What is Mr P's advice to junior? Why does he give this advice?

Mr P tells junior that he needs to get off of the Native American reservation. He tells him this because he believes that all of the Native Americans have been set up to fail. Mr P says "we were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child." This shows that the white people believe that an Indian is like some sort of evil spirit that taints people and lives inside of them. They need to remove these people from their culture and their heritage. Mr P. has finally realized this gigantic error that he has made. He also is able to realize the intelligence of Junior. He sees that Junior has been made fun of, been picked on and beat up so he believes junior of all people deserve a better life and education than he would be getting from Mr P. himself. Mr P. believes Junior should be getting more than eh is so that is why he is sending him to go off the reservation,

Interpret/explain/explore the context and significance of the quote "We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child" (35) (Vivien)

The context of this quote is that Mr. P was telling Junior all the terrible things he had done to the Native Americans in his past. In a way, he was looking for forgiveness from Junior. The speaker of this quote is Mr. P. The interlocutor is Junior. Mr. P is saying that he and all the other white people on the reservation were trying to rid the children of their indian heritage. They thought that by doing this they were giving the children better opportunities. They thought they were “saving the child.” But, what Mr. P is realizing now is that when they tried to rid the children of their heritage, they were destroying a big part of the children’s lives. They were forcing them to think about their background in a negative way and by doing that they didn’t actually help the children. They “killed the Indian".

Absolute Saddest Thing

The absolute saddest thing is that his (Junior) tribe is so poor he is studying from the same text book his own mother studied from. Junior says this because he is reflecting on how poor he is. He is looking back at examples of how poor he is. He says that he is so poor that they can't buy new text books.  This really starts to show, his opportunities as an Indian. Junior tells the readers that his parents couldn't be what they wanted to be because no one saw their dreams. This really let's us see what Juniors opportunities will be as an adult, and how "poor" is just a long line of poor people. Junior wants to show what it is like to be an Indian. Junior also said a bunch of stuff leading up to this line.  Some of it include, that hunger wasn't the worst bit, and more things that weren't the worst bit about being poor. Because of those lines we really see the power in finding out the worst/saddest thing about being poor.

Why does Junior say, “it sucks to be poor….” (13)? What does “poverty teach you” (13)? Explain. (Devin)

To Junior "it sucks to be poor” in more ways than one, but he expresses that one of the worst things about being poor is not being able to realize and accomplish your dreams. When you are a poor reservation Indian you don’t get the choices or chances to realize your dreams. In “Why Chicken Means So Much to Me” Junior explains his life in poverty. He explains what his parents could have been if someone had taken the time to recognize their dreams. He has been raised under the impression that his dreams for the future will never come true. On page 13 Juniors says, “But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are.” (Alexei 13) In this quote Junior is representing that just because they are poor they don’t have the opportunity’s and chances to follow their dreams. As Junior sees it poverty doesn’t tech you much, “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons” its says that “poverty only teaches you to be poor.” (Alexie 13). Junior believes living in poverty is useless and harmful all it teaches you is how to be poor and and being poor just holds you back from accomplishing things. 

 2. Examine the cartoon on page 12. What is the relationship between poverty and dreams?        


The cartoon on page 12 shows who Arnold's parents who have been if they had followed their dreams. His mother would have been a teacher, and his dad would have been a jazz saxophone player. These were their dreams when they were younger, but now they are only hobbies. Arnold's mom still reads books a lot and remembers everything she reads, but she cannot become a teacher because she should not afford to attend college. When his father is drunk, he sings old country songs, and Arnold says that his dad sounds good, like he should be in a professional band. "But we reservation Indians don't get to realize our dreams" (Alexi 13). In this quote, Arnold means that his family and other Native American families cannot follow their dreams because they are either too poor, or nobody pays attention to them. Since Arnold's family is poor, they cannot follow their dreams.  

Welcome!

Welcome to our class blog!