The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (60-123)

Summary
          In the continuance of this already tragic story we are introduced to Rowdy, the toughest kid on the reservation. Surprisingly, he is Junior's best  friend. He cares about Junior and always tells him the truth. Rowdy's father is a hard drinker and is always punching Rowdy and his mother. Juniors house is a safe place, so Rowdy spends most of his time there. Rowdy loves comic books, and Junior's cartoons make him laugh. Rowdy is a dreamer, just like Junior, and he only talks about his dreams with his friend. Junior thinks Rowdy may be the most important person in his life.
          On this particular day, Rowdy wants to go to the powwow. Junior likes the dancers and singers at the powwow, but he does not like the Indians who attend and get drunk and get into fights. Junior is also afraid someone he knows will recognize him and pick on him, but Rowdy, promising to stick up for him, convinces him to go. At the powwow, Rowdy trips and bumps into a window, and when Junior laughs, Rowdy goes into one of his infamous rages. Junior runs, but is accosted by the Andruss brothers, who, at age thirty, are the cruelest triplets in the history of the world. The brothers make fun of Junior and beat him up, and when Rowdy finds out, he resolves to seek revenge for his friend. When the Andruss boys fall asleep in their camp, Rowdy sneaks in, shaves their eyebrows, and cuts off their braids, which is about the worst thing you can do to an Indian guy.
          Junior is fourteen, and is happy about starting high school. He is especially anxious to take his first geometry class. Unlike his sister, Mary, who spends her days alone in the basement. Mr. P is Junior's geometry teacher. He is described as a weird-looking dude. The tribe houses all the teachers at the reservation school in cottages on-site, and sometimes Mr. P forgets to come to school, and, when summoned, ends up teaching in his pajamas. Junior has had some strange teachers before, but Mr. P isn't like them. Junior thinks Mr. P is a lonely old man who used to be a lonely young man, who, like many lonely white people love to hang around lonelier Indians.
          When Mr. P passes out the geometry books, Junior is ecstatic. He cracks it open with great anticipation, and is stunned to read inside the front cover: This book belongs to Agnes Adams. Agnes Adams is Junior's mother, and Junior is horrified when he realizes that the books are at least thirty years older than he is.
          In the book, Juniors draws individual pictures. The pictures he draws are more of doodles of other characters in the book. So that means that some of the pictures have characteristics that reveals what type of character the person is, such as Rowdy. On Rowdy's picture there are tiny squiggles coming off his head to show how heated he is, and angry comments surround his picture. comments that read things like life sucks and "you white lover", which is frowned upon in  an Indian reservation because it seems like your abandoning your tribal heritage for the white man who has put you in such a poorly managed condition.
Quote
          "Cutting off their braids,  is about the worst thing you can do to an Indian guy" (Alexie 80).

Reaction
          This is a surprise to hear this from Junior. I thought that Junior was always depressed and looked down on his people. However by saying that the worst thing to do to an Indian is cutting off their braids then he actually shows that they have values. He makes them seem like real people instead of drunken idiots. How does one look down on a moralled person?

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (1-60)

Summary
          In these first few chapters of this ,ironically, fiction book we are introduced to Junior. A fourteen year old Native American living on an Indian Reservation. He is skinny, has thick black classes, huge hands and feet. He has an equally huge skull to go along with his hands and feet. As a baby he had water on the brain so he needed a surgery that would remove it. He was not supposed the survive the surgery but he did. As a result of the surgery he has physical problems. Some of which include being born with forty two teeth instead of the normal thirty two.
          Junior spends most of his time up in his room drawing cartoons of things that happen around him. he does not have much friends because everyone calls him a retard because of his stuttering problems. Through his art he thinks he will become rich and famous, that is his way out of the reservation. he also likes to draw because he thinks, unlike words, a picture is something that everyone will understand.
           Junior knows that his cartoons will never take the place of food or money.  He wishes he were magical and could make the things he draws into food or money. Junior does not like being poor, because oftentimes he and his family must go hungry, but lack of food is not the worst thing about poverty.
          The worst thing about poverty is not being able to help those you love. Junior's best friend is his dog, Oscar who got really sick. Oscar  was more precious to Junior than any person in his life.  He told his mother that Oscar needed to see the vet, but his Mom regretfully told him there was no money for Oscar.  Junior begged his Mom, offering to get a job and pay the doctor back, but then realized that there were no jobs that a reservation Indian boy could get.  There was nothing he could do to save Oscar.
          When Junior's Dad came home, he took his rifle from the closet and told Junior to carry Oscar outside. Realizing that he was helplessly trapped in the cycle of poverty, Junior gently picked up Oscar and took him outside. He ran away as fast as he could so as not to hear the sound of the shot, but could not escape the "boom of his father's rifle when he shot his best friend" (Alexie 59).  Bitterly, Junior reflects that a bullet only costs two cents, anybody can afford that.
Quote
          I wish I were magical, but I am really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation. (Alexie 50).

Reaction
          I think this quote that Junior says completely describes him. Junior hates hi life period. He does not like his family. He did not like the reservation and he does not like himself. This makes me wonder where junior will end up in life because with such negative thoughts, I do not think he will ever be able to leave the reservation. He will not want to do as good in school, so he will not get as good of a job as he should. then he will end up as those other stereotypical Native Americans that drink all their problems away.