One obvious world-to-text connection is the opportunity to overcome social obstacles through sports, in Junior's case, basketball. Junior finds, as many have found in the real world, that making a visible, high-profile to society causes judgement and ostracism melt away; this is because appearances of something are replaced by the actuality of something else.

I agree with the above post. I also think that when our students read this book, they become more aware of the issues marginalized races face. I have never made a teenager of any race that did not feel marginalized, so it will help them identify with the real world.

I think that the most obvious text to world connection in Alexie's book would be the idea of how people who are of different racial and ethnic composition "fit" into the cultural milieu of America.  There is a split consciousness or notion of identity in many individuals like this and I think that this represents the basic idea that the social construction of identity involves having to live out a "dual" aspect of being in the world.  Junior understands that there are conditions and circumstances in his own community that both define he and his culture.  At the same time, Junior also understands that he really wishes to appropriate many elements of the White culture of Reardon into his own identity.  This causes him to have one symbolic foot in one world and another symbolic foot in another.  It is here where he can envision his identity as that of "part- time."

I think that the real world identity element here is the notion that many adolescents struggle with the same condition.  They recognize that the formation of identity is a tough process, one that requires navigation and the activation of choice on a challenging level.  Individuals in this predicament are in the position whereby they must determine the most precious of questions in their own lives with a sense of anxiety and experience in the process, like Junior does.  In these cases, like Junior, identity becomes a challenging element, one that requires a sense of "social experimentation" and one whereby there is no real and absolute sense of a "right" answer.  One must find what works for them, as Junior does.  I think that this is where there is connection between the text and the world is evident.