"The Reservation Cab Driver"

Question

waits outside the Breakaway Bar
in the ’65 Malibu with no windshield.
It’s a beer a mile. No exceptions.
He picks up Lester Falls Apart
who lives in the West End 5
twelve miles away, good for a half-rack.
When congress raised the minimum wage
the reservation cab driver upped his rates
made it a beer and a cigarette each mile.
HUD evicted him
so he wrapped himself in old blankets
and slept in the front seat of his cab.
When the BIA rescinded his benefits
he added a can of commodities for every mile.
Seymour climbed in the cab
said, this is a hell of a pony.
Ain’t no pony, the reservation cab driver
said, it’s a car.
During the powwow, he works 24 hours a day
gets paid in quilts, beads, fry bread, firewood.
3 a.m., he picks up Crazy Horse hitchhiking.
Where are you going, asks the reservation cab driver.
Same place you are, Crazy Horse answers
somewhere way up the road.

1. We don't expect taxi drivers to work for beer and cigarettes. What does Alexie want us to see in this unexpected idea?

2.List numerous research topics this poem suggests?

Answer 1

Why do you suppose the cab driver works for beer and cigarettes instead of cash money? What does Alexie mean to imply? Does the cab driver find beer and cigarettes more valuable than money with which he could buy food, etc.? And if it's unclear, could you research the plight of Native Americans on reservations, incidence of alcoholism on the reservations, the policies of the BIA, the impact of those policies on the residents?

Answer 2

By the way, Sherman Alexie addresses the incidence of alcoholism on Indian reservations very often in his stories. he sees it as a problem.