The Rez

In the book, "The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian,"an adolescent Native-American boy,  by the name of Junior (a.k.a Arnold),  describes his journey and life going into his freshman year of high school. Arnold, lives on a reservation with his poor family that consists of his mom, his dad, and his sister, who later leaves. Junior, also has a best friend by the name of Rowdy, who is rather aggressive and lonesome. During an incident on his first day of school, and a conversation between his teacher Mr. P, he wants to set out to find hope and be successful. The reservation is very much so poor, impoverished, and everyone on the rez is bound together by their Spokane Indian culture. Arnold, wants to find hope and success, and ventures off from the rez in order to find that. Many communities, much like Junior's, is bound by something in way or another. They can be bound by race, culture, interest, etc. In my community there isn't a shared bond. Many people are very secluded and reserved where I live, much like myself. My community is very diverse and unique, which is a great thing, but we aren't knowledgable of each other and to be quiet honest, no one really cares about one another. So many people are concerned about themselves, and no one but themselves, which makes it difficult to communicate. Although Junior feels somewhat held back by being in such a close community, having a relationship with those you live around, is severely important. In my neighborhood people don't go beyond a, "Hey. How are you," or a ,"Good morning." But, they are not to blame. It takes 2 people to communicate. All in all, my community isn't as close as Junior's, but it's a "community" none the less.

Native Sons

Native Son is a novel written by Richard Wright, about a young black male,Bigger, in 1930's Chicago. Throughout the novel Bigger makes poor decisions, unfixable mistakes, and a life for himself that was cut short. In the book, Bigger kills two women, and raped one of them. Bigger case is brought to trial, and the jury deems Bigger guilty, and he is sentenced to death. If I were a member of the jury, I too, would've found Bigger to be guilty IF there was a significant amount of evidence behind the case. I believe that if you kill someone (unless out of self-defense), you too should have your life taken away, not via the death penalty, because that is not a belief of mine, but through getting life and jail, and being able to reflect on what you've done. But with reading the novel, I have a huge amount of sympathy for Bigger. And I hate this! Even though this book is fictional, murder is terrible and no one is given that right to take a life away. But I don't feel Bigger killed out of loving to kill and being a monster, he killed to have once in his life feel accomplished. Bigger is a man who throughout the book was fearful, lacking in confidence, weak, and intimidated. Once he had accidentally killed Mary, burned her, and knew something that no one else didn't he felt power. In Bigger's mind he accomplished something and he loved that feeling. Which is why he continued on to write the ransom note, rape and kill Bessie. Towards the end of the book, Bigger tells Max all he wanted to do was "do something." And he did. Of course, murder should never be the answer, but Bigger felt some type of meaning through killing. Which is what makes Bigger such a person to feel sympathy for.

Principles

Principles are extremely important to me. I appreciate what principles stand for and what they represent. One principle that rings substantially important to me is that you should always try. For most of people lives, they never grow the courage to do the things they once dreamed of doing. Being an astronaut, a singer, the president, or a superhero (okay maybe not the last one.) All of the dreams that we had when we were younger seemed so real and that one day, we'd become that amazing figure we'd once dreamt of being. But then all of that changes. Why it changes can be a number of things. The main thing though, is not willing to try. Try. That word as small as it may be, is one of the biggest words in my vocabulary.

'try (verb) 

: to make an effort to do something : to attempt to accomplish or complete something

: to do or use (something) in order to see if it works or will be successful

: to do or use (something) in order to find out if you like it

To try means to start. Begin. Effort. Guts. Integrity. Brave. These are the positive sides to trying. But there is also a negative. The negative side of the word try, is usually the side that makes people fearful of trying. To try means to ultimately deal with laziness, and failure. Trying is one of the bravest things anyone can do. To try means to not care what anyone thinks. To try means to fight for that astronaut, the singer, the president, and hell even that superhero. If you try and succeed, amazing. If you try and fail, amazing. You TRIED. You put it on the line. Simply knowing you put in effort, went for something, and tried, should be a success all on its own. Don't be afraid to try. Be who you want to be, and try.