Sherman Alexie's Because My Father

“Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock”:

Individual Warfare

As Greek philosopher Plato once said, “Only the dead have seen the end of the war.” In Sherman Alexie’s “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play the ‘Star- Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock,” Victor’s father can align directly with this belief. He consistently struggles with his own unique wars as well as the struggles that came along with the Vietnam War period, even decades after its end, in which all were either supporters or protestors of the War. A citizen would consistently fear of being drafted and sent somewhere they were unfamiliar with and not welcome, which

Throughout the short story “Because My Father…,” Sherman Alexie utilizes the

He uses alcohol to save himself from his prior wars; such as the racism he encounters in and out of prison, and even his unforgiving latch to his past. It allows him to travel back in time to where he was happier, to where he was with Jimi Hendrix. Victor describes the connection that Victor’s father felt he had with Hendrix as a relationship in which, “He'd sit by the stereo with a cooler of beer beside him and cry, laugh, call me over and hold me tight in his arms, his bad breath and body odor covering me like a blanket” (Alexie 26). Victor’s father’s battle with alcoholism affects not only his life, but his son’s as well. By portraying him as an alcoholic, Alexie is able to show not only the battle that Victor’s father has with his addiction, but also how those around him have to battle it as well. Later in the story, when Victor is discussing his father’s reliance on his “glory days”, so to speak, Victor reveals, “Jimi Hendrix and my father became drinking buddies. Jimi Hendrix waited for my father to come home after a long night of drinking” (Alexie 26). Victor’s father’s alliance and imagined connection with a figure such as Jimi Hendrix encourages his alcoholism, as he views drinking as a way to return to the past, to Woodstock. This belief causes his addiction to become deeper set, and more difficult to battle. His war to return to a time in his life when he felt