Reservation Drive-In

At first I didn't understand this essay at all. It was just talking about random Indian boys and movies that the author had seen. I looked up the author, Sherman Alexie, and found that he is one of the most famous Native American authors in the United States. He writes about poverty, alcoholism, despair, and racial anger. After reading about Sherman, I went and reread the essay. Each of the different movies was another example of how the boys were trapped. They were poor and stuck on a reservation. Each movie that they watch was another dream of theirs. They made promises not to just be the Yakima Indian boys. I find it ironic that he's writing about this when he managed to be more. In the Star Wars blurb, it says "you promised us the earth and all we got was the moon." The line makes me realize how cheated he felt for living on a resevation and growing up how he did. I see that getting the moon rather than the earth is a step or a promise. An indian stepping foot on the moon is progress for equality. Also the last line sums up the entire paper. He was talking about Charlie Chaplin when he wrote, "This is not a silent movie. Our voices will save our lives."