On pages 107-109, Junior tells us more about Penelope, and he learns her secret. Explain this situation and why he says “…she’s scared all the time, but nobody will let her be scared…” (108).
Penelope is supposed to be this perfect white girl with no problems or worries at all, and contrary to what everyone in Reardan including Arnold think, she actually has a great load of burdens that shatter her spirit into a thousand pieces. On page 108 Arnold starts to understand what Penelope is feeling, and he says that Penelope starts talking about “how lonely she is, and how everybody thinks her life is perfect.” This is a great example of stereotypes, and people judging books by their cover, because Arnold thought all white people had hope and were perfect much like many thought that people in the Rez are hopeless and controlled by their poverty. As we heard in the TED talk, you need to hear all the stories, because they all matter, and help us learn the truth.
Penelope is “scared all the time” (108) because everyone views her as some lucky white girl with no problems while it's really the opposite, but she has to maintain this cover because people won’t accept her otherwise… They won’t let her be scared. In the beginning of the novel Penelope seems to be exactly what stereotypes have led Arnold to believe, and on page 73 this seems to be quite the case, “She looked at me and sniffed. SHE SNIFFED! LIKE I SMELLED BAD OR SOMETHING! ‘Do I know you?’” Society has forced her to act this way, to agree with and prove the stereotype that she is flawless, because as we said in class if someone/society told you that you were something over and over you would start to believe it to be true.
Overall these pages have shown us the power of stereotypes, and how they can trick a whole community into believing the lies it speaks of.
Has there ever been someone that you have judged by “their cover?” How was this situation similar/different from Arnold’s? Do you think Arnold should/could have helped Penelope more? Why/why not, and How?
Do you think that this stereotype exists in our world? Why or why not?
I think that when Arnold found Penelope in the bathroom there were things he could have done to help her, but wasn’t sure what. He tells her, “don’t give up” (108). Although this is good advice, I don’t think that it was very helpful for her. In addition, maybe he could have told her how he is in a similar situation, and understands. One good thing that he does later on is say “you won’t make it halfway if you don’t eat enough” (112). This is important because he knows how ambitious she is, so he is almost using her dreams as a reward.
ReplyDeleteI think that when Arnold found Penelope in the bathroom he could of helped her, but did not want to do something against her wishes and was not sure how to help. Arnold tries to continue to give her advise not knowing that he actually is helping her when he says, “you won’t make it halfway if you don’t eat enough” (112). Having someone there caring for you, motivates Penelope to not be the person that she is set by society, but to be her own being that she created herself.
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