{"id":14650,"date":"2020-09-17T15:25:30","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T19:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=14650"},"modified":"2020-09-21T23:59:32","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T03:59:32","slug":"goliath-and-david-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/goliath-and-david-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Goliath and David Story: What Junior Got Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does Junior use the Goliath and David story in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em>? Does the story actually apply to him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior’s school school, Reardan, has a basketball rivalry with his old school on the reservation. Junior compares the rivalry to the Goliath and David story. But by the end of the game, he realizes he has it backward. He’s not David, he’s Goliath, and it makes him sick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about how Junior uses the Goliath and David story as a way to think about his basketball rivalry, and how he discovers he’s wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Goliath and David Story in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To his surprise, Junior has become a good basketball player. In fact, he\u2019s the best shooter on the team. He suspects it\u2019s because people\u2019s expectations of him have changed. On the rez, people see him as the bottom of the barrel. At Reardan, Junior\u2019s coach and teammates expect Junior to be good, so he is. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reardan team has won 12 games in a row. They\u2019re so good that the community compares them to the greats: Roger is the \u201cnew Joel Wetzel\u201d and teammate James is the \u201cnew Keith Schulz.\u201d But nobody compares Junior to a legend.<\/strong> It doesn\u2019t even occur to them to compare a little Indian boy to a white player. To them, it\u2019s like comparing apples and oranges. Junior hopes that, someday, they\u2019ll compare Reardan student athletes<\/a> to him<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior\u2019s eager for Reardan\u2019s rematch with Wellpinit<\/a>, even though he feels like the \u201cIndian scout who led the U.S. Cavalry against other Indians.\u201d After Wellpinit beat them so badly in their first game, Junior wants revenge. His particular goal is to embarrass Rowdy, the best player on Wellpinit\u2019s team. He thinks about the Goliath and David story and a metaphor, believing himself to be David, the underdog, and the better Wellpinit team to be Goliath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the game, the Reardan coach is honest with his players: The Wellpinit team is better than they are. However, Reardan has more heart. In a surprise move, Coach announces that Junior will be starting and that he\u2019ll be guarding Rowdy all night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This terrifies Junior. He\u2019s much smaller than Rowdy and doesn\u2019t believe he can prevent him from dominating the game. But Coach keeps telling Junior he can do it, and Junior starts to believe it. He realizes that this simple sentence, \u201cYou can do it,\u201d is one of the most powerful sentences in English<\/strong>, especially coming from an adult. This empowers his in his belief in his own Goliath and David Story <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During warm up, Rowdy and Junior try to ignore each other, but they\u2019re sending \u201chate signals\u201d across the court. Junior thinks that you have to love somebody a lot in order to hate them that much.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opening Play<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The players take their positions, and Rowdy laughs when he sees that Junior\u2019s guarding him. The game has just started when Rowdy steals the ball. Junior knows Rowdy well, and he knows what Rowdy\u2019s intending to do: Rowdy plans to dunk the ball, a dramatic opening move meant to embarrass Reardan in the first play. This furthers Junior’s belief in his personal David & Goliath story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior chases Rowdy down the court and does some quick calculating: Rowdy will probably start his jump 5 feet away from the basket; Rowdy can jump 2 feet higher than Junior can. So Junior makes the split-second decision to jump first. He and Rowdy rise together toward the basket, but, as if by magic, Junior starts to rise higher than Rowdy. It\u2019s the first time in his life that he\u2019s outjumped Rowdy. Mid-air, Junior steals the ball from Rowdy\u2019s hands and observes the look of complete shock on Rowdy\u2019s face.<\/strong> No one<\/em> in high school basketball makes plays like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior lands with the ball and runs to the opposite end of the court, with Rowdy screaming behind him. Junior halts abruptly at the three-point line and head-fakes. Surprisingly, Rowdy falls for it, jumping in front of Junior as Junior patiently waits for him to pass. They make eye contact while Rowdy\u2019s in the air, and Rowdy knows he\u2019s made a stupid mistake<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior has time to stick his tongue out at Rowdy before swishing a three-pointer. Junior\u2019s teammates, coach, and parents are ecstatic. In that moment, everyone knows that the game is already won. Junior begins to wonder if his thoughts on the Goliath and David story are right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Celebration<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After the game, Junior\u2019s teammates lift him to their shoulders. Junior\u2019s thrilled and searches the stands for his dad, who may be an \u201cundependable drunk\u201d but never misses a game. Junior finds him, but his dad isn\u2019t cheering. Instead, he\u2019s watching the Wellpinit team, who are dejectedly watching Reardan celebrate its victory. Reveling in Wellpinit\u2019s defeat, Junior cheers, comparing himself to David, who knocks out Goliath with a stone. But then, still on the shoulders of his teammates, he realizes something: In the Goliath and David story, Reardan isn\u2019t David, the underdog; Readan is Goliath<\/em>, the giant, the team with all the advantages.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior\u2019s teammates, drive their own cars, carry their own cell phones, have parents with good jobs, and will go to college. In contrast, more than one kid on the Wellpinit team probably didn\u2019t eat breakfast. Two of them have fathers in prison. None of them will go to college, and Rowdy\u2019s father will beat him for losing the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior escapes to the bathroom, vomits, and cries tears of shame. He wants to apologize to Rowdy for breaking his heart. This is not the David & Goliath story he imagined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, after the season ends, Junior emails Rowdy to apologize for beating Wellpinit so badly. Rowdy responds, writing that Wellpinit will kick Reardan\u2019s ass next season, and Junior will \u201ccry like the little faggot\u201d that he is. Junior\u2019s delighted. He got a response from Rowdy! He emails Rowdy, \u201cI might be a faggot, but I\u2019m the faggot who beat you,\u201d to which Rowdy replies \u201cHa-ha.\u201d Junior\u2019s thrilled that he\u2019s communicating with Rowdy again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it’s not the David & Goliath story Junior imagined, he learned a valuable lesson, one he will consider for the rest of his life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does Junior use the Goliath and David story in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? Does the story actually apply to him? Junior’s school school, Reardan, has a basketball rivalry with his old school on the reservation. Junior compares the rivalry to the Goliath and David story. But by the end of the game, he realizes he has it backward. He’s not David, he’s Goliath, and it makes him sick. Read more about how Junior uses the Goliath and David story as a way to think about his basketball rivalry, and how he discovers he’s wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,15,12],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-14650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-education","category-relationships","tag-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nGoliath and David Story: What Junior Got Wrong - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What does the Goliath and David story have to do with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? 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