An Analysis Of Junior's Hope

At the beginning of the book, Junior believes that most of the hope and opportunity in Spokane and Rearden, rests with white people. We know that he believes this because of what he says on page 50 when he recalls playing rich, white Rearden teams in competitions, he says, “Those kids were magnificent. The knew everything. And they were beautiful. They were beautiful and smart. They were beautiful and smart and epic. They were filled with hope.” This quote confirms Junior’s original belief that the hope rests with white people. Also as a result of this, we can infer that he doesn’t think he is as good as white people, which might be why the teams from the Reservation (rez) always lose to the Rearden teams. The rez teams lose to the Rearden teams not because the Rearden kids are more athletic or smarter, but because the rez teams don’t think that they can win.
Junior might believe this because he sees white families walking around looking perfect. But what he doesn’t know is that every family has problems in their house. As Leo Tolstoy said, “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Even though Junior talks about how every Indian family is unhappy because of one reason, alcohol. Readers might think that even though many Indian family's problems are sparked from alcohol, they all are quite different. For example, in Junior’s family, his dad drinking is only one of many problems. Some of the other problems are that his sister Mary ran off to marry a Flathead Indian, that his parents never achieved any of their dreams, and that their is no hope on the