Part Time Indian D Block Blog 2017

Rowdy thinks that Mary got married just to adventure out of the tribe like Junior did. After Mary’s funeral, Junior runs straight into Rowdy who was watching from the forest. When Junior looks up he see’s that Rowdy has damp cheeks, symbolizing that he was crying. At first, Rowdy denies the tears and even tries to punch Junior, but when Junior starts laughing the tears come out stronger. Rowdy breaks down and says, “Your Sister is dead because you left us. You killed her” (Alexie 211). This makes Junior stop laughing, “I suddenly felt like I might never laugh again” (Alexie 211). After Rowdy runs away, the pain of his comment hits Junior hard. Junior himself does not deny the statement and he blames it all on himself. He tells himself that because he decided to spend his time with white people, she had burned. There is no truth in Rowdy’s statement because Mary had always been adventurous. She was adventurous enough to run away from home with no money, support, or experience...

On pages 216 and 217 Junior is crying because he knows that Indians will never have the same opportunities that white people will have; there will be many challenges to face among, deaths, drunken Indians and loss of hope in the upcoming years. Shortly after Mary passed away, Junior is mourning over her death but begins to realize that even though it didn’t end well, moving to Montana was one of the best things she ever did; it showed that she still had an inkling of hope, “I mean, she was amazing. It was courageous of her to leave the basement and move to Montana. She went searching for her dreams, and she didn’t find them, but she made the attempt. And I was making the attempt, too. And maybe it would kill me, too, but I knew that staying on the rez would have killed me, too” (Alexie 216). Although many of the Indians on the reservation have given up hope and grieved by becoming drunk and an alcoholic the quotes shows that both Mary and Junior have not lost hope and they will attemp...

At the end of the book, Rowdy and Junior shoot hoops all through the night, and Junior states, “We didn’t keep score” (Alexie 230). This quote explores how in basketball and in life people think everything is about the score. This signifies that when Rowdy and Junior work over their obvious traits that make them different, they realize that life is not a race, nor something where you have to keep score, and they end up reviving their friendship above the rest of the tribe’s prejudice against Junior leaving the rez. This friendship relinquished joy between both Junior and Rowdy after the losses that they both suffered. For example, When Junior and Rowdy were talking about Junior going off and being a “nomad”, Junior states, “I would always Love Rowdy. And I would always miss him, too. Just as I would always love and miss my grandmother, my big sister, and Eugene” (Alexie 230). When Junior comes to this realization, he notices and understands how everybody thinks one has to b...

The image on page 182, represents how much hope exists at Reardan as opposed to Wellpinit. The crowd at Wellpinit is shouting “White-lover!” as a way of draining Arnold of self esteem, causing him to question his loyalty. However, the crowd at Reardan shouts “Destroy them Arnold!” as a way of boosting him with confidence. In the cartoon on page 53, Rowdy screams, “You white-lover! You Suck! I Hate You!”(Alexie 53). All of those insults are supposed to make Arnold doubt himself, therefore not go to Reardan, but in Arnold’s case losing hope just makes him want to try harder to gain hope.  The lack of hope in Wellpinit is contagious, so he always feels deflated there, but at Reardan, everything is different, he and everyone around him have an optimistic view of the future. The dilemma is that Arnold doesn’t know who’s side he is on. He doesn’t know if he is part of the reservation or if he is “white”, and it is confusing him. If he chooses to return to the reservation again, he will ...

The humor and irony of the title of the chapter “Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball." is the fact that Junior is trying to show that he is upset about winning but then Junior and Rowdy are going back and fourth about being faggots. This is shown in the quote on page 197, where Rowdy says, "'We'll kick your asses next year.' Rowdy wrote back. 'And you'll cry like the little faggot you are.'". This quote shows that they are trying to joke around by saying that “Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball", but really it is trying to say that they are having a short discussion and are really just joking around. In conclusion, Rowdy and Junior are showing irony and humor through the title of the chapter, “Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball.”

At the end of the game, Reardan wins by 40 points. Even though Junior only scored three points, he held Rowdy to only four. Rowdy always beat him by many points when he was younger, and it was great for him that he only lost to Rowdy’s points by 1. He was so happy to have won, but “Then I realized something… two or three of those Indians might not have had eaten breakfast that morning… two of those Indians had fathers in prison” (Alexie 195). Junior then started to cry because of what he had just done to Rowdy, since his dad was bound to beat him up. Junior’s teammates think he is crying from joy, but he really is crying about his betrayal to his identity of an Indian. He understands the pain he has brought Wellpinit and feels sorry for dragging the Wellpinit season down. Feeling guilty Junior emails Rowdy to say sorry. Rowdy emails back with derogatory comments, but speaks to Junior for the first time in a while. It was a bittersweet ending, but there are signs that Rowdy still cares ...