Alcohol and "good old days"

It seems that the protagonists in the novel use alcohol as a way to "handle" the demons haunting them, namely war remembrances, as many veterans have been doing. Not only veterans but also in this novel as in the previous one, Native Americans who feel that they lost their identity as Native Americans, their land, culture, lifestyle and who have tied into "white lifestyle".

Drinking in Silko as well as in Erdrich seems to be also linked to a way to "deal" or not know how to deal with racism from Whites towards Native American.

We see also, on page 39, for instance that Tayo, even while he is drinking is aware of the senselessness of it all, and of the effect that alcohol has on him as well as his friends. He says: “ ..trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war.” Silko touches also on the issue of losing the land taken by white people and the complexity of the issue: “…they blamed themselves just like they blame themselves for losing the land the white people took. They never thought to blame white people for any of it; they wanted white people for their friends.”