Alexie Questions

1) Junior/Arnold is not the same person. Junior is the reservation boy who is shy, smart, and somewhat a dork to other Indians. Arnold is a completely different person then Junior. Arnold goes to Reardan but is the only Indian boy who attends that school. Arnold is outgoing, popular, and smart but not as smart as some of the other kids at hid school.

            Though Junior and Arnold are the same person, they share different lives.  Arnold was his birth name but on the reservation the Indians call him Junior for a nickname. Junior never broke out of his shell, always faded into the background and tried not to get beat up. When Junior went to Reardan, his teacher called out Arnold because that is his birth name. From then on, everyone at Reardan called him Arnold. At Reardan, Arnold was given another chance, no one looked at him at weak little Junior.  He was a new person and could portray himself as whatever he wanted himself to be portrayed as by his peers at his new school.

            5) Alcohol is a big part of this book. Junior faces alcoholics and alcoholism almost everyday. His father is a major alcoholic and practically every Indian on the reservation has a problem with alcoholism. Junior gets to witness all of the tragedies alcohol does to people so he swears he will never take a sip of alcohol. A lot of things need to happen to a person for them to never want to touch the drink in their life.

            Junior faced two big tragedies in his life that had to do with alcohol. His grandmother, who was one of his best friends and also one of the best grandmothers to ever live, died from a drunk driver hitting her on the side of the road. Even though she was not an alcoholic, she was walking home one night and a drunk driver hit and killed her. Junior was so sad after that happened he didn’t know if he could go on with his life. Only about a month later, Juniors’ sister died in a fire in her house. Juniors’ sister and her husband threw a party in their trailer one night. The oven was left on all the night and the trailer burned down with them married couple fast asleep. They were so drunk that the fire didn’t wake them and they died in their home. Alcohol has done a lot of bad things in Juniors life, it’s a good thing he will never touch it in his life.