The Reservation

Living on the reservation was not easy for Junior nor his family because they lived in poverty and it kept them from achieving their dreams. Luckily for Junior, he understood what he had to do in order to create a better life for himself, and that was to go to Rearden. The Native Americans became angry and extremely envious at the fact that Junior now has the opportunity at Reardan to create a better life for himself. I couldn't easily compare my neighborhood to that of Juniors because I live in a very culturally diverse community. However, there is much debate over which  high schools are the "bad" schools and which are the "good." For example my neighborhood high schools would be considered Crane and Benito Juarez. Those schools aren't considered the good schools because hardly any kids graduate and it doesn't have as rigorous of a program that other schools offer their students. I feel like I'm in Juniors shoes. I could've chosen to take the easy route and go to either one of my neighborhood high schools but instead I decided to work hard to get into a prestigious school such as Whitney Young. 

Native Sons

"Native Son," a book written by Richard Wright is a story about a boy named Bigger Thomas who is shrouded with fear, shame, and anger. He faces many serious conflicts involving racism and social status. Bigger is African American living in the 1930's who begins working for the Dalton's, rich white family. His first day on the job he kills their daughter Mary and burns her remains. He acts as though nothing had happened and hints that Jan, Mary's Communist boyfriend, had killed her. He tells his girlfriend Bessie all about it and ends up raping her and kills her to keep her from telling the authorities about his plans and whereabouts. Bigger then gets caught and is sentenced to death. 

There were certain points in the book where I sympathize Bigger for his brave recovery. Bigger wasn't always able to contain himself around whites and always bad-mouthed them. I give him credit for respecting the fact that he's done wrong. He doesn't realize that his uncalled violent and childish acts affected others at the beginning of the book and at the end he sees how it impacts those closest to him and around him. I respect him for that. However, I still think he should be sentenced to death because he could've just told the truth to the Dalton's. Since it was an accident, Bigger's chances at being sentenced to death wouldn't have been so high. There would've been evidence to support his claim of smothering Mary, not raping her. I don't think the jury would've understood his motives behind killing her because Ms. Dalton walked into the room. The fact that he cut her head off and burned her remains made the situation worse. 

Bigger should've been the bigger person and told the truth from the start. He should've never involved Bessie because that only added to his troubles. Bigger got what he deserved and if a white person were to do this, they would've received the same punishment. I do feel like the jury made their decision based upon the racist stereotypes and labels that whites put on blacks at the time but they did make the right decision by sentencing him to death.

A Principle to Keep

A principle is a moral rule or belief that helps you make good and bad decisions. "It's a guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct." The benefit of being a "person of principles" is that if you are faced with a difficult decision in life, you will refer your guiding set of principles or principle for help. One principle that I would suggest people have is to treat others the way you want to be treated. Having this mindset will help you treat others with respect despite your feeling for that person and in every circumstance. Anyone would want to be treated justly and you wouldn't want to lied to. You'd probably want you're friends, family and companions to be loyal so don't give them a reason to betray you. You would want people to be considerate of your feelings and when you're down you want others to be compassionate. You want people to do these things as you would with them. But above all, you wouldn't want these people to just pretend to do these things, you would want them to be real and honest. It truly is remarkable to be able to be a person of your word, a person that goes beyond the level of kindness and generosity that others don't always have, and someone that remains open others.