reading response #2

Jolene Lower                                                                                                  10/7/13

       806

The golden rule comes back to haunt us

The names of people in this small moment have been changed for their privacy

            I stood at the doorway of the MS 51 bathroom waiting for Leila to come out. I had been waiting for a while and was twirling around and humming the song “coffee and TV” from my favorite band “blur. ” I saw a 6^th grader out of the corner of my eye. She was holding her lunch box in front of her, strands of hair covering her thick glasses.

“Oh hi Olive!” I say stopping suddenly.

“Hi” she replies quietly looking down at her sandals

“So how’s it goin’? How are you liking 51 so far?”

“Its okay”

Leila emerges from the bathroom and stands by my side, listening to our conversation

“Who do you have for homeroom?”

“Oh, I have Ms…“

“Come on Jolene, lets go” Leila says pulling at my arm. I stumble backwards, caught off guard by her weight. She kept pulling me away until I finally gave way and began to walk with her

“Well, bye Olive” I say over my shoulder. Leaving her there alone, I feel a twinge of guilt remembering how nervous I was at the beginning of middle school. 

In kindergarten adults teach us the golden rule:  treat others the way you would want to be treated. However, no matter how old we are we sometimes forget that rule and are cruel to others. Junior, in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian teaches us that it isn’t fair to judge someone without knowing the whole story.  He is a high school-aged Native American Indian living on a reservation who switches schools.  His new school has a mainly white population and he has a difficult time adjusting.  His struggles remind us that it is wrong to judge people when we don’t know what else going on in the person’s life.

Junior’s neighbors (both peers and adults) on the reservation call him names and beat him up when they find out that he has switched schools. They constantly make him feel small and abandoned him when he needs them the most. Little do they know, Junior is suffering internally as well. Ever since he moved he always thinks that other people are better than him either because they are white or because they are rich. Basically, because a lot of his neighbors don’t know of his internal conflict their behavior is especially especially callous. If the other Indians knew this they wouldn’t be treating him this way.

Junior’s best friend, Rowdy, is very cruel.  He is furious at Junior for switching schools. He punches him, tells him he hates him, and refuses to talk to him. Although Rowdy seems brutal, we learn that his father is a violent alcoholic who regularly beats the members of Rowdy’s family.  Because we know his story, we can sympathize with him. At times, I feel sorry for him even though I feel like I should still dislike him because of how he betrayed his friend.

On the other hand, Junior’s sister Mary seems, in his eyes, as very distant and uninterested in the outside world. He doesn’t really talk to her because he doesn’t understand her. Later on he learns that she is actually writing love stories and at one point wanted to leave the Rez just like him. After this he has a new respect for her instead of feeling alienated by her now that he knows her whole story.

What I am really trying to say is that before you know everybody’s background and what they are going through, it isn’t fair to assume who they are and act the way they do. Whether it’s your neighbors, your family members, or even your best friend, if you don’t pay attention to what else is happening to them it isn’t right to judge them. Everybody has their own pain and misfortune that they are going through and if you are not aware of their problems and make them feel disconsolate it can really hurt somebody.