The section starts off with tony and octavio planning to rob a powwow and the section ends with
octavio telling tony to hide the bullets and put on his native clothes. Part 2 is a third person view of what
Tony Loneman is doing and how he gets the bullets and how he hides them into the bushes. At the end
of the section it emphazies the moment when Tony looks to the moon and questions why hes doing this
which is important to point out because its obvious that Tony doesn’t want to do this and Octavio is just
using him because of his culture.
This relates to our thesis because of Tony Lonemans history with alcohol. His mother was a heavy
drinker so when Tony was born he had fetal alcohol syndrome. This affected his intelligence and his
appearance, specifically his face. He first notices this when he was six years old and he starts to call it
the “drome.” Tony is now 21 years old but he still doesn’t drink because he “… got enough when he was
a baby.” Tonys mothers alcohol problem would not only have an effect on tony physically but also
mentally. This is the main contributer to why tony struggles with his identity and his appearance.
Although Tony himself does not drink, the book shows the outside forces that contribute to why tony is
the way he is, because of someone else’s alcohol use that still affects him. This ends up leading Tony
down a bad path where he would do what Octavio says without question even disrespecting his own
culture. Eventually leading him to attempt to rob the powwow.
In part 2 Dene Oxendene starts by interviewing Calvin Johnson at the event. He talks about what its like
to be a Native American and what its like to live in Oakland. Calvin talks about how he struggles with his
native American identity. He feels like his story isn’t a native story because him and other native
americans grew up in Oakland. He has a hard time accepting his culture because he doesn’t know a lot
about it but Dene tries to support Calvin anyway.
Dene also struggled with his identity. He was often mistaken for different races and not recognized as
native American because of his skin color. Dene refused to drink, but he was still affected by alcohol in a
different way as a child. His Uncle Lucas had been drinking too much for most of his life by the time he
came to visit Dene. He was a filmmaker from LA and encouraged Dene to record things. His uncles
health continued to deteriorate and eventually dies from a liver problem due to alcohol. Although Dene
himself was not affected by alcohol, the affect it had on those around him caused him to change his
prospective and attitudes.