IDENTITY
No one has an identity from the beginning. No one is born already knowing who they will be when they grow up, and what life path they will follow. You are born without really knowing what world you are going into. You have to sculpt your identity, who you want to be, from scratch. Junior also has to do this. He was born a weak kid with water in his brain, which caused large scale brain damage. He was also very poor and without much support. However, Junior always wanted to move beyond his disadvantages. He forms his identity through his own strength and the help of others.
Junior fought through being disabled from birth. He overcame the obstacle of being poor. He even overcame the obstacle not knowing who he really is and what he
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pg 52.
In this scene from the book you see Junior who cares so much about his past and his best friend. His identity is rooted in his past. At the same time, Junior is trying to tell Rowdy that he, Junior, needs more opportunity than what he can accomplish on the rez. It is a very emotional scene, showing a change in identity. Junior wants to be himself, but also to go out and to seize amazing opportunities beyond the reservation. Junior decides to do both. He stays on the rez, but also commits to going to school in Reardan, an all-white town outside the reservation.
People aren’t born strong - they become strong. Junior throughout the book grows and becomes stronger as a person. His self-esteem goes up, and he feels like he can really do more. In the beginning of the book he doesn’t believe in himself he doesn’t think he is going to make it to Reardan, or make the basketball team. By the end of the book he realizes how much he has done. He has not only made it through Reardan high school, but he has flourished there. Amazingly, he gets all A grades and becomes the star on his basketball team. Though everyone else sees how strong Junior is, he still needs to prove that he is stronger than he thinks to himself. This is what he says to a reporter before his big basketball game, Reardan vs. Wellpinit, with Rowdy, his former best friend, as the all-star of the Wellpinit
One internal expectation for Junior was him never giving up. Junior leaving for Rearden was a part of his internal expectation of fighting against the external expectations. “I had to add my hope to somebody else’s hope. I had to multiply hope by hope” (43). He left the reservation in order to help his outcome of never giving up.
He had created new friendships and had repaired an old one. When he first arrived at Reardan, people called Junior many racist names. Eventually, Junior had gained the respect of teachers, students, and even of people on the reservation.
Despite the constant stereotypes placed on Arnold by his fellow Indians, and by his peers at Rearden, Junior rebounds stronger than ever. When Arnold, (dubbed Junior), arrives for his first day at his new school Rearden, he is surrounded by all the white teenagers and their expectations for him to be poor, stupid, and wild. They only consider him “Indian”, as if it is an occupation. When Junior is surrounded by a group of these racist people, they are all calling him names and making fun of him. However, none of them are brave enough to fight him, because they think that because he is an Indian, he must be a crazy fighter.
This is confirmed when Junior proclaims, “If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.” (Alexie 129) Junior is referring to Penelope and Roger being concerned for his well being after finding out how poor he is. The only person who came close to this level of affection was Rowdy. In addition, he is accepted by his team when “Everybody in the gym yelled and clapped and stomped their feet.”
Junior throughout the novel experiences many instances of violence, whether it be direct or indirect, one of these instances of violence that Junior has received could be the racism he experienced in Riordan. As for the violence that Junior has indirectly experienced, there are many instances, most prominent of these would be the death of his dad's friend Eugene, as well as the violence that comes from the alcoholism on the reservation. These experiences are some of the significant factors that have played a role in growing Junior's
In the midst of all of this he finds a balance by focusing on what really matters. At the same time this keeps him focused on his main goal which is education. Education will be his family's way out of poverty. Through seeing his younger brother that is unemployed and will be having a child soon he looks beyond this and is genuinely proud of where he comes from. He realizes how strong his family is when he seems them fighting through poverty and making things.
Faced with many obstacles from poverty to racial stereotypes, Junior must override them if he is to make his life better than that of fellow Indians. Interestingly, rather than letting the obstacles hold him back Junior understands that his destiny is in his own hands and he must celebrate who he is even if it means fighting. In the end, we see a boy who have managed to overcome all hardships to get to the top, even if it means making tough choices such as changing schools, therefore is could be seen that race and stereotypes only made Junior
They also discuss how things are difficult on the rez now that Junior is going to school in Reardan. Junior discusses things of importance all the time so he is not conforming to rule three of the Code of Conduct.
In “How to Fight Monsters,” Junior also has to deal with people poking fun at his race and stereotyping him around school. The two characters also both come from minority backgrounds and grew up in unusual circumstances, relative to most kids. Growing up on an Indian reservation and in a rundown city apartment with no father will lead to different views and takes on life for the two main characters. Overall, both short stories feature characters that share challenges, racial stereotyping, and unusual
Junior Battle does not take his academic challenge from Coach Carter the right way, quitting the team. However, Coach Carter’s philosophy is proven yet again when he is approached by Battle’s mother, who in the beginning was against the coach’s strategy, who asks the coach to give Junior another chance because she has seen the good it’s doing in his life. Junior himself then comes in and apologizes, takes accountability, and explains that he’s willing to do whatever is asked of him for a second
After everyone compliments his suit, he realizes it is okay to be different. Another example of this lesson is when Junior goes to Reardon, knowing he is going to be the only Indian there. Junior knows he will be the only non-white student at reardon, yet he goes anyway. Even though he has to deal with being picked on, and standing out, he learns to cope with it. In conclusion, Junior is not afraid to be different, since he has had a lot of experience as always being different in his life.
Rowdy was his best friend when he went to Wellpinit. When he moved to Reardan Rowdy didn’t like him because he left the Indians for the White people. Another thing that kept Junior going was basketball. He used to play with Rowdy but now that he is in Reardan he is forced to make new friends and try to be on a new team. Reardan had many good players.
Hope and Education We learned from the Junior chapter that one has to look for success because sometimes you don 't have the life you wanted right there in front of you so you have to work hard and look for that glory . In the story Junior hopes for a better education and a better life . For example in the story , page 46 , it says , “ “I want to go to Reardan ,” I said again . Couldn’t believe I was saying it . For me , it seemed as real as saying , “ I want to fly to the moon.”
I can relate to Junior in chapter 16, during dance, dance, dance by having his family support him, Junior says, “I mean, my mother and father were working hard for me, too. They were constantly scraping together enough money to pay for gas, to get me lunch money, to buy me a new pair of jeans and a few shirts. My parents gave me just enough money so that I could pretend to have more money than I did.” ( page:119) I chose this because my parents work hard at their jobs just to get me and my younger brother’s lunch money for us to eat at school. Also, having to afford clothes which was a struggle for us because they have seven kids including, me.
As I mature, my perspective of life and what it is to be a unique individual is ever changing. I believe that an individual’s environmental and surrounding contributes to their identity greatly. The culture in which one grows up in is a element that shapes one’s beliefs. When I was younger, my friends aided to shape my identity. My peers had a great influence on how I defined myself in early childhood because I deeply valued and cared about what others thought of me.