Junior tells Rowdy about Reardan- Kayla Duran

Junior tells Rowdy about Reardan

   

   Junior had a tough time telling Rowdy that he was going to Reardan, because Rowdy is Junior's best friend and only friend, and he was unsure how Rowdy was going to act. Junior was scared and nervous because he didn't know how Rowdy was going to act. Junior decided to tell Rowdy that he was going to Reardan because Junior wanted Rowdy to come too. Also, Junior didn't want Rowdy to be surprised and mad that he was leaving. Junior was trying to make Rowdy more comfortable in this situation.

      Rowdy acted the opposite of how Junior thought he was going to act. Rowdy was furious. Rowdy thought Junior was joking at first, but after he realized that Junior wasn't kidding he lost his temper. Junior's best friend started to fade away, as Junior kept telling Rowdy that he was going to leave to Reardan. Rowdy started to think of Junior as a white lover. Rowdy acted negatively about this idea because Rowdy was an all star in every sport, and every sport he played Reardan crushed him in every game. Rowdy also thought of Junior as a traitor because Junior caught Rowdy off guard. Finally, Rowdy thought that Junior was leaving him for other people. Rowdy was not ready for this situation, and Junior and Rowdy may never talk to each other again. Do you think this situation with Rowdy changed Junior's idea of going to Reardan? Will Rowdy become just another person who picks on Junior?

Interpret/explore/explain the context and the significance of the quote “Every white person on this res should get smashed in the face. But let me tell you this. All the Indians should get smashed in the face, too.” (42) (Jack Deford)

While explaining and confessing to Junior about his past, Mr. P says that “Every white person on this res should get smashed in the face. But let me tell you this. All the Indians should get smashed in the face, too.” (42). He says this because everyone on the reservation has lost all hope. The only person on the reservation who still has a little bit of hope left is Junior. The reservation sucks the hope out of everyone, including whites, so that is why the next thing Mr. P says is that Junior needs to leave the reservation. FOREVER. (It's the "forever" that gets their attention!) If he does not leave the reservation then the reservation will suck all the hope he has left out of him. That is why he must leave the reservation: because if he does not then there will be no hope left for any Indians in Spokane. So I leave you with these questions: Why do you think he must leave forever? Can he ever come back? How do you think Rowdy will react?

What is Mr. P's advice to Junior? Why does he give this advice?

The advice Mr. P gives to Junior (on page 42) is that he should leave the reservation.  I believe this is very good advice to give to an Indian child living in this environment because of all of the people he sees give up around him every day just because they were born into the circle of poverty. A quote given by Mr. P says "The only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up. Your friend Rowdy, he's given up. That's why he likes to hurt people. He wants them to feel as bad as he does." 

The reason he gave Junior this advice is because he is one of the only people on the reservation who has not given up hope. There is a quote on page 43 where Mr. P is explaining this to Junior "'But not you' Mr. P said. 'You can't give up. You won't give up. You threw that book in my face because somewhere inside you refused to give up.'" Mr. P also says that Junior is one of the smartest kids on the reservation and that he's the only one who has a chance. Mr. P mainly gave Junior the advice because he does not want him to turn into the rest of the people on the reservation. He wants Junior to make it in life.

Question: Do you think Junior should leave the reservation to find hope?

"We killed the indian to save the child" Henry

There is a lot of racial discrimination against Indians. The government brought in many white teachers to the reservations to help change the Indians to what they believed as real people. They ruined all of the faith in Indian society so that the Indians started to have faith in whites or "real people." A quote form the book is "we must kill the Indian to save the child." I believe that this quote is saying that they must kill the mental aspect of the Indian so they don't know what to think and become a little slave. 

        The part about saving the child in the quote above means that they must change the Indian into a white so that they are a real person. Its like how the Spanish had to convert all of the Indians into Catholics so that they were real people and how they didn't believe that blacks were real people so they could use them as slaves. Manifest destiny also had a part in this. The whites belived that every one not white wasn't human and it was their god given right to make everyone white. That is what I think the quote "we killed the Indian to save the child" means. What do you think? 

On What Does Junior Blame Their Poverty?

Junior has had a tough life growing up.  He's a poor child and has little to look forward to as he believes that he and his family don't have a bright future.  Junior blames his poverty on his parents and his family's past history.  Junior has been tightly wound family that has dreams but the dreams never come true.  When you live on a reservation you have no future.  Junior thinks this because of his parents.  His parents had huge dreams, his dad a jazz musician and his mom a professor.  But in the end they couldn't make them come true.  Junior's family has been stuck on the reservations for generations and from his eyes there is no way out.

Junior's whole life has been revolved around the dreams and failures so much that now he believes that there is no way out.  "We're just poor, that's how we are."  Junior has seen so many bad things go on on the reservation.  Dreams collapse and best friends loss.  Junior has so much depression going on in his life that he really has just given up.  He believes that an Indian isn't made like a white person.  He has accepted this as part of his identity.  He has adopted this thought as a part of himself.  He has given up simply because he is a poor Indian.

Why does Junior say “it sucks to be poor…” (13)? What does “poverty teach you”?- Yuji Chan

Junior lives a tough life at home and outside because he is constantly being bullied about his physical appearance.  Then on top of that, his family- like most in the reservation- are in poverty and very poor.  When Junior says "it sucks to be poor on page 13, he's saying that being poor isn't fair because he feels that he deserves to be poor. It's not fair to be poor because he can't accomplish his dreams, just like his parents.  His dreams will never meet the expectations to escape from being in poverty.  "It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it (p. 13)".  His family's history is exactly the same as his, he is reliving the circle of being poor.  Alexie, the author, tries to explain an Indian's life in a reservation like Junior's.  He highlights how dangerous the neighborhood is and how the reservation is too poor.

Poverty doesn't teach anyone anything. In this case especially because Junior is stuck in the cycle. Junior absolutely hates being in poverty and he wants to be an artist and not be bullied.  To him all poverty does is teach how to be poor and it doesn't make you stronger.  Poverty is just part of his life and he thinks there is nothing he can do about it.  The author puts the characters in poverty to show how hard it is to survive.

Questions:  Do you think there is something that Junior can do to possibly get out of poverty and help his family? Do you think poverty teaches anything helpful besides being poor?

On what does Junior blame their poverty?- Bobby Tearney

   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?