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#2 Who is the first game against? How is he treated by the crowd at the first game? How does the team (and coach) react / support him? How does this impact him? (Xavier I)
The first game is against Wellpinit, his old school, now his rival. Consequently, the crowd treats him poorly, intimidating him by chanting, "Arnold Sucks!" (Alexie 143) and throwing things at him. Seeing the look on Arnold's face, Coach tells him he doesn't have to play this game. But, Arnold knew he had to play. He needed to prove something to his fellow tribal members, especially Rowdy. When he looked at Rowdy, it looked like he was just about to kill Junior. "He didn't want to turn his back on me. He wanted to kill me, face-to face." (Alexie 144) Thinking and looking at Rowdy, he starts to laugh, the only sound in the entire gym. But then coach joins him, as well as his teammates. They laugh all the way to the locker room, which makes him feel better. But then he starts to cry, overwhelmed with what just happened. But coach tries to support him. "If you care about something enough, its going to make you cry. But you have to get used to it. ...
#1 What is “absolutely the saddest thing in the world” (31)? Explain why Junior says this and the implication. (Simon B)
ReplyDeleteIn The Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Junior says “absolutely the saddest thing in the world” (31), when he is talking about how poor his tribe is, and that they couldn’t afford new textbooks in the last thirty years. Junior thinks that being poor is horrible because he doesn’t have any of the privileges the average person in America has. In chapter two, Junior’s mom says, “‘Junior sweetheart,’ ... ‘I’m sorry, but we don’t have any money for Oscar”’ (10). Junior’s family’s lack of money is his limitation, his boundary. It holds him back to the point where he believes he “deserve[s] to be poor” (13). Junior’s reservation is unfairly poor, which is symbolized well when Junior finds out that he had the same textbook his mother had thirty years before him. Junior is so used to living poorly it seems to him he deserves it, and even though it is hard, it’s the life he was meant to live because he’s Indian. While Junior’s thoughts aren’t true and he doesn’t deserve to live this way just because he’s Indian; he does bring up a good point with his statement that implies he has this life because of his race. Indian people have been and still are treated unfairly for no reason. Just like other races, Indian people, especially in this book, have been mistreated a lot in both the past, and the present. I agree with Junior that being poor is one of, if not the worst thing in the world because of the way it limits what you can do.