Alexander Seguin
There are three big issues that Junior faces with his transfer
to Rearden. The first one is having to cope with everyone in his tribe (except
for his family) opposing his transition. I think that right when he made the
decision that he would transfer schools, he knew that everybody on the “rez”
would be opposed to his decision. He
felt they would think of him as a sanctimonious traitor. The second is, not
having his best friend to help him cope with this. Rowdy too thought of Junior
as a traitor (he made that very clear on page 53 when he said “I Hate You! You
Suck! You White Lover”(53, Alexie)). I think that it was also partly the fact
that he didn’t want Junior to leave him, before Junior was in a way Rowdy’s
bridge to the world of normal people but now that Junior has left him he feels
like he is stuck in his own world. And the
third, The white kids also attending Rearden have a totally different social
system and a totally different way of dealing with things, as Junior would put
it “a different set of rules” Like when Junior punched Roger in the face and he
is outraged that someone would take up such a barbaric action against him. All
of these add up to the terrible world that Junior has been sucked into just in
the past couple of days.
I agree that Junior was Rowdy’s bridge to the world of less violent people. As the narrator (Junior) says in the book, “His father is drinking hard and throwing hard punches, so Rowdy and his mother are always walking around with bruised and bloody faces” (Alexie 16). It is clear that Rowdy’s family has almost completely fallen apart, and so he seeks out Junior as a way to forget about them for a small period of time. Now that Junior has left, Rowdy is forced to face his family issues and find a solution. So, a question is raised: How will Rowdy, if at all, solve the problem? Will he run away from home, stand up to his father, or do absolutely nothing about it? I believe that this topic will be brought up again or resolved later in the book.
ReplyDeleteJunior does feel that his tribe will hate him, but eventually, if Junior does get into college, everyone will look up to him. He won't need to keep looking up to the football jocks, but be one in his tribe. Also, the transition to Rearden has given him hope, just like Mr. P said. He shows this by punching Roger in the face and thinking, "I felt brave all of a sudden... Maybe I was telling the world that I was no longer a human target." (Alexie 65). Junior should continue to feel stronger, and in turn will provide him with some hope.
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