogous to alcoholism. He thus intimates that his experience of paternal love finds its source in his father's neediness, in some significant lack or absence, rather than deriving from a healthy wholeness.]]> 2016-10-11 00:53:08 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129663998 "How can we imagine a new language when the language of the enemy keeps our dismembered tongues tied to his belt? .... How do we imagine a new life when a pocketful of quarters weighs our possibilities down?" (Alexie 152).  https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129961687 The narrator says that Native American tongues have been "dismembered," meaning that their language has been taken away from them and worn like a trophy, being seen as an achievement in American history. The other part of the quote implies that opportunities for Native Americans are being "weigh[ed] ... down" by their "pocketful of quarters," suggesting poverty and little to no chance of making a name for themselves outside of the reservation. ]]> 2016-10-11 19:53:39 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129961687 "The reservation doesn't sing anymore but the songs still hang in the air. Everything molecule waits for a drumbeat; every element dreams lyrics. Today I am walking between water, two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, and the energy expelled is named Forgiveness" (Alexie 150). https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129961719 Alexie is stating that how in the reservation people don't have the same spirit as they used too, "but the songs still hand in the air." When the author talks about every molecule and each element, he is correlating it towards the families and people of the community who are just waiting for something or someone to change their lives.]]> 2016-10-11 19:53:46 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129961719 "Survival = Anger x Imagination. Imagination is the only weapon on the reservation" (Alexi 150).  https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129961948 The narrator suggests that ]]> 2016-10-11 19:54:51 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129961948 "The reservation doesn't sing anymore but the songs still hang in the air. Every molecule waits for a drumbeat; every element dreams lyrics. Today I am walking between water, two parts of hydrogen, one part oxygen, and the energy expelled is named Forgiveness" (Alexie 150).  https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129962712 The narrarator is suggesting that "every molecule" represents an Indian in the reservation and those molecules "Wait for a drumbeat" which is the smallest chance they have to dream and to hope of being free. "element" represents the families in the reservation. "Every element dreams lyrics" suggesting that they are dreaming for the power to verbally speak out for their rights. ]]> 2016-10-11 19:58:19 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129962712 "Everybody told their favorite Julius Windmaker stories, too Times like that, on a Reservation, a basketball game felt like a funeral and a wake all rolled up together" https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129962792 They've just seen Julius play a truly bad game for what appears to be the first time. The word "Times" is capitalized suggesting that this is such a common occurrence, a hero not living up to their potential and no longer being a hero, that it has been named.]]> 2016-10-11 19:58:37 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129962792 "Imagine Columbus landed in 1492 and some tribe or another drowned him in the ocean. Would Lester Falls Apartments still be shoplifting in the 7-11?" (Alexie 149). https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129963194 When Sherman Alexie ask whether or not this man would "still be shoplifting" if Columbus would have been drown suggest that life for indians would be free of poverty if the white settlers never came. It highlights the fact that indians wish they could have continued on with they culture and not be oppressed by the white man "Columbus" and forced onto reservations living in poverty.]]> 2016-10-11 20:00:15 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129963194 "But it's almost like Indians can easily survive the big stuff. Mass murder, loss of language and land rights. It's the small things that hurt the most" (Alexie 49). https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129963500 Alexie suggests that the "big stuff" doesn't phase the Native Americans on the surface, but it wears them down whereas the "small things" appear to attack their dignity more and is the last straw for them (Alexie 49).]]> 2016-10-11 20:01:37 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129963500 "And we both watched it with all of our eyes, while the sun rose straight up above us and settled down behind the house, watched that cup revolve, revolve, until it came down whole to the ground"(Alexie 53). https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129963547 Alexie suggests the broken cup symbolizes Julius who ends up achieving nothing and stays in the reservation, just like the cup resolves in the ground. The "cup" represents not only Julius but also people on the reservation who are trapped by alcoholism and never make the way out. The narrator compares how people don't fight anymore against alcohol to the process of "resolving", slowly and helplessly. "To the ground" suggests the inevitable death they are facing.]]> 2016-10-11 20:01:51 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129963547 "Imagine an escape. Imagine that your own shadow on the wall is a perfect door" (Alexei 153). https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129964430 The narrator talks about how your own self image can be an escape from reality. Your shadow is a reflection of yourself and in this case it's a reflection of a door. When life drops the ball, it's 
good to step into your inner self for a way to escape reality. The shadow door is your sub conscious and the only way to escape reality is to go through the door and be at peace with your body and mind.]]> 2016-10-11 20:05:28 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129964430 "It's hard to be optimistic on the reservation. When a glass sits on a table here, people don't wonder if it's half filled or half empty. They just hope it's good Beer" (Alexie 49).   https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129964868 The narrator suggests that on the reservation there isn't much to hope for so people look forward to drinking because whatever they are going through such as Dejection Alcohol helps to take their problems away for the moment. It kind of goes back to "living in the now" (Alexie 22). To not worry about the past or the future just the now.

]]> 2016-10-11 20:07:09 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129964868 "Hell, there’s been one or two guys who played just a few minutes of one game, just enough to show what they could have been." (Alexie 47) https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129965279 2016-10-11 20:08:49 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129965279 "Today I am walking between water, two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, and the energy expelled is named forgiveness" (Alexie 150). https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129965332 The narrator suggests that ]]> 2016-10-11 20:09:07 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/129965332 https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/513625157 2020-04-17 19:47:00 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/513625157 https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/705909443 What do you believe in? Does every Indian depend on Hollywood for a twentieth-century vision? Listen: when I was young, living on the reservation, eating potatoes every day of my life, I imagined the potatoes grew larger, filled my stomach , reversed the emptiness. My sisters saved up a few quarters and bought food coloring. For weeks we ate red potatoes , green potatoes , blue potatoes In the dark, The Tonight Show" on the television, my father and telling stories about the food we wanted most. We imagined oranges, Pepsi -Cola, chocolate , deer jerky. We imagined the salt on our skin could change the world.]]> 2020-08-28 19:02:38 UTC https://padlet.com/6554wvcrep/quotes/wish/705909443