Reservations

In "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," the main character, Junior, leaves the Indan reservation he lives on. He goes against tradition and what everyone believes is ethically right. This causes everyone to turn on Junior for a period of time. Everyone on the reservation was accustomed to having a specific life, but everyone's lives were the exact same. It was rare for anyone to leave the reservation, but Junior did so, very successfully both academically and athletically.
My neighborhood is somewhat like my reservation. Everyone around me does the same thing. Children attend either the neighborhood schools or the catholic schools for grammar school. Then, almost everyone attends the same highschools, the catholic ones. I, on the other hand did neither of these. I attended a gifted center for grammar school then went on to attend a selective enrollment highschool. This is a very unlikely path, coming from my neighborhood. This is much like Junior, and his decision to attend Reardan. His life was changed due to that, and hopefully mine will be as well.

Native Son

 In the middle of Book three, Bigger's lawyer, Max, gave an amazing testimony in support of Bigger. Although the outcome didn't go as planned, Max's testimony shouldn't have warranted Bigger the death penalty. Max's speech was so special because he didn't try to prove that Bigger was innocent, or come up with excuses. He only tried providing the judge and jury with an alternate prespective. He showed how Bigger's actions could've easily been blamed on whites. He explains how Bigger was ignorant. He had never had the opportunity to interact with a white person who didn't hate him. His first encounter with nice white people were the Daltons. Mary went further than her parents, she was consistently trying to treat Bigger normally and he wasn't accustomed to that. He believed she was making fun of him, and not being genuine. Then, once he was in her room and Mrs. Dalton walked in, he knew he would be in trouble so he did the first thing that came to mind in order to not get in trouble. Max described this is such dept that it was almost impossible to not understand. Bigger was still sent to the chair, but this was only because they were meant to fail. Max was a Jewish communist and Bigger was black. These were amongst the most hated groups of the time.

Green Lights, Yellow Cars, and Church Steeples

In "The Great Gatsby," the green light represents Gatsby's dream, to get back together with Daisy. The green light is described as "minute and far away." This makes it seem as if the green light, or Daisy, is impossible to reach. Although for Gatsby it signifies his yearn for Daisy, it also symbolizes society's desire for the American Dream. Another symbolic element in the Great Gatsy is Gatsby's yellow car. Yellow is a very significant color in this story. It symbolizes Gatsby's crooked way of trying to achieve the American dream. Gold and yellow are almost the same color, which signifies genuine, and real wealth, old money. Old money is something of which Gatsby does not have. Since Gatsby used bootlegging to gain his wealth, it isn't genuine or pure. Church steeples are also an extremely important symbolic element in this story. In the story, when church steeples are mentioned, there is a reference to Immanuel Kant. He was a german philosopher who developed his theories regarding morality while looking at a church steeple. This is what Nick was doing, contemplating his decisions from here on out. Nick was trying to reserve judgement, but he was going to be compromised by his morality.