The Rez And Rest Of The World

One aspect of the reservation that is very similar to the outside world is the use of sports as a tool for many different things. In many places kids use sports for a variety of things. On the surface basketball, football, baseball, etc. may seem like a group of extreme athletes running around like a bunch of brutes. But to many people sports hold a much deeper purpose.
To Rowdy basketball is a release for his anger. To many other people outside the reservation the sport(s) they play serve as an anger release as well. Hard and physical activity is a great way to calm down. Your body becomes focused on one thing only and blocks out many other problems in a person's life. For Rowdy basketball blocks out his anger toward the rez, his father, and many other things in life.
Sports like basketball can also open up many doors in life. Arnold's basketball skills may cause colleges to look at him. Arnold can use basketball as a vehicle to get into college when so many aspects of his life are holding him back. On the Spokane reservation basketball is a great way to get off the reservation and become successful. This is very similar to lacrosse in the Iriqouis nation. Many Native Americans through various setbacks in their life. Things like alcoholism and drug dealing are very tempting to many reservation residents. Education is also inferior to outside the reservation so getting into college is very hard. But many Native Americans focus on lacrosse and become very good at it. Their skills can connect them to college opportunities outside the reservation.
Throughout Diary Of A Part Time Indian and on many reservations sports serve as one of the few connections to life off the reservation. Sports can cut through many cultural, racial, and physical boundaries set by years of differences and oppression.

Native Son and Bigger

I think Bigger is exactly what Max says he is, the product of not only a few decades of oppression but a few hundred years of oppression. Bigger is actually a bright young man, as he showed us when trying to cover up his accidental murder of Mary. He is no genius but he certainly is not an idiot like most of the white race thought of him at the time. Bigger is constantly oppressed from the time he was born to his eventual death. He sees the white race rather than individual people that each hate him but as a whole oppressive white blob that makes Bigger feel self conscious of his skin color. This constant feeling of hate and insecurity (for something he has no control over) makes Bigger seem like a failing dumb ape. The shame he constantly feels slowly eats away at Bigger until he kills, even though Mary's death was an accident. I feel that any other person in Bigger's situation would do just as Bigger has done.