Maybe the Motifs were the Friends We Made Along the Way

     I have really bad memory. If someone tells me something, I’ll say “what?” and respond as they finish repeating themselves, because it takes me a moment to process what they said. Sometimes, my friends won’t repeat what they say and just tell me to “forget it” because they know after the 20^th time, I still won’t hear them. It’s not that I’m choosing to ignore them, unlike Victor’s father in “Because My Father Always Said...” by Sherman Alexie, who is an alcoholic Native American man that gives his son the advice that “all you have to do is change the memories. Instead of remembering the bad things, remember what happened immediately before” (34). He does this by using his favorite musician, his favorite person in the world, Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix is used by Alexie as a motif throughout the story and is a symbol of the father’s choice to remember only the positive things in his life. The way this came to be was after his father was released from jail, the only thing he remembered from his day of release was the fact that he was “the only Indian who saw Jimi Hendrix play at Woodstock” (31). In reality, he wasn’t even the only Native American in the crowd, but he still felt that way, because he chose to remember the feeling of relating to the experience of another non-white person in America, playing its anthem with all the pain it has caused, instead of the full truth. This also may be due to his alcoholism, another motif repeated throughout the story, which becomes more and more prevalent throughout the story, mimicking its increasing presence in Victor’s life. Alcohol is always a constant in this piece, making its way into every aspect of Victor’s father’s life, such as when he listens to Jimi Hendrix, he would sit “with a cooler of beer beside him” (26), and when he met his wife, they were “in this cowboy bar” (29), and his son even describes their relationship woefully in saying that “my father needed me just as much as he needed every other kind of drink” (27). For his father to be so closely tied with alcohol that he even sees his relationship with his son with one of biological needs, a relationship out of necessity, enough to be compared to a drink, is heartbreaking. The motif of Jimi Hendrix being his happiness shows how this singer is held in higher rank than his own son, and his relationship with both people are due to alcohol, with Jimi Hendrix being seen as his happy place when he drinks, and his son’s conception even “during one of those drunken nights” (27). While I don’t have a singer that makes me remember good times that strictly, I will still listen to Laufey when I’m not feeling the best. No matter what, though, I’m willing to feel the good and bad around me, and I’ll always work on my bad memory by taking classes that require memorization and will totally pass them 100% no doubt totally!

“I used to live in a room full of mirrors; all I could see was me. I take my spirit and I crash my mirrors, now the whole world is here for me to see.” – Jimi Hendrix (quote)

 

Victor’s dad when Jimi Hendrix:

(Drunk Fish)