5
Reasons Arnold’s Life Sucks
Arnold’s Life isn’t just
bad, it sucks! I don’t know how he can put up with all the misfortunes he has
been dealt.
1. 
Arnold is a
Hydrocephalic:
Arnold is a
Hydrocephalic:
Hydrocephalus
is a condition when a child is born with excess cerebrospinal in their brain.
This condition causes the head to swell and causes many problems including
mental disabilities. This condition “Mucked up the works” and caused Arnold to
talk with a stutter and a lisp. Because Arnold talks funny, he is picked on and
beaten mercilessly. He became an outcast of the outcasts as Native Americans
were shunned from society anyways.
2.
Arnold is Extremely Poor:
The
worst part is that being poor is out of his control, it ran in the family. He states
that his parents “came from poor people who came from poor people who came from
poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people.” And now there is Arnold
who came from those poor people. He is so poor that when his dog is suffering from
heat exhaustion, his dad has to shoot the dog in order to avoid paying the vet
bills. In fact his entire reservation is poor. In his school on the
reservation, his geometry book is the same one used by his mother over 30 years
ago!
3.
Arnold is Shunned for being Indian:
When
Arnold asks his parents “Who has the most hope?" they both respond at the
same time saying “White People.” Indians are outcasts in many places of
society. They are poor and they are different. On his first day at his new
school in Reardan, a middle class white town, everyone stares at him. He looks
like he doesn’t belong. He feels like he doesn’t belong. The only other
“Indian” there is the school mascot! This causes Arnold to be picked on a lot by
his classmates.
4.
Arnold is Shunned by his own tribe:
As if it’s not bad enough that Arnold is
an outcast at his new school and is shut out of modern society, he is shut out
of his own home! Arnold throws his Geometry textbook in a fit of rage after he
finds his mother’s name in it and ends up hitting his teacher, Mr. P, in the
head. This causes Arnold to be expelled from the school. After Arnold leaves
the reservation to go to his new school, his friends feel as if he betrayed
them. Rowdy, his best friend, felt so betrayed that he punched Arnold in the
face! Arnold felt like he “was the kind of idiot that got punched hard in the
face by his best friend.” After that the two become enemies even playing each
other in a game of basketball. In their first game Arnold is booed by the crowd
and knocked unconscious by Rowdy who hit him in the head! I guess it was
payback for hitting Mr. P.
5.
Arnold’s life is ravaged by Alcoholism:
His
mother is a former alcoholic. His father is a current alcoholic. His grandma is
run over by a drunk driver. His father’s best friend is shot in the face and
killed by one of his friends “who was too drunk to even remember pulling the
trigger,” while fighting over the last sip of alcohol. His sister and new husband both die in a
house/camper fire after drinking too much. That sucks!
Arnold’s
life sucks. Born both poor and hydrocephalic. Shunned by both the outside world
and his home. Alcoholism plagues his life. But aside from all this, he somehow
manages to keep up hope. Hope for the future and hope that he will make it out
ok.
