Racial Oppression

The novel plot heavily reflects the ongoing oppression that Native Americans face in the modern United States, and thus one function of the novel is to demonstrate ongoing social problems that are often ignored. The prologue introduces multiple manifestations of this ongoing oppression, such as physical and economic subjugation. The history of the United States is inherently tied to the genocide of the Native Americans as perpetrated by white settlers and the U.S. military. This oppression continues in the present day both on the institutional and the individual levels. For example, when the narration states that Ricky’s “little brother Cheeto had overdosed in someone’s living room” (1), that fact reflects the lack of social and economic resources that affect many U.S.-enforced native reservations. The following scene then depicts Ricky being beaten to death by a group of white men, who seem...