The main time that Junior blames poverty for his life was when he was describing his parents. Juniors parents had big dreams. Junior said that his mother and father both would have ended up being rich and famous if they had not been born into poverty. A main quote that Junior had about being poor was on page 13 when he said " But we reservation Indians don't get to realize our dreams. We don't get those chances. Or choices. We're just poor. That's all we are." Junior is making the point that reservation Indians just will never have a chance to pursue a dream because nobody will listen to a poor person with big dreams. Junior states that for many many generations his family had been in poverty. He also says that the reason that his family is not rich is because his parents never had a chance. The author is trying to show the reader that poverty can really hold people back from their dreams.
His mom, who practically has a photographic memory, most likely would have been a college professor. His dad would have been a jazz musician. Junior says that if his parents both had a chance and people believed in them, that they would not be in poverty. Sadly though, his parents were born into poverty so they did not have a good chance of pursuing their dreams. Had they been able to pursue their dreams, Juniors life would have been completely different. I think that the author is saying that reservation Indians have never and will never have a chance. Like the quote says, "We're just poor. That's all we are."
Question: Do you think that poverty will someday affect Juniors dream? If so, how?
I think that poverty wont effect juniors dreams that much because he wants to become an artist.Since you don't need to much money to peruse art I think he wont have to hard of a problem. I think his problem will be getting know and his disability. Since he is unlikely to get famous he wont make a ton of money, that will be his problem.
ReplyDeleteJunior's dreams will be affected by poverty one day because living a life in poverty can hold back many dreams and chances. Also, Junior talks about his parents, grandparents, and great grandparents and how they all lived in poverty and they never had a chance to live their dreams or become rich and famous, because of how they are living (in poverty). Even if a big dream comes around for Junior, he will most likely have to miss the opportunity because his family won't be able to afford it. Dreams don't come true everyday and if Junior misses the one time he gets the shot to live "big" his future will become like his fathers. Junior living in poverty will definitely affect his dreams in the future.
ReplyDeletei agree with whoever bubbly is. With his mom's dream she had to college and that costs money which the family did not have. However, wanting to be an artist does not require great amounts of money as becoming a college professor does. The only thing is that his artwork being seen by publishers is highly unlikely. Poverty does not affect Junior's dream, but the chance of a publisher seeing his work is unlikely.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree, because although you don't need as much money to become an artist, one still needs an opportunity. Junior won't get those necessary opportunities if he stay on the small, restrictive reservation like the generations before him. In the insular community he's in right now, Junior won't get exposure or opportunity as an artist. Also, he can't escape the rez because of his family's limited money and resources. For this reason, poverty and his life on the rez will both affect his dreams.
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DeleteI think it will affect them one day, as he hasn't even a chance to "prove himself" to be a talented artist. From what we know about the people on the reservation, they are a bunch of uneducated drunkards with closed minds and formulated opinions of everything in their world. This doesn't seem like the first environment I would choose for trying to achieve dreams. Then again, the fact that Junior still has any dreams left at all shows that he has a strong mind, perhaps even the mental strength necessary to rise above his situation and be more then the nothing everyone expects of him. As stated in the reading "I am a zero on the rez. And if you subtract zero from zero...". The fact that the reservation is a zero to begin with shows that the whole place (and its inhabitants) is already dead on the inside. Thus his poverty, and the living conditions caused in part by this, may in fact eventually inhibit his dreams.
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