A small joke about anything racist could be funny at the time but in the long run, it could lead to a devastating effect on someone. At the young age of 15, a boy named Tharukshan Selvan committed suicide over racist bullying. People made fun of his appearance and skin colour. This is only a mere example taken to the extreme of how people suffer from this horrible epidemic. It happens all around us and the only result is suffering. People suffer either mentally or physically and in some cases, it is taken too far. Both Ernest Buckler in “Long, Long After School”, and Sherman Alexie in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian examine this idea of how Wes and Junior suffer as they are victims of stereotyping . First, in ”Long Long After …show more content…
First, in ”Long Long After School,” Wes suffers because he is embarrassed about something he cannot control. Specifically, Wes is getting teased about his skin colour. As the kids were playing with each other, all the boys were saying stereotypical phrases to Wes like how he is turning pale and that he is blushing. As Wes is remembering his times in the schoolyard and in another boy’s stable, “The boys would be telling some joke with words in it to giggle over, they (...) look at me and say, ‘Shhh … Wes is blushing.’ Or if we [are] all climbing up the ladder to the big beam in Hogan’s stable, they (...) say, “look at Wes. He’s so scared he’s turning pale’” (Buckler 114). Wes suffers from stereotyping because he is black. So this means that he is incapable of blushing and turning pale. He is feeling embarrassed in himself because he cannot control his skin colour. Wes feels less pride in himself because he is not like the other kids and is getting bullied by that. He is also feeling ashamed about his colour because he cannot change his skin colour and the other kids are making him feel wrong for being black. Being black is who Wes is and the skin colour of people is who they are but as Wes is feeling bad about himself, he is losing a lot of self-confidence. In addition, Wes suffers when he is disregarded by the other kids. To be more specific, Wes is disregarded in the …show more content…
First, Wes suffers in “Long Long After School,” as kids mock him for being black and that the children ignore him for being “coloured.” Next, in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Junior suffers from the beliefs that whoever leaves the reservation is a traitor and in the community of Reardan, Indians are not important and they should be ignored. After reading these works of fiction, I learned that there is an immense amount of suffering associated with stereotyping. It affects victims either physically or mentally. We should all put in an effort to stop this cruelty before it gets out of hand. In like manner, Junior suffers as the society of Rearden regards Indians as useless. Finally, in these two works of fiction, it is evident that Wes and Junior suffer as they are a victim of
In the essay The Way We Lie, Stephanie Ericsson writes that “All the ‘isms’-racism, sexism, ageism, et al.-are founded on and fueled by the stereotype and the cliché, which are lies of exaggeration, omission, and ignorance. They are always dangerous. They take a single tree and make it a landscape.” This quote is important due to the fact that stereotypes play a major role in many aspects of our society. In American society we have a tendency to pass judgment on people just because of a pre-existing stereotype that our society has formed on particular groups over the years. American Society tends to create stereotypes because of the simplicity it adds to our lives, but stereotypes can cause us to oversimplify the characteristics of others, encourage prejudice, and can even create many more severe dangers.
“But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances.” (p. 13) In The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Junior, the narrator, is an Indian teenage boy living on a reservation, where no one's dreams or ideas are heard. The Indians on the reservation feel hopeless because they are isolated and disenfranchised. Junior learns how to cope with his hopelessness and breaks through the hopeless reservation life to find his dreams. Examining his journey provides important examples for the reader.
In this response to the derogatory term, Naylor’s essay offers a tool to fight racism and a message of hope for the innocent minority children which Cullen’s "Incident" lacks: In the process of socialization in a racist society, a child may lose innocence, but a child may also gain strength and character by rising above any racist stereotypes society applies to him/her.
Many of the stereotypes we encounter and hold today were formed because of events in the past, which were formed to rationalize and justify past social and political agendas. Many of the stereotypes that we now hold today were learned long ago and have been passed from one generation to the next. This book has forever inspired me to believe in the value of each child and discourage racist attitudes wherever I encounter them. Gregory Howard Williams encountered many hurdles growing up and successfully defeated them all. He could have easily confirmed the expectations of his negative peers and developed into a self-fulfilling prophecy, but instead he chose to shun his stereotypes and triumph over incredible odds.
It is impossible not to judge someone without meeting them in society. This is well shown in the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, a novel about a group of boys with their own problems not including their social class being Greasers. The other class, the Socs oppose Greasers. Socs jump Greasers in their free time which then causes the Greasers to retaliate. Some personal origins are dead family members, starvation, no education, and poor households. In conclusion one theme is proven through the statement keep judgement to a minimal because you do not know the problems of others. This creates two sub themes, never succumb to stereotypes and society will wrongly, consistently generalize a group.
Stereotypes dictate a certain group in either a good or bad way, however more than not they give others a false interpretation of a group. They focus on one factor a certain group has and emphasize it drastically to the point that any other aspect of that group becomes lost. Media is one of the largest factors to but on blame for the misinterpretation of groups in society. In Ten Little Indians, there are many stereotypes of Native Americans in the short story “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”. The story as a whole brings about stereotypes of how a Native American in general lives and what activities they partake in. By doing so the author, Alexie Sherman, shows that although stereotypes maybe true in certain situations, that stereotype is only
Establishing an identity has been called one of the most important milestones of adolescent development (Ruffin, 2009). Additionally, a central part of identity development includes ethnic identity (ACT for Youth, 2002). While some teens search for cultural identity within a smaller community, others are trying to find their place in the majority culture. (Bucher and Hinton, 2010)The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian chronicles Junior’s journey to discovery of self. As with many developing teens, he finds himself spanning multiple identities and trying to figure out where he belongs. “Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger. I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other” (p.118). On the reservation, he was shunned for leaving to go to a white school. At Reardon, the only other Indian was the school mascot, leaving Junior to question his decision to attend school he felt he didn’t deserve. Teens grappling with bicultural identities can relate to Junior’s questions of belonging. Not only is Junior dealing with the struggle between white vs. Indian identities, but with smaller peer group identities as well. In Wellpinit, Junior is th...
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that
In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the main character Arnold, also known as Junior, has many health issues, and notably stands out in the crowd. It does not help that he is a poor Indian boy that lives on a reservation, and that he decides to go to an all-white high school. Many of his experiences at school, and on the Reservation, impact his identity. Experience is the most influential factor in shaping a person’s identity because it helps gain confidence, it teaches new things, and it changes one’s outlook on the world.
It creates a statement that is made of judgement and changes the overall feeling of an individual, therefore resulting in alienation. Junior, an Indian who transferred for his own hope into a new perspective. He is facing prejudice as he enters into Reardan,a white school as someone from a different tribe. He was overseen by who he is by looks and opinions of others.In the book The Absolutely True Duary of a Part-Time Indian, the main character says,”After all, I was a reservation Indian, and no matter how geeky and weak I appeared to be, I was still a potential killer. So mostly they called me names. Lots of names” (Alexie 63). Alexie shows how Junior is defined as someone who isn’t like his peers and he was affected through the use of their one word descriptions. Junior is described as “geeky and weak” to the point whene he believed he was this label. He made himself be let down for what he is and the remarks being made. He thought he was someone that influenced people to what they think he is. Junior saw that he was a target of stimulating stereotypes based on him, yet he wasn’t able to cope with these. His feelings overlapped with getting through a school day at Reardan. Junior is being weighed down by the stereotypes implied to him that causes him to be divided. Jin who is chinese in relation to Junior’s experience has a stereotype against him.
For example, in the local school, stereotypes such as the image of the ‘wild man’ are consolidated by claiming that there was cannibalism among the indigenous people of the northwest coast (Soper-Jones 2009, 20; Robinson 2010, 68f.). Moreover, native people are still considered to be second-class citizens, which is pointed out by Lisamarie’s aunt Trudy, when she has been harassed by some white guys in a car: “[Y]ou’re a mouthy Indian, and everyone thinks we’re born sluts. Those guys would have said you were asking for it and got off scot-free”
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
Labels don't tell the truth to who people are. We have all heard gossip about someone and immediately jumped to conclusions about them. Because of this, we can miss out on friendships, connections, beneficial conversations and positive interactions. And yes, sometimes the hallway gossip can be true, but you shouldn't judge someone based on one mistake they made, you should get to know them first. Labels are created for everyone. They can be positive, but most of the time, the ones we hear and spread are negative. In the book "The Outsiders" by S.E Hinton, there are a few characters who are constantly misunderstood and labeled by other characters. The ones who stood out to me are Dally, Randy and Darry.
I can relate to this, not as far as race, but in a different way. At my school, there were stereotypes about the “volleyball girls”, and I was part of the volleyball team. At one point people thought this group of girls was all about partying and not school. Although, I was only focused on school and ended my high school career with only two B’s. Although this is not as an extreme case as Junior, I can still relate. In more of an extreme case, after Junior finally overcame his fear of leaving the reservation for a new and more positive life, he was not treated fairly. In the beginning of his experience at Reardan he writes, “After all, I was a reservation Indian, and no matter how geeky or weak I appeared to be, I was still a potential killer” (Alexie 2007:63). This is a perfect example of how easily people believe things they hear. Junior was literally a weak fifteen year old that could never hurt a fly, yet people looked at him as a killer because that was a stereotype about Indians. This idea goes along with Johnson’s thoughts of symbols, “symbols go far beyond labeling things” and “Symbols are also what we use to feel connected to a reality outside ourselves” (Johnson 2008: 36).
Racial discrimination becomes a very common and dominant part of Marvinder and Jaspal’s life when they move to England. Racists comments such as “ Why don’t you wash blacky! Or are you so dirty it won’t come off ” and “ It’s all God’s fault. He left them blackies in the oven too long and they got burned ” taunt them during their time in England. Gavin shows in her writing how these more obvious types of discrimination were used in this time to bully the person and to make them feel small and vulnerable. In this case comments such as these made the children feel isolated and even more cut off from their ‘family’. Gavin presents these racist comments mostly through verbal communication but sometimes through actions such as. “ They giggled and pointed and stuck out there tongues ”. This suggests that people in England were so unused to seeing Indian children that they found them funny to look at because they looked different so they made fun out of them. Gavin also shows in her writing that discrimination occurred during this time due to ignorance. Examples of this include “ shouldn’t think they’ve ever sat on chairs at a table before ”. People during this time believed that be...