TATDOAPTI

The last time I read this was in middle school. I've always loved this book but I feel like it made me feel really upset. Or maybe because I'm already upset.
But I felt like it started off just upsetting. Like how he has water on his brain, and no friends, and everyone beats him up, and he has alcoholic parents, and he's poor.
I guess my first question is is this representative of Indians? Are most Indians that live on reservations poor and upset and alcoholics?
I feel like at Severn, we don't learn about other cultures that much so it is nice to read about them through books.
I think Junior lost something when he gained something. Almost like a sacrifice. He lost his childhood friend because he wanted to go to a new school. That's sad too. It's said that his friend couldn't support him. It's like you can't have the best of both worlds, you have to either have the friends or the school.
I also see Junior as a lot older than he actually is. With alcoholic parents, the kids usually "grow up" faster than other kids because the parents are absent (emotionally or physically).
At the start of the book, I thought Junior had no balls. But it turns out that he really does. He does something crazy by going to the new school. He knew nothing about it and knew no one but he knew he would be one of the only Indians and he still did it. That takes a whole lot of balls. He also seems like he has tenacity. He's been beat up and poor and not the best life, but he is still pushing through and trying to do the best that he can. That could also be conveyed as him having hope. Mr. P probably saw the hope in him and wanted to 'save' him while he could. Junior seems different than a lot of other people on the Rez. He seems like he is self motivated and wants to succeed. He decided to go to the new school and he sometimes walks 22 miles to get there. He goes to great lengths to get the education that he wants.
I was probably most upset by the fact that when he took the drawing to Rowdy how his dad acted and how Rowdy acted. Maybe Rowdy is jealous that Junior is out doing these great things while he doesn't feel like he can. I hope that they become friends again.
I feel like I can kind of relate to Junior so I'm happy that I'm reading this book again in high school. When I transitioned from Annapolis to Severn, all my Annapolis friends didn't want to be my friend because I was going to the "rich" school. We have a lot of other similarities too, like parents and the whole friend issue.
I didn't remember exactly what happened in the book but as I read it, it started to come back to me. One time I was reading this book in 49 West and Ms. Lewis the librarian came in drunk with her friends and one of the guys tried to talk to me about Sherman Alexie and I knew nothing about him. So I will go research him now. But it was really funny to see a teacher in public, especially drunk. I thought teachers lived at school?
(p.s. thank you so much for giving me extra time to do it. Going to the wake last night put me behind for today so thank you for letting me have extra time to get caught up on this, I really appreciate it.)