#7 What is Arnold’s grieving ceremony? What connection do you see between this and the cartoon on 166? (McNamara, Ollie)

Arnold’s grieving ceremony is writing down all of the things that give him joy in life, in an attempt to get over his grief.  So far in the book, we see Arnold lose his best friend Rowdy, his sister Mary, and recently his grandmother. All the grief in Arnold's life is piling up on him, affecting the way he acts and thinks.  When Arnold realizes how bad his grief has become, he decides that the only way to get over it is to think about something that makes him happy. In the scene before Arnold starts writing his list, his teacher makes a snarky comment about how many days of school he has missed.  His classmates all understand the grief he has gone through, so in his defense they dropped their books, and walked out of class. As Arnold starts reflecting on what makes him happy, he thinks, “And I kept trying to find the little pieces of joy in my life. That’s the only way I managed to make it through all that death and change. I made a list of the people who had given me the most joy in my life” (Ellen Forney, 176).  On page 176, Arnold explicitly states that to get over his grief, he has to think of things that make him happy. Another example of using joy to move past grief was on page 166-167. During this scene, when they’re at Arnold’s grandmother's funeral, everyone starts laughing because a white man, who collects Indian art, tries to return a dress to Arnold's grandmother. The irony of this is that it’s not his grandmother's dress, and in fact, it’s not even a Spokane dress.  The cartoon on page 166 shows that in order to get over grief, people need to both cry and find something that makes them feel good. Arnold understands that he needs to stop grieving and start living so that he can compete in the basketball season and focus on his relationship with Penelope. Arnold achieves this by writing down the things that make him feel happy. This helps him begin to move past the death of his grandmother, his sister Mary moving away, and the loss of his best friend Rowdy.