Two essential parts to Junior's character are his serious side and his humorous side? Under most situations Junior combines these two aspects of his character to shed light on serious situations. Instead of approaching something with a purely serious attitude he will approach it with humor. For example, at the very beginning Junior explains his medical condition humorously. "My brain was drowning in grease. But that makes the whole thing sound weirdo and funny, like my brain was a giant French fry, so it seems more serious and poetic to say, 'I was born with water on the brain'" (2). This (a humorous touch to serious topics) seems to be a defense mechanism that Junior utilizes in order to survive. It could be seen that his humor is his way of trying to find the joy that is in his life.
Junior's life contains so many horrible events and deaths that he would have to start looking at them with a bit of humor in order to survive, merely looking at them with grief and sorrow would cause Junior to fall into depression. He even admits that searching for pieces of joy is what gets him through the death of his grandmother and his father's friend: "And I kept trying to find the little pieces of joy in my life. That's the only way I managed to make it through all of that death and change. I made a list of the people who had given me the most joy in my life . . . I made a list of the musicians who had played the most joyous music . . . I made a list of my favorite foods" (176-6). There is no humor in this particular search for joy, but he is attempting to find emotional equilibrium that his humor also provides in different circumstances.
The way Junior uses humor to cope is so common with children that deal with a lot of tragedy, and I think Alexie did a really nice job showing both sides. He allowed Junior to be humorous but also to show real emotion when he couldn't just allow humor to cover up his hurt. He parallels Junior's way of dealing with his emotions with Rowdy, who doesn't seem to show any feelings, other than when Junior catches him behind the bushes at the funeral. I guess I shouldn't say he shows no emotion, he does tend to let out his emotions through anger, and sometimes violence. I love that quote about his listmaking. He looks on the positive side of life, and looks at the things that make him happy. Most adults aren't even able to process grief in that way.
ReplyDeleteAfter all of the technology issues were solved last week, I enjoyed listening to Alexie on MPR. I wished we could have heard more, including him singing. (I assume that was him on the guitar just as our professor shut it off.) Even though I couldn’t see his face, the interview did put a face to him for me. He indicated his story of death is so common for his community. It shocked me that there were actually nine deaths in the time-frame of the book. I lost a very dear friend to death in high school when I was a senior; I still think about him on a daily basis. I wondered how Junior managed to cope with that many fatalities as a young person and caught myself thinking about it several times this past week.
ReplyDeleteI like to keep lists, too. My longest one is a list of things I love. Some of these things include the smell of fresh cut grass, thunderstorms, fresh baked bread with homemade strawberry jelly, the color of the sky as a storm moves in, pencils with sharp points, dry socks, pajamas, INTA Juice Berry Berry Blue smoothie, scrapbooking, dawn, summer nights, and bed sheets that have been hung on a wash line. Maybe I will start a list about what brings me joy.
I think there's a lot that people no matter what their age can learn from this book. Perhaps one of the things students can especially learn from the humor in it is to not take themselves so seriously.
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