My Name Is Not Easy

Bunna is one of Luke’s younger brothers. Under Luke’s protective vigilance, Bunna is more at liberty to be personable and outgoing with the other students of Sacred Heart. He quickly makes friends with Amiq and starts a fight with Sonny. Bunna’s desire to fit in with Amiq and the other Eskimos shows his desire for fraternity. For years Bunna engages in banter with Chickie, a white female student, teasing her for her pale skin and her background. Bunna is in love with Chickie, and when she figures it out, they hold hands, kiss, and open up to one another. This relationship reveals Bunna’s capacity for love, his emotional intelligence, and his ability to engage in the sharing of cultures. Bunna’s life is cut short when he dies in a plane crash. His death becomes symbolic as the students who survived him revive his memory through their civil disobedience. Luke draws inspiration from Bunna’s life as his motivation for activism and how he wants to live the rest of his own life.

Chickie is a student at Sacred Heart School. She is one of several first-person narrators who tell the story in this novel from their perspectives. Chickie is different from the other students at Sacred Heart because she is white. Even though Chickie’s father raised her in a Native American community, a home she adores, she is not herself Native American. But Chickie’s exposure to Native American culture allows her to become a strong ally to the abused students of Sacred Heart. Chickie despairs over the racism in her school, including the prejudice among the tribes. Chickie is the voice of equality and universal love in this novel. When she and Bunna discover their feelings for one another, Chickie and Bunna exchange stories about their culture. Their relationship symbolizes how children can, and adults should, break down the social barriers of racism and prejudice. Chickie is smart, brave, kind, and has an outgoing personality that brings comedic relief to the novel.

Sonny is a student at Sacred Heart School. Sonny’s first-person point-of-view narrates various sections of the novel’s story. Sonny is the leader of Indian Country, the group of Sacred Heart students who are not of an Eskimo tribe. As the leader of Indian Country, Sonny asserts his authority by picking fights with Amiq and the other Eskimo kids. But Sonny also feels compelled to defend all Native American kids. His bravado is a mask he wears to protect himself. In reality, Sonny believes in the unifying power of all Native American tribes sticking together. This comes from a place of compassion. Sonny embodies this power when he saves Amiq from the military’s scientific testing. Sonny and Amiq are sworn enemies, but when they have a mutual enemy – an oppressive white society – they can see and value one another for the complex histories that inform their identities. As a leader, Sonny often puts himself in harm’s way on behalf of other students. Father Mullen beats him and screams racist things at Sonny, but no amount of abuse can scare Sonny away from standing up for what is right.

Amiq is a student at Sacred Heart School. He is the leader of the Eskimo group of students there. As the leader of the Eskimo kids, Amiq engages in fights with Sonny as a way of flexing authority and power. Both Amiq and Sonny imitate gang warfare when they divide the students along ethnic lines and pitch battles back and forth over minor daily confrontations. This contrived conflict is their coping mechanism and survival tactic. Amiq’s conflict with Sonny and his leadership of the Eskimo group distract him from his troubles. Like other Sacred Heart students, Amiq’s backstory is tragic. His mother is dead, and the military provided education and support via the military testing laboratory in his hometown. Amiq’s father struggles with alcoholism and often disappears for long periods. Thus, Amiq’s family structure is unstable and unreliable. All he has is Sacred Heart and the tribe he creates there.

Amiq, like Sonny, is the victim of Father Mullen’s worst beatings and racist rants. Amiq is strong and resilient, and Father Mullen’s abuse does not intimidate him. This is yet another quality that connects Amiq and Sonny. Junior’s story about Native American oppression inspires Amiq and he writes a lengthy list of Native American missing persons. He includes this with Junior’s story as an act of both civil disobedience and solidarity. A formative moment occurs when Amiq takes responsibility for the Dallas publication of Junior’s story and the list of missing persons. Sacred Heart expels Amiq over the incident. Amiq’s expulsion galvanizes the activism of the other students. Amiq learns to accept the support of others and returns to Sacred Heart, stronger for having developed those relationships. Amiq also shows concerning early signs of alcoholism, but his friends are determined to take care of Amiq because no one else in society will.