The first basketball game that Reardon played against was against Wellpinit High School. When Arnold first walked into the Wellpinit court, he was welcomed by fans that live in the reservation, and they were shouting disrespectful things at Junior. This is since all the fans on the reservation were aggravated and upset that Junior had switched schools, which means that they felt betrayed and in their opinion, being crude was a good way at getting revenge directed to Junior. The coach notices that the crowd doesn’t seem to like Junior, so he reacts by making sure that Junior feels comfortable enough to play in the game. In other words, the coach gives him the right to back down and not play in the game. In the locker room, after the crowd turned their back on Junior, the coach gave everyone a pep talk: “If you care about something enough, it’s going to make you cry. But you have to use it. Use your tears. Use your pain. Use your fear. Get mad Arnold, get mad”(144). The coach realizes how much pain that the fans are causing Junior, and Junior took his advice and got mad. He used this to his advantage, and he was thankful for his coach in these moments. This was the start of a great relationship between Junior and his coach. However, a fan threw a coin at Junior’s forehead, which drew blood and eventually took him out of the game. If not for his actions of getting mad and playing hard, the coin would not of been thrown, and Junior could continue to play in the game. At first, the speech that the coach made impacted Junior in a positive way because he turned his emotions into a weapon that could be used to win for Rearden, but eventually he got injured. Depending on which way you think of it, this could be a positive lesson for Arnold on how to turn something bad (such as anger in this situation) into something good, or it could be a negative impact because of the result of getting injured.
Some other questions to think about are: If Mr. P was at this game, what do you think he would of done? If Mr. P found out about what happened at this game, do you think he would feel responsible for Arnold’s injury because he gave Arnold the idea to switch schools? Do you think it is possible for anyone in the reservation to every forgive Junior again?
I think most people in the Rez won’t forgive Arnold because he is now considered as an absolute traitor. If they wanted to forgive him, they probably won’t “throw a freaking quarter at him” which hit him on the forehead and injured him. they could have just shout a few unpleasant comment in order to show their hatred towards Arnold, but they tried to injure him and kick him out of the court. This really shows the impossibility of forgiveness. Besides, the “rules for Indians” is that you “fight” whenever you are insulted. This implied that a lot of Indians treat unpleasant events or people in an extreme way. Therefore a traitor will possibly be treated very badly and will never be forgiven by the reservation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Isabella. I think when the coach was talking to Arnold about using his anger, I think that using it is a positive for the team, even if he got injured in the game. I think it is a positive, but it may also be a negative because he got injured. To answer your questions, I think that Mr. P would maybe be going against everyone and cheering Junior on. But he also might have been afraid to do anything since he was the one who thought he should leave and go to Rearden. I think that he might’ve felt responsible since he told him to leave and gave him the idea, and told him that he would be successful at Rearden. I think it may be possible for others to forgive him, but it may be hard. He left the reservation, his home and his friends, so he could be successful, and for him it was a positive. But, everyone else was upset that he left because he betrayed them and their reservation.
ReplyDeleteAnother question I have is do you think that Rowdy will ever forgive Junior for leaving or will he not?
Elizabeth Knox
I don't think that people on Rez will ever forgive Arnold. Some are did not view him as a traitor to begin with (his parents and Eugene), but those that do won't be able to look past the fact that he left them. Red vs. White is something that is taught constantly at the Rez, whether the people who live there know it or not, so this feeling of division is strong within Indians. It is constantly being reinforced, so when the Indians on the Rez see Arnold leaving them to be "white", they just see him as the enemy. It is hard to accept someone back to your side once you see them on the side you have been taught to hate for so long.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the other Native Americans (not his parents and Eugene) will not take him back. He couldn't really apologize unless he left Reardan and came back, which he is not going to do, because he is doing well there, and is getting to know people there. If he betrays everyone on the rez., and does not even apologize, it seems extremely unlikely that anyone will forgive him. To answer your questions about Mr. P, I think Mr. P would have told him not to play after he got hit in the head, because Mr. P is too protective of Arnold, as we saw earlier in the book when he describes what happened to Arnold’s sister, and how he doesn’t want that to happen again with Arnold. However, I do not think Mr. P would feel guilty. When he told Arnold to leave the reservation, they both knew the Native Americans would regard him as a traitor. On page 47, when he decides to go to Reardan, Arnold even ends the chapter with, “Shoot, I figure that my fellow tribal members are going to torture me”.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't agree with you, Amelie and Asher I think that it is possible for his tribe to forgive him. It might not happen soon and not everyone will forgive him, but I think that a majority of his tribe will forgive him. Just like the people on the rez, I think that Rowdy will forgive Junior but it might not happen very fast because Junior did betray Rowdy and his tribe I agree with Amelie in a way that the people on the Rez have been taught to hate white kids, but people can change just like Junior changed. Also Junior is betraying his tribe to make his dream come true and that might make the tribe hate him at first but I think that as soon as people realize what Junior realized, they will understand everything like puzzle pieces that come together.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rechell that it is possible for the tribe to forgive Junior and maybe some of them will even follow in his footsteps. I think that some of them might follow in his footsteps for two reasons. One is because I think that once the rez realizes that what junior is doing is a way to possibly break the bonds of generations of poverty and become successful they will follow. The second reason is because once the people on the rez see Junior passing them and becoming well off they will want in on some of the action as well to improve their lives.
ReplyDelete-Peter L
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is a new start with Junior and his coach but I have the idea that Roger is going to get jealous of Junior's and sabotage him. I think that if Mr. P was here he wold be very disappointed with his school that he worked at. I also think that he would also feel bad for Junior because it was his idea for him to go to a new school and the outcome of all of it got Junior hurt. I also think that it is possible in the reservation to forgive Junior because he was just trying to make a decision to improve his life. Rowdy and the rest of the people on the reservation will see that later on even if they do not see it now.
ReplyDeleteWhat do people think about the new Roger and the way he has been acting towards Junior compared to before?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think even though Mr. P just gave Arnold the idea to go to Reardan, he would blame himself for having Arnold to go through this pain. A while back when Mr. P came to Arnold's house, he was apologizing to Arnold and it should have been the other way around. This shows that Mr. P is the kind of guy that will feel bad when something goes wrong and feel like he did it even if he was only slightly involved. I think if Mr. P was at the game than he would not be booing Arnold and maybe even start crying because he would feel so bad about what he thought he did.
ReplyDelete-Durfee