Alexi’s: “The Reservation Cab Driver”
Introduction
The lack of exceptions for anyone in paying is in itself comical considering that payment is by a certain commodity. The whole poem circumnavigates around the cab driver and the various customers he witnesses. He is one queer cab driver. He does not seek for monetary payment, but only seeks for necessities. The necessities include things like food or at times beer. His charges on using the cab vary due to the economic imbalance of the country. At first, he charges one beer per mile, but then with the increasing economic strain, the charges rise to a beer and cigarettes. The poem talks of the struggles foreigners have to go through in a capitalist world, and the various methods they use to survive. Alexis Sherman tries to prove that the capitalist style of living in the USA, and the non-diverse allocation of equitable resources weigh down the foreigners in the country, making them seek other means of survival.
The first example comes when the cab driver is evicted by HUD and has to acquire a blanket and sleep in the front seat of the cab. This is after HUD increased its prices. The poem utilizes various styles of poetry to push the central theme of the poem. The styles include symbolism, irony, metaphor and imagery. Sherman uses these techniques to show the contrasting life between the reservist’s life and the city life. Anyone coming out of the reservation building had to use his taxi for transport. However, the cab driver does not ask for any money and instead asks for things like foodstuffs or beer. This is irony at its best, here. Sherman uses irony to show how the cab driver is trying to fit in two different worlds. One is the economic world and the other his native world.
The second struggle comes when we learn that the cab driver has to work 24hours a day during the powwow. Foreigners have to work excessively hard in order to attain survival. Seymour uses the word pony in describing the condition of the cab. The cab driver is, however, quick to jump to his defense and says this is no pony ride, but a cab. Sherman uses the word pony for a reason. The cab driver was an Indian, and most Indians own or ride horses. A pony in this case is a pimped horse. Sherman compares this pony to the cab. It is the cab meant to provide services. Here, Shearman utilizes metaphor to show the relationship between the pony and the cab.
Sherman also uses imagery to stress on the differences of the two worlds, and the struggle the cab driver encounters. On the eighth stanza, we see where she writes of the payment the taxi driver receives. It is during the powwow, and he is paid through quilts, breads and firewood. These commodities stress the background of the taxi driver, and the world he lives. Sherman stresses this through imagery.
Conclusion
The tone and rhythm of the poem is slow and relaxed, to set the reader in a mood of comprehension. It displays to the reader the sought of world the cab driver lives. It also helps the reader connect well with the characters in the poem. The cab driver does not talk much, and only his thoughts are reflected in the poem. This helps the reader understand the person the cab driver is. Shearman also uses this to show the nature of the cab driver, a native and reservists.
