In Junior’s mind, a “real Indian” is a person who has big dreams, but those dreams will never come true. Junior thinks this because his perspective of what a “real Indian” is is that they are all poor and since white people are rich, they have all the opportunity. On Junior’s first day at Reardan, his classmates start to arrive and he notices that “[Reardan] was the opposite of [him]. [He] didn’t deserve to be there. [He] knew it; all of those kids knew it. Indians don’t deserve shit” (56). Junior feels like he can’t achieve his goals and that he is worthless. He feels this way because at Reardan, everyone is white and everyone has money, so he compares himself to the people surrounding him. This is important because since he is comparing himself to someone who might seem better than him, it makes him have low self-esteem and makes him feel like there is no hope for him in life. He describes the Reardan kids as “magnificent...everything...beautiful and smart and epic. They were filled with hope” (50). Junior thinks that these kids are something that he can never be, and that “something” is what he wants to be. He thinks that he is the opposite of what the Reardan kids are: ugly, nothing, and looking for hope.
Follow up questions: How does going to Reardan impact Junior's thinking of what "a real Indian" is? What do the kids at Reardan think of Junior? Does Mr.P change Junior's thinking of Indians and their hope?
I agree that since JR. is comparing himself to the white kids who are better off than him he is lower his self esteem in a big way. I think that when his self esteem is being lowered to the lowest point were he thinks he is nothing there is only one way it can go which is up. I also think though that he has not quite yet hit that point and will be continuing his downward spiral for at least another chapter. Lastly I want to touch on the topic of the school mascot and how it is the stereo typical old fashioned indian mocking the rez and the rezes people.
ReplyDelete-Peter L
Yeah, I definitely think that Reardan's mascot has a big impact on Junior. The fact that it is an Indian, or their interpretation of what an Indian would look like, I think it really emblazons Junior's strength and perseverance because he still goes to Reardan even though their mascot clearly states how they view Indians. Even after Rowdy punches him and leaves him lying on the ground, it doesn't stop Junior from continuing with his hope and persevering. Another good representation of his hope and how he keeps fighting for that hope is how far away the school is from his house. It is 22 miles away, yet he still makes the trek every day. Junior mentions how sometimes he has to hitchhike to school, so he's really willing to do anything as long as he gets there eventually.
ReplyDeleteMadison Bailey
I think the kids in Reardan think of Arnold as a “real Indian,” meaning the stereotyped Indian people who are rather primitive and uninformed.
ReplyDeleteJust like Arnold said, “maybe I could just drop out of school completely, and live in the woods like a hermit, like a real Indian.” This is probably what most kids see when they think of Indians, and when they think of Arnold: “worthless, nothing, and poor.” besides, when Penelope asked for Arnold’s name. She probably wanted to teased him then “laugh and told her girlfriend at the next desk” and make “both of them laugh.” because she thought Arnold don't deserve to be at Reardan and “they don't deserve sh—” and She also teased his lisp and his background by saying “that’s why you talk so funny.” This showed that she's truly racist towards Indians and portrayed what most kids think of Arnold.
Yeah, I agree that Reardan has made a bigger impact in the first few days than his life ever. Especially when Roger just lays back and doesn't fight. This impacts Junior because he is starting to realize that the stereotypes that are made about Indians and white people all over the world are completely untrue. To add onto that I think that the white kids are learning just as much as Junior, Roger is a great, example because he is starting to realize that there are more important things. he shows this when he respects Jr. when he gets off the motorcycle and right after he gets punched. Overall I think both sides of the story Have learned a lot during these few chapters and I look forward to read many more chapters.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think will happen with Penelope in the coming chapters?
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I agree with you, and to answer your question: 'What do the kids at Reardan think of Junior?' I think that is a hard question to answer for many reasons. The readers don't have a lot of insight about people at Reardan and their experience with other Indians, but I don't think that they children think anything quite strongly of him. Unlike the big: 'white vs Indian' dilemma back in the reservation, Reardan is a more open community with less diversity. They also accept new people who come in no matter their race/ethnicity without a second thought. I think that there is only a little more attention attracted to Junior in Reardan just because he is physically the 'only' Indian at Reardan, but other than that I don't think that he is thought of too deeply. Overall, there is less attention towards him than I first anticipated.
ReplyDeleteSome other followup questions are:
Do you think that people at Reardan have had experience with other Indians (born into poverty) coming to their school? How is Reardan different than Junior's old school at the reservation? Similar?
I agree that Junior thinks a "real indian" is a person whose dreams are unreachable because the people that live in the reservation bring each other down. This is one of the reasons why Mr.P wanted Arnold to leave the rez. I think that the kids in Reardan think that Junior is weird because he came all the way from the rez just to go to a good school and that is a new thing for them to see. They also don't know how Arnold's life is for example the rules of fight don't applied there because no one will follow them. They think fighting is wrong but is it ok to be mean with words?
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think that Junior’s idea of a real indian is being poor and in poverty, and not like the kids that he now goes to school with. I think that he is used to all of the kids at his other school, all kind of the same kind, but now going to a school where there are only rich white kids, it lowers his self esteem and makes him more self conscious and nervous. It impacts his idea because it proves that he is the only Indian there, and all of the other kids are white and wealthy and have a future, unlike him. The kids at Rearden don’t really like Junior, and seem to make fun of him. But, because Junior punched Roger, some of them seemed to have respect towards him because he proved that he isn’t shy and can fight. I don’t think that Mr. P changed his idea of them, because going to this school just proves what Junior was thinking all along about “real indians”. It shows that everyone at Rearden will have a successful life and future, because they came from wealth. Junior can’t have that because he was born into poverty from many generations in his family, and can’t change it.
ReplyDeleteAnother question I have is why do you think will happen now that Roger and his friends seem to “respect” Junior after he punched him?
Elizabeth Knox