Text Exploration for: The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore

Text Exploration for: The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore

Possible Leads:
-Pointless.
-Unique narrative style.
-Humanizes.

Text Exploration:
"I think everybody on that team, lost the feeling of immortality1. We went out and lost the championship by 20 points. I missed every shot I took. I missed everything2.
"So" I asked Adrian. "You think Julian will make it all the way3?"
"Maybe, maybe4."" (Alexie, 47).

1. Immortality is defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as "the quality or state of someone or something that will never die or be forgotten." I was kind of wondering why they had felt so immortal before. For literally the entire history of the reservation, people in their shoes had been trying the same things as them, and every single person who had tried it was eventually defeated. No one, as Victor says, made it off of the res. Maybe though, the story was narrated by Victor for a reason. He was the one who believed in himself, when it was his turn to try and be the reservation hero, and he is always the one who believes in the newcomers.

2. When Victor states "I missed everything," it seemed kind of odd to me that he would put it this way. He shows no emotion at all in this sentence, even though it was the biggest failure of his life. I am wondering why it seems that he doesn't care about his own experience, and that all he thinks about is the next person to make it all the way?

3. The fact that he is asking about Julian right after talking about his own failure is interesting. He obviously connects the two. Also, I notice that it puts a lot of pressure on the reservation hero to succeed. Everybody in the town focuses on them winning. They are the very top of the heap, and if they can't make it, no one can. And yet there is no one for the kid to rely on, no role model that they have. They are destined to fail almost, because they have no precedent on how to succeed. And of course, everybody in the town was counting on that one person. So when they fail, the next reservation hero already sees how he is going to turn out. It's a cycle that all of them know about (none of their heroes are succeeding), but none of them know how to fix. Maybe this relates to how they all drink alcohol. Victor is one of the only ones who doesn't accept that this will keep happening forever, as he stops drinking alcohol and is still looking for the next hero.

4.Adrian's Response "Maybe, maybe" makes it seem as though he doesn't think he will. If he had any confidence he would have said yes, to cheer up his friend. It just shows how for them they think everything has been predestined. They have seen the same repeating story so many times that they no longer have much hope. The only sign of hope I see throughout the story is from Victor, in Lucy. Again, it seems like it is just him who believes that they can get out of the tradition of having no one ever get off the res.

*Sorry that I didn't use OED I couldn't find how to access it.