Skip to main content

#5 3. On pages 107-109, Junior tells us more about Penelope, and he learns her secret. Explain this situation and why he says “…she’s scared all the time, but nobody will let her be scared…” (108). (Sandro B.)

Junior discovers that Penelope has been hiding her Bulimia from everyone in Reardan High School. She feels like she needs to hide this because people expect her to be perfect based on her appearance. Following Junior’s advice to Penelope, “Penelope starts crying, talking about how lonely she is, and how everybody thinks her life is perfect because she’s pretty and smart and popular” (Alexie, 108). Penelope is very well-liked in school, and therefore it is harder for her to express her differences because everyone expects her to be flawless. Penelope is scared that if people find out about her Bulimia, her reputation will be negatively impacted and that she will feel even lonelier than how she feels now. She may throw up to maintain the image of herself that other people see. She feels like she can confide in Junior because he is new to this school and he may not have the same expectations as others for her. People like Penelope have difficulty sharing personal struggles with other people for fear of their outward image being negatively altered.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#8. Why does Rowdy tell Arnold, "You killed her" (211)? Is there truth to this statement? (Grant L.)

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

#7 Summarize the outcome of the game. Why does Junior cry at the end? What does he realize? (Lev)

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

#2 Interpret/explain/explore the context and significance of the quote “We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child” (35).

          In the book "Part Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie Mr. P has a deep talk with Arnold after he hit him in the nose with his mother's 30 year old book. Mr. P tells Arnold that he was not going to hit him because when he first started teaching, those were things he did to kids like Rowdy. He then says, "that's how we were taught to teach you. We were supposed to kill the indian to save the child"(Alexie 35). This was significant because what Mr. P is saying, is that people like rowdy have given up, his parents have given up and his grandparents have given up. They were supposed to be taught in a way that was teaching, but would also slowly rip and tear the indian culture apart. Their intentions were to make you feel ashamed and disgusted  being a indian and you should not be proud of yourself as an indian. Arnold is one of the only kids that have not given up. He threw the book at the teacher because he cares about his education and school. Pe...
Post a Comment
Read more