Five traumatic events that occur in the story are:
1) When Junior tells his best friend, Rowdy, that he will be attending Reardan, Rowdy loses his temper. He is so pained by Junior's decision that he lets out his anguish in a shattering scream. Junior tells us that it is the worst thing he has ever heard. Because Rowdy feels powerless to change Junior's decision, he resorts to violence; he shoves Junior and eventually punches...
Five traumatic events that occur in the story are:
1) When Junior tells his best friend, Rowdy, that he will be attending Reardan, Rowdy loses his temper. He is so pained by Junior's decision that he lets out his anguish in a shattering scream. Junior tells us that it is the worst thing he has ever heard. Because Rowdy feels powerless to change Junior's decision, he resorts to violence; he shoves Junior and eventually punches Junior in the face. Junior is devastated that he was beaten up by his best friend of fourteen years. This confrontation between Junior and Rowdy is one of the most traumatic events in the story.
2) Junior gets beaten up by Rowdy again, this time during a basketball game between Wellpinit and Reardan. In a close skirmish, Rowdy smashes his elbow into Junior's face and knocks him unconscious. This happens not long after someone lands a quarter on Junior's face, drawing blood. The game is also traumatic for Junior because all the reservation basketball fans turn their backs on him during the event.
3) In order to impress Penelope, Junior tells her that he's dressing as a homeless person for Halloween. He maintains that he's doing this to raise money for homeless Native Americans. On Halloween night, Junior manages to raise ten dollars by going door to door at the reservation. However, he is accosted by three guys on the way home. They beat him up and steal all his Halloween candy (including the ten dollars). Junior tells us that the most traumatic thing that happened to him was that the men spit on him. He tells us that it made him feel like "a slug burning to death from salty spit."
4) One of the most traumatic events that occurs in the story is the death of Junior's grandmother. Junior's grandmother was walking home from a powwow at the Spokane Tribal Community Center when she was run over by Gerald, a Spokane Indian alcoholic. What causes Junior much anguish is that, due to the accident, his grandmother died of massive internal injuries. Junior feels that his grandmother deserved better, as she had never drunk alcohol in her life.
5) The death of Junior's sister is also a tragedy in the novel. Junior is so traumatized by the nature of his sister's death that he resorts to helpless, nervous laughter in order to deal with his deep grief. Accordingly, Junior's sister and her husband passed out drunk in their trailer one night. During this time, someone (possibly a friend or visitor) tried to cook up some soup on a hot-plate. Eventually, they gave up, forgot about the project, and left the trailer. Later, the wind-blown curtains caught on the hot-plate, and a fire blazed through the trailer, killing both Junior's sister and her husband.
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