When Junior starts high school he is extremely excited. He can’t wait to start learning and when his Geometry teacher hands him a tattered textbook he can’t help but want to kiss it. However when he looks inside and sees that his mother’s name is written on the inside cover, he gets mad. “My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from” (pg. 31), having the same book his mom had in high school thirty years before made him mad. So mad that he threw his book which hit his teacher in the face and broke his nose. Junior ended up being suspended, and during the time he was away from school his Geometry teacher came to his house to talk to him. He told Junior that he had to get out of the reservation because he was too smart to be stuck in a place without hope. The teacher told Junior “[t]he only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up” (pg. 42), he saw something in Junior and knew that if he stayed on the reservation his smarts would be wasted. Earlier on in the book Junior says “[my parents] dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams” (pg. 11), now someone was noticing his dreams and he had a chance to follow them. Junior tells his parents that he wants to transfer schools, to a school in an all-white community with an Indian as their mascot. It wasn’t the most ideal situation as the school was 20 miles from home and he would be the only one of color there, however Junior explained that “dad is a drunk and mom is an ex-drunk, but they don’t want their kids to be drunks” (pg. 46), so they made it work.
By transferring schools Junior is not only chasing after hope, something he refers to as a mythical creature, but he is also setting himself for even more of a hostile relationship with the people on the reservation. Even though switching schools may be the best thing for his academic career and eventually the rest of his life, he ruins his friendship with his best friend. Junior knew this consequence but he also knew that if he didn’t get off the reservation for school, he never would.
This book relates to my inquiry because of Junior’s different experiences both growing up and in the two very different school environments he is learning in. He is able to recognize with the, help of his teacher, that where he is, and the opportunities that are offered to him aren’t going to be able to get him off the reservation so he can follow his dreams. Luckily his parents understand this and help him with his request to transfer schools. They want what’s best for him and they know he can’t get that on the reservation. There are risks in letting go of the world you know but Junior knew this and he was willing to take those risks to follow his dreams and not end up having his kids one day look into their textbooks and seeing their grandma’s name written in it.