Response+Journal

Entry 1: Page 13-93 The character I admire most is Johnny because of how he lives his life. He’s got so much inner strength. I can’t believe how he can go through life with a joyful smile on his face. Sure he gets down sometimes but he hardly ever shows it. His home life is awful but still he doesn’t let that get him down. He participates in all activities like a normal kid with a normal life. When in the background you see a boy screaming for a better life, a boy struggling to make it through every day, wanting so desperately to be somebody else. Wanting love and striving every day to get it. His head is full of good ideas, desperate to get out. The warrior inside him wants to seek out his people and get to know them. Maybe he’ll find his place in this world then. Having a friend changes his prospective. He can share secrets now with his new friend Joshua. He’s lived a life full of secrets never telling anybody any because of the fear of finding out what will happen to him if anybody hears them. Friends are great. Johnny shared his first secret with Joshua. What a feeling it was to finally share a secret with somebody, to not have to hold it inside, just wanting to burst out, to share it with someone. The feeling Johnny gets when he becomes blood brothers is completely marvellous. He can’t stop smiling, the joy in his heart is overpowering. He wants to get to know his background. He thinks Indians are amazing. Now he’s got Joshua and together they’re going to find their roots and become warriors just like all the Indians he’s read about in the past. Johnny and Joshua loathe baseball until that one day when they realize what baseball actually is, math and science. Together they form a plan. They become awesome at baseball because of the teamwork and most of all love and respect for each other. Johnny feels at home at Joshua’s place because of the love that thrives in that family. Johnny and Joshua both feel such great accomplishment when they know that they’re most of the reason why their team one the baseball tournament. Their proud as peacocks, their feathers spread wide. Their friendship blossoms into summer, helping each other out, Johnny helping at the farm whenever he came; mostly just to get away from home. I can’t wait to see what the future will bring for Johnny and Joshua.

Entry 2 Page 97-181

The most exciting parts of this section “The Maze” was the spring dance and the trial and finding out what the maze really symbolized. I especially liked the growth I saw in each of the characters. I was mesmerized at how Joshua took things. He didn’t fight he did things with love. Johnny has a rebelling nature and longs to fight, to use his dark hot raging anger. His resentment has to escape his body. Instead of punching his parents he takes it out on the kids who assaulted Johnny. The deception that was played against Joshua was nasty. Mary Ellen was glad to agree just so she’d keep her pathetic little place in the “in” crowd. The spring dance marked their place in the school. It said that they were now part of something and they should be proud to be their and work to obtain their goals as successful students. The fight was pretty gruesome; I can almost feel the thrashing Joshua got. The stories that were made up about Joshua were just atrocious. I mean wasn’t it enough that they got him hospitalized now they destroy his self esteem too? There’s just no end to their demented minds, scheming on what they can do next, the ruin Joshua plan. Joshua had a plan and I liked it. Keeping quiet was his revenge and did he ever get it. The boys were almost biting their nails they were so nervous. Did he tell, they were thinking, what will happen to us now? At the trial the most incredible thing happened, Joshua decided that he wouldn’t press any charges. Can you imagine what we would have done in that situation? Joshua acted out of love, love for his family, love for his friend, and love for everyone in that room. Hate and Joshua just don’t go together. Joshua got baptized, how glorious it felt to be part of the church now. God is living within him; he’s growing stronger in his faith everyday. Johnny looked like at one point that he actually believed that their was a God during Joshua’s baptism, but he can’t figure out where God was and still is when he’s at home with his parents. The barbecue at Joshua’s house was also pretty cool, well mostly what happened after the barbecue. Johnny explains the maze of life to Joshua. Joshua has figured out his maze while Johnny is still stuck inside his striving to get out, but yet at the same time he’s petrified of what he might find if he walks out of the maze into the sunlight.

Entry 3: page 185 to 258 The author got me interested when he started this section in the novel called, Bury My Heart. Joshua finally gets to know himself. I was amazed at the different things Natives do. The sweat lodges I’d heard about but I didn’t really know what they were. It’s actually kind of cool. All the religions in the world but really theirs only one God and we all serve him in our own different ways. One of the Natives ways to connect with God or The Spirit was through the sweat lodges. I just kept thinking how strong they must have been sitting in the tent for days without food or water just connecting with, The Spirit. When Joshua reads the Wounded Knee book and finds out that it’s actually true he’s filled with rage for the second time in his life. He’s so angry at the white people for killing all those innocent women, men and children for no reason at all. It’s sad to see what we white people have done to the Natives. We’ve torn down their way of living and tore apart all their cultural way of life. We’ve outlawed all their religious ceremonies. They have no life left. What they are today is what white men created. Joshua doesn’t see all the bad stuff that’s happening with the Natives. Jacqueline teaches him all the cultural things. She doesn’t tell him of the things that happened in the past and are still happening now in the present. Johnny fills him in with that information. He gets him to read the books and then Joshua knows what Johnny is talking about. But he’s not filled with rage and hatred like Johnny is he’s filled with love and compassion and the will and need to help his people. He doesn’t want to fight, sure he’s a warrior but he’s not going to solve everything by fighting because that doesn’t resolve anything. Joshua decides he’s going to try and help by preaching to everyone about right and wrong, hoping that it’ll get through to them. The love and compassion will spread throughout the whole world and will create a world filled with people who care for each other, and hate will just be a word not a feeling. Entry 4: Page 262 to 323 The big idea in this part was that people can change. Johnny is a big piece of this part. Johnny changed in a big way. He leant to see the world through different eyes. He leant to also see Joshua through different eyes. Instead of being raging mad at him like he used to be, he now respected what he was and the choices he chooses to make. What happened in that building was amazing. Joshua and Johnny reconnected and strengthened their friendship. Johnny tells of what he’s been through and how all that has changed his way of thinking. Johnny saw the light, he was at the bottom of the ninth inning and he was ready to die. He’d fulfilled his purpose and he was proud of all he’d done. He would have liked to change more but that’s just the kind of person Johnny was. He wanted to fix everything. He wanted Natives to be a part of society too. He wanted them to be included not ignored. He wanted them to also have a say so. I’m sure if he could rebuild people’s minds he’d have made sure that they all understood that in the creator’s eyes we’re all alike. We were all created in his image and there shouldn’t be racism, hatred and things like that. Men brought these into the world not God. We weren’t born to hate we were born to love and to serve him. To love one another and to care for one another, not tear each other down. Johnny was an amazing man but without Joshua I don’t think he would have done all the things he did. The bond between those two was simply unbelievable. Joshua knew Johnny like the back of his hand. He was a little scared when he had to enter the building Johnny was in with all the ammo and that stuff but he knew Johnny wouldn’t hurt or kill anyone and he was right. It all ended perfectly Johnny died serving his propose and Joshua read what Johnny had to say, and I think that probably gave people something to think about too. So all in all it was a great book. Only thing that upset me was that Johnny died! But as I said he served his purpose and he died happy because he knew he’d made a change.