At the end of the game, the Varsity team from
Reardan had won the game against "Redskins" from Wellpinit, and he began to cry. At the
beginning of the game, Arnold was uncertain if he had the skill to lead their
team to victory, as the coach appointed him the secret weapon. In addition, he kept supporting him by telling Arnold that "you can do it"
(Alexie 189). Although Rowdy, his ex-best friend who was twice his size, was
defending him, Arnold managed to get the basketball out of his hands. The text
says, "I rose above him as he tried to dunk it. I TOOK THE BALL RIGHT OUT
OF HIS HANDS!" (Alexie 192). This boosted his self-confidence because later not
only did Arnold prevent him from shooting, he also managed to shoot a basket;
as a result "the gym exploded" (Alexie 193). In the end, Reardan had
won with about a 40 point difference. Afterwards, however, he started to cry,
"tears of shame" (Alexie 196) because he felt guilty that they had
won. The book says, “I was suddenly so ashamed that I’d wanted so badly to take
revenge on them” (Alexie 196). He had realized how unfortunate the Indians were
compared to the whites. The book says, "The guys on our team had mothers and fathers who had good jobs...I knew that two or three
of those Indians might have not had breakfast...live with drunken
parents...none of them was going to college" (Alexie 195). Even though, he mustered up enough courage to play
against Wellpinit again, he learns that winning is not the only thing that
matters.
Junior does feel guilty, but also the pain and sadness of what their lives are compared to his now. He is going to a prestige white school in a white town, whereas all of the Indians are still living with drunk parents and no hope. Junior feels sorry enough to run "...into the bathroom, into a toilet stall, and threw up. And then I wept like a baby." (Alexie 187) and then sell it like he was happy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, part of the reason he cried was about Rowdy. He still really cares about Rowdy and feels really bad for hurting him. When he's crying, he says,"I was crying because I had broken my best friend's heart,"(Alexie 196). This shows that Junior still considers Rowdy his best friend. He is ashamed of the grief he put Rowdy through.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Arnold feels guilty after the game and some of the guilt is because of Rowdy. Arnold knows what it is like to be hungry, have drunk parents and have no hope. Maybe he realized that basketball was the only source of hope or happiness in Wellpinit's players. He realized that their home situations were much worse than the white children's. Arnold says that they had "mothers and fahters who went to church and had good jobs."(Alexie 195). On the other hand, the parents of the Wellpinit Indians were drunks who dealt drugs or were in jail. With this thought, Arnold realizes that letting them win the game would have been a small act that would mean a lot more to them then him and his teammates.
ReplyDelete