When Mr. P is having a chat with Junior, Mr. P says to him “Every white person on this res should get smashed in the face. But let me tell you this. All the Indians should get smashed in the face, too.” In this quote, Mr. P is trying to apologize to Junior for all the things that white people did to the Indians, for example taking the Indian's land. Mr. P also says that all the Indians should get "smashed in the face" because the Indians just gave up. None of the Indians fought for what they deserved and just let what was happening happen. Mr. P believes that nobody should lose hope, he feels like losing hope is something that you should maybe even be punished for. He is explaining all this to Junior because he knows that Junior is the only Indian, maybe even the only child, in the reservation that hasn't lost hope. He wants to save Junior from that because he knows all the potential that Junior has and he doesn't want all that to go to waist, he doesn't want Junior to throw all his talent and intelligence out the window. Mr. P has faith in Junior and he won't let all the other kids in the reservation take Junior's hope away from him.
In the post, Chloe explores the reasons why Mr. P told Junior what he did, and I agree with her. Most Indians, unlike Junior, have lost hope, and they act as if they have no chances to make something of themselves. Most whites, are racist and mean to the point that they feed off of the Indians' despair. Even so, I disagree with your last sentence. Though Mr. P has hope in Junior, Mr. P still won't hold his hand during the first steps of his journey.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chloe that Mr. P is trying to make sure that Junior doesn’t loose his hope and and that he does keep his belief that things can get better for all of them. I think that not only Mr. P is trying to preserve Junior’s faith and hope, but he is also trying to prevent Junior from becoming like everyone else on the reservation, including Mr. P himself. Mr. P admits to being very inhumane to some of his students in the past. “’I hurt a lot of Indian kids when I was a young teacher,’ he said. ‘I might have broken a few bones’” (Alexie, 35). Mr. P doesn’t want Junior to turn out like Mr. P did; and he doesn’t want Junior to grow up hurting innocent Indian children, and thinking that it’s an okay thing to do. He wants to make sure that Junior doesn’t grow up and settle into life and accept that Indians will never be the welcomed race, and that it is a good thing to try to get rid of the Indian traditions and whatnot.
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