Dreams

Arnold is definitely a dreamer, yet he doesn't believe in the power of dreams. At least not when your an Indian. He believes that when your an Indian you wont result into anything other than a poor drunk like his ancestors. He thinks that he needs a lot of people to support his dreams and pay attention to them for them to come true. He gains this perspective by looking at his parents example. Although they both had dreams of their own they never followed them, because no one paid attention to them. Arnold would Respond to the quote "dream big" by doing exactly that. I believe that he would dream big but he would never expect to be able to achieve it or even attempt in chasing it. As whites we are told over and over again that we can do what ever we want to do and become anything we want to become. We are told this by are parents and teachers and elders. Our attitudes towards chasing our dreams is very different compared to theirs. I think that our dreams do depend a lot on others. If everyone around you is telling you that you can't succeed then you will start to believe it, this is called self-fulfilling prophesy. This is one reason we give up on our dreams. It may be the most common.

The American Teenager

As sad as it is to say the american teenager is someone who thinks they have everything figured out. They believe they can do things themselves with no help from their parents. They do what they want and won't do what they are told. They rebel against their parents in one way or another. Although they seem secure in who they are they all struggle with image. Either physical or status wise. They are embarrassed of their parents and afraid of what their friends will think and say about them. I believe that when teenagers grow up and look back at these years of their life they will question why they were like this and wish they could go back and do it differently.