The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian #2 | Pages 82-130

Junior starts his freshman year at Reardan Highschool, where the majority of kids are white. On the first day of school he gets driven by his dad, but most days he’s either walking home alone or has to hitch a ride from anyone he found on the road. Reardan wasn’t like anything in the Rez, it was full of white kids; rich, white kids. Junior uses a diagram to show clear difference between him and a typical whtie kids that attends Reardan. Junior was sticking out like a sore thumb. However despite the differences, the treatment he receives from the kids at Reardan are no where close as brutal as how he was treated in the Rez. Junior knows how to fight and defend himself, in fact, one day where he was so fed up with being name called by a guy named Roger,  that he straight up punched him in the face. The one thing that shocked Junior the most was that Roger didn’t fight back, unlike how a normal fight would start back at the Rez. As the story progresses, Junior begins to make more friends. Roger is the best football player in Reardan, after the first swing that Junior throws, Junior and the reader sees more respect and kindness come from him. Gordy is also another friend that Junior makes during his first few weeks at Reardan. Gordy is one of the smartest kids in class. One day in science when the makes a false comment, Junior attempts to correct the teacher based on his own knowledge. Obviously Junior being the “new kid”, in other words the only poor Inidian boy out of the entire school’s white population, his remarks were not considered at all by the teacher. Until, Gordy interjects and calls out on the teacher for his false comment and basically defends Junior’s side unintentionally. After class Junior comes up to Gordy to thank him for being on his side, when in actuality, it wasn’t for him but for science. Soon after, Gordy becomes closer to Junior, the same relationship that he had with Rowdy. Finally and more importantly, the character that stood out the most throughout these pages was Penelope. Penelope is the most beautiful girl that he has ever seen. Earlier in the book, his first encounter with Penelope isn’t the most impressive. Since Junior is just his nickname, Penelope calls him out for not saying his real name was Arnold in the first place. Another time, during class Junior gets up to go to the bathroom while he hears the most gruesome noises coming from the girls bathroom through the walls. Penelope comes out, after finishing up throwing up and reveals her struggle with bulimia. He offers a few words of encouragement and listens to her problems in life while she cries beside him. Over the next few weeks Junior and Penelope become closer and eventually establish a romantic relationship.

There is a lot of character development that occurs throughout these few pages. There is a lot of stress lifted from the reader since it’s now apparent that there are lot more good things to come for Junior. Even though I know that Junior still has other problems outside of school, I’m more than sure that the better things happening at school will help him push through whats happening back at home.