When Junior’s canine Oscar gets heat stroke, his father must put him down by taking pictures him as they can’t afford a veterinarian. Ashamed, he runs to the locker room, vomits, and breaks down sobbing. Nicknamed Junior, Arnold is a fourteen-yr-outdated boy who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The ebook follows fourteen-yr-outdated Arnold Spirit Jr., often known as “Junior,” residing together with his household on the Spokane Indian Reservation close to Wellpinit, Washington. Another similarity between Alexie and his character Arnold is that Alexie also left the reservation to attend highschool at Reardan High, however Alexie selected to go to Reardan to realize the required credit he wanted to go to varsity. The scene the place Arnold finds that he’s using the same textbook his mother did thirty years earlier than he is drawn from Alexie’s own experiences. On the primary day of school, Junior discovers his mother’s identify written in his textbook and realizes how previous the guide have to be.
When Junior enters the court for his first match, his former schoolmates boo and insult him. The novel started as a section of Sherman Alexie’s household memoir, but after the persistence of a young adult editor, he decided to use it as a foundation for his first young grownup novel. Like Arnold, Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Reservation in Wellpinit with an alcoholic father. He was additionally born with hydrocephalus, but Alexie did not have any speech impediments. Born with hydrocephalus, Junior is small for his age and suffers from seizures, poor eyesight, stuttering, and a lisp, making him a frequent bullying goal for others on the reservation. The one difference between Alexie’s life and the novel is that Alexie threw the guide towards the wall out of anger, and didn’t hit anybody as Junior did. Alexie was additionally teased for his government-issued, horn-rimmed glasses and nicknamed “The Globe” by fellow students due to his giant head. Through Junior’s success at Reardan and his realizations about life on the reservation, Alexie represents a risk for the success of Native American youngsters-by defeating the expectation that he is doomed to fail, Junior defeated what he thought he could not.
Despite his repute as a bully on the reservation, Rowdy often stands up for Junior they usually bond over their shared love of comics. Despite his household’s monetary state of affairs, they do what they can to make it doable for him to attend. If podiatrists had their approach, ladies would in all probability never wear high heels, as this fashionable footwear can result in a bunch of health issues, together with ankle sprains, bunions, hammertoes and joint pain. While visiting Junior at house, Mr. P convinces him to transfer to a different highschool, sensing a degree of precociousness in him. Junior feels triumphant till he sees the look of defeat on the Wellpinit players’ faces and remembers the lack of hope he had for his future while growing up on the reservation. The tragedies that afflict Junior and his family, though forcing him to question his future and ponder the darker elements of reservation tradition, reaffirm his love for his family and friends, and he finally learns to identify as both Indian and American. Ultimately, Junior and Rowdy reconcile while taking part in basketball and resolve to correspond irrespective of where the future takes them.
After her funeral, a household good friend, Eugene, is shot within the face by his pal Bobby while each are intoxicated and combating over the last sip of alcohol. He realizes how a lot stronger his household ties are than those of his white classmates, noticing that lots of the white fathers never attend college occasions. My bf planned it as he is aware of how a lot I like the Cheesecake Factory. Junior elects to attend Reardan, a school in a much wealthier neighborhood with no different Indian students. Junior also realizes that the white college students have completely different guidelines than these he grew up with, evident when he reacts to an insult from the varsity’s star athlete, Roger, by punching him in the face, as can be anticipated of him on the reservation. To Junior’s shock, he makes the varsity workforce, which pits him towards his former faculty, Wellpinit, and Rowdy, who’s Wellpinit’s star freshman. Rowdy, however, is upset by Junior’s determination to transfer, and so they gradually start to stop contact.