Priya Devavaram
8B English
If you think Rowdy is just mean and tough, you are only skimming the surface. Rowdy is Junior’s best friend, and has a lot of depth that can’t be seen easily by the reader. He is guarded and comes off as mean, but has a lot of feeling and emotion that is pent up. All that emotion makes him angry. People think he is angry because of his drunk abusive father, and part of it is, but mostly what makes him angry is knowing that he will be left behind.
“His father is drinking hard and throwing hard punches, so Rowdy and his mother are always walking around with bruised and bloody faces.” page 16
The first time I saw the Rowdy really show his true emotions was when Junior told Rowdy he was transferring to Reardan.
“You
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I think I’m worse than everybody else.’
Why are you leaving?” page 52
Rowdy continued to scream, and Junior continued to cry. Rowdy was so angry because the day finally came. He was being left behind by the person who mattered to him most. I saw that Rowdy was more than a tough, rude kid at this part. I could feel his pain and sadness. I hope people reading this can see how much there is to Rowdy, his real personality.
Throughout the book Rowdy and Junior’s relationship changes, but there was one epic moment when they both accepted they have separate destinies, and because of this the relationship deepened. Junior’s first year at Reardan was over, and Rowdy’s first year without Junior was over. They met up and Junior asked Rowdy to come to Reardan. Rowdy didn’t answer the question, and instead told Junior about a dream he had. “No I’m serious. I always knew you were going to leave. I always knew you were going to leave us behind and travel the world. I had this dream about you a few months ago. You were standing on the Great Wall of China. You looked happy. And I was happy for you.” (page 229)
Rowdy had finally come to terms that Junior wasn’t going to be on the reservation for ever, and he was okay with