The Rez

It has been proven that one’s surroundings has a strong influence on what they become because of links to things like their education, instances that they see and experience in their everyday life, the amount of opportunities they are presented with, etc. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the reader is able to see through Junior’s eyes how being a part of the Wellpinit reservation only limits the Indians in society. He constantly states how everyone is poor and how one of the only things for Indians to do there is drink. As cliché as it sounds, being in a non-thriving environment where all hope seems to be lost almost forces the youth to not flourish in life because they are not given the chance. For example, the Indian school’s resource pool is incredibly limited as the reader can infer from the scene with the decades old geometry textbook. Even though it was risky, I believe that Junior’s decision to transfer to Reardan will probably be the best decision he’s ever going to make in his life because it opens him up to new opportunities and allows him to prosper in life.

Native Son

The thing that touched me the most in the book "Native Son" was the ending when Max delivered his speech. It was one of the only times in the book when Bigger didn't find a white person as the enemy. Besides Jan's kindness in requesting for a lawyer and his understanding, in Bigger's mind, every other white person was setting him up to fail. Bigger saw Max as a white man that had the courage to stand up against his own kind and put the blame of Bigger's actions on them. He called out the problems in white society and how they cause blacks to act out.