The last line of the book “We didn’t even keep score”(230) may be the most important line of the whole book. Alexie says this because at the end Junior learns that friendship is the most important thing in his life. Rowdy and Junior did not need to keep score because they were just playing to have fun. They weren’t playing to find out who was better and playing as hard as they could. They just wanted to become friends again because they need each other. Everyday Junior would think of Rowdy and wished they were still friends again. Although we don’t know for certain, Rowdy probably thought about Junior just as much.
In the middle of the chapter Junior was shocked when Rowdy comes to him to hangout. That was as close to an apology as Rowdy was going to give to Junior because of how tough he is. Junior thought ”For a second, I thought about saying no. I thought about telling him to bite my ass. I thought about making him apologize. But I couldn’t. He was never going to change.” Junior knew that Rowdy was trying to open up to him and this was as far as he would go so Junior had to take it. This was Junior’s last chance at becoming friends with Rowdy again. Maybe getting back to his old life, his less complicated life, the life he started out with. So Junior had to say yes so he could be happy anywhere he went. He could not survive on the rez without Rowdy. Rowdy was the one who protected him from other bullies and he was his best friend that he could tell anything to. Junior needs someone like that. He is too emotional to keep it to himself so he had to get back together with Rowdy. Now that they have become best friends again they don’t need to fight or be mad at each other. That is why they did not keep score. They were too busy having fun to care about any of their problems.
Will Rowdy come to Rearden?Why or Why not? Is Junior satisfied? Is this a good ending point in the novel? Is his life perfect or is it awful? Somewhere in between? Does Junior need Rowdy? Does Rowdy need Junior?
ReplyDeleteAdding on to what Liam said, I think that the last line also resolves all of the competitive tension going on between Arnold and Rowdy. They were turned against each other by being on two completely different sides when playing basketball. Wellpinit and Reardan had a history of competition in basketball, and though the fact that Reardan had beat Wellpinit most times was there, basketball was just a way of releasing the tension of the clash of their different ways of life, since the Reardan kids had much better lives than the Wellpinit kids did. Basketball, in Arnold and Rowdy's minds, is associated with proving superiority over the other, like Liam said. This time, however, like Liam said, they forget about all the tension over Arnold's "betrayal" and Rowdy, in a way, forgave him.
ReplyDeleteI think Rowdy isn't going to Reardan. Rowdy as Junior said isn't a mover, Junior is. I think they will still be friends, but Rowdy won't come to Reardan. Rowdy doesn't wan to have to go through what Junior went through. He might not be able to do it. I think that Rowdy and Junior will continue their friendship they way they interact is good for Junior at the end of the book. Junior now has a good balance of both worlds with Rowdy and his peers at Reardan. I think Juniors life is somewhere in between perfect and awful becuase he is having a good time with his friend and loving school, but as there always will be there is so much loss for Junior which brings his spirits down a lot.
ReplyDelete