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While watching Penelope play in a volleyball game, Junior notes how beautiful she is, especially her white outfit and white skin, comparing her to “the most perfect kind of vanilla dessert cake” (114). Junior emails Rowdy asking for advice on what to do about falling in love with a White girl. Rowdy calls Junior an “asshole” and says he’s sick of “Indian guys who treat white women like bowling trophies” (115). Junior asks Gordy the same question, and a few days later, Gordy tells Junior about an article written about a White girl named Cynthia who disappeared in Mexico. The author of the article notes that Cynthia’s disappearance received far more coverage than the disappearances of 200 Mexican girls from the same area, and the author argues it’s because White girls are privileged. Junior is confused about Gordy’s meaning, and Gordy tells Junior that he is “a racist asshole like everyone else” (116). Junior notes that Gordy and Rowdy are both tough in their own ways.
Travelling between Reardan and Wellpinit makes Junior feel like a stranger, half White in one place and half Indian in the other. Being an Indian begins to feel like working a low-paying part-time job.
At Reardan, Junior keeps his poverty hidden from his White classmates and includes a cartoon called “How to Pretend You’re Not Poor” (120). In December, however, Junior takes Penelope to the Winter Formal, and he worries his poverty will be exposed because he only has five dollars, not enough to pay for everything. He borrows one of his father’s polyester, bell-bottomed suits from the 1970s and worries other students will make fun of him. The suit, however, is a hit with Penelope, Roger, and Junior’s classmates, and Junior and Penelope dance every dance and have a wonderful time.
After the dance, some of the upperclassmen, including Roger, visit a diner in Spokane and invite Junior and Penelope. At the diner, Junior orders a feast, even though he can’t afford it. Halfway through the meal, he goes to the bathroom to throw up. Roger comes in and asks if Junior’s okay, and he says that he and Penultimate, his nickname for Penelope, are a great couple. He asks if Junior’s “done her” and then encourages Junior to try out for basketball. Junior tells Roger he forgot his wallet, and Roger loans him forty dollars, which amazes Junior.
They finish pancakes at three am, and Junior tells Roger to drive him back to school, because his dad will pick him up. When Junior says goodbye to Penelope, she asks Junior if he’s poor, and Junior says yes. Penelope kisses him on the cheek, and at first Junior wants to accuse her of being shallow, but he realizes she’s being a good friend. Penelope says Roger guessed that Junior was poor, and she assures Junior he won’t tell anyone. Penelope wants to know how Junior gets home, and he explains that he usually walks, and someone normally picks him up. Penelope cries and insists Roger drive Junior home, which, “being of kind heart and generous pocket, and a little bit racist,” he does (129). Junior says people can be amazing when you let them into your life.
Junior misses Rowdy and emails him a picture of his smiling face from the Reardan computer lab. Rowdy emails Junior a picture of his “bare ass.” Junior laughs, but the photo also makes him depressed. Gordy asks if it’s a picture of someone’s “posterior,” Junior tells him it’s a “stinky ass,” and it belongs to his best friend Rowdy (131).
Junior tells Gordy Rowdy hates him because he left the reservation, and because some Indians think you become White if you try to make your life better or become successful. Gordy asks, “if that were true, then wouldn’t all White people be successful?” (131).
Junior says the folks on the reservation call him an “apple” because he’s “red on the outside and white on the inside” (132). Gordy observes that “life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of a community” (132). This dates back to primitive times, he explains, and continues today, where weird people, like Gordy and Junior, are banished. Junior observes that they have a “tribe of two,” and then wants to hug Gordy (132). Gordy tells him not to be sentimental, and Junior observes even the weird boys are afraid of their emotions.
In “Rowdy Gives Me Some Advice about Love,” Junior fetishizes Penelope’s whiteness, likening her to desserts, objectifying her for her skin color and her beauty, which are, in his mind, linked. Junior, however, isn’t aware of his own problematic thinking until he talks things through with Rowdy and later, Gordy. Rowdy’s cutting response to Junior’s email shows a rare perceptive and thoughtful side of Rowdy (though still communicated in his typical harsh, blunt way). The article Gordy references speaks not just to the Indian experience of fetishizing White women, but to an ongoing cross-cultural problem in which the narratives and stories of White women are more centralized and visible than the stories of women of color. Junior notes the similarities between Gordy and Rowdy, drawing a parallel between them.
“Dance, Dance, Dance” marks a pivotal moment in Junior’s growth, as he finally opens up to a few of his Reardan classmates about his poverty and the difficulty he has just getting to school each day. Furthermore, Junior introduces the phrase “part-time Indian” in this chapter, using it to explain how fractured his identity feels, and how he feels forced to wear different masks depending on whether he’s in Wellpinit or Reardan. “Part-time Indian” also has an economic connotation, as Junior says being an Indian feels like a job that “didn’t pay well at all,” highlighting the theme of poverty (118).
Though Junior feels that his true identity is a secret at Reardan, he participates actively in the deception by lying about being poor and concealing certain elements of his life while at Reardan. Embarrassed by and ashamed of his poverty—and already feeling different enough because of his race and speech impediment—it’s easier to keep parts of himself hidden than to explain his situation to his White classmates. At the dance, Junior’s lie begins to feel like a damaging psychological burden: he spends a good portion of the night afraid he’ll be exposed. Junior also combats and debunks some pervasive myths about Indians and money that White people believe: that Spokane Indians are rich because they have a casino, and the government has been giving Indians money.
When Junior is eventually outed as poor, he expects the revelation will result in gossip. Penelope’s insistence that Roger won’t tell and that he’ll be Junior’s friend surprises Junior, revealing how much he underestimated his classmates’ ability to show him compassion and empathy. Indeed, Penelope cries when Junior reveals the distance he sometimes walks, which shocks Junior; while he himself is quite compassionate and understanding, he rarely expects the same kindness from others. It’s important to note, as Junior does, that Roger’s kindness here does not negate his racism, much like Mr. P’s kindness to Junior doesn’t negate his abuse of other Indian schoolchildren. Nevertheless, opening up to Roger and Penelope is a powerful moment for Junior: he realizes he doesn’t have to hide quite so much from his White classmates, and that they care for him more than he realized. He’s also able to be more honest about his identity, and as a result, his “part-time Indian” binary begins to break down.
On the heels of Junior’s mature revelation comes “Don’t Trust Your Computer,” which reminds readers that Junior is a still teenage boy: the photograph of Rowdy’s bare bottom opens the chapter, and the book toggles drastically between the profound and the goofy, using humor to offset the more serious moments. Having learned to open up to his friends in the previous chapter, Junior explains to Gordy about his friendship with Rowdy, growing closer to Gordy as he does so. Gordy’s observation about the struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community articulates exactly one of the central tensions of the book: how can Junior be a member of his Indian tribe if he leaves the reservation? Junior’s identification of him and Gordy as a “tribe of two” is a profound assertion of their friendship which Gordy—much like Rowdy—undercuts and minimizes. In the White world of Reardan, boys must to adhere to certain (often homophobic) standards of masculinity that are present on the reservation, another way in which Junior’s White world/Indian world binary breaks down.
By Sherman Alexie