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Writing personal narrative reading and writing experiences
Personal narrative writing short story
Personal narrative writing short story
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Hope is a term used to describe a person’s desires. Hope is what drives a person to reach his or her goals. Whether or not a person has hope can determine their success when trying new opportunities. Hope is something that any person is able to have, no matter their financial situation, race, gender, or age. Every person is influenced by hope when they make choices in their life.
Hope is a recurring theme in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Hope was a very important element when the characters attempted to reach their dreams and try new things. When the characters did not have hope for a better future, they felt like they could not change their lives. After they began chasing after their dreams, they were able to experience new opportunities, meet new people, and go to new places. One of the main messages of this story is to have hope and follow your dreams. This story allows the reader to see that anyone can follow their dreams and accomplish great things.
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When Mr. P tells Junior that he “deserves better”, it is the point in the story when Junior begins to make choices to better his life. Junior transfers schools from the reservation school to Reardan because he knows that he will have better opportunities there than on the reservation. Junior’s sister, Mary, was inspired by Junior’s courage to follow his hopes and dreams, so she decided that she “needed to change her life.” Mary’s hope for a different lifestyle influenced her to leave the reservation, get her own home, and get married. Junior almost did not try out for the basketball team because he was afraid of being rejected, but his hope allowed him to try out and make the varsity team. “You have to dream big to get big,” (Alexie
Encountering struggles in life defines one’s character and speaks volumes about their strength, ambition, and flexibility. Through struggles, sacrifice, and tragedy, Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, adapts to survive difficult situations and faces his problems head-on. As he makes life changing decisions, adapts to an unfamiliar culture, and finds himself amongst misery and heartbreak, Junior demonstrates resilience to overcome adversity and struggles.
I realize that life is really cruel to some people, and when the world is cruel to people, they lose hope that things will get better for them. There are many people in the world who have lost hope. Our society is not always fair, and Junior learns to fight through the stereotypes and expectations of his tribe. I think that our society can understand people who have lost hope from seeing Junior’s struggles. I now understand that not everyone sees the world as a happy place, and that people are really struggling to have faith in themselves. I believe that if we all stick together through thick and thin, people will be more optimistic, like the Rearden kids and Junior. Matters will get better for the oppressed if others believe in
Junior’s emphasis on the positive characteristics implies that Wellpinit High School does not have these standard facilities unlike most schools today. This resonates with the audience, as they most likely go to a school with all the amenities of Reardan High School. This causes the audience to pity Junior, creating pathos and causing the reader to care about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’s message of living between two worlds. Furthermore, the author use metaphors to show the trials and tribulations of living between two worlds, further connecting the audience to the books message. After Junior and Gordy have a conversation about what it means to be White and Indian, Junior states that “A Lot of them call me an apple...because they think I’m red on the outside and white on the inside” (131).
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian showed all of the problems that arose in Junior’s journey. From poverty and alcoholism to bulimic semi-girlfriends, he had so many excuses to stop, but the passion of his dreams pushed him forward. Like a hero, Junior continued, determined to do well and build a greater future for himself. An example that showed Junior’s passion for education and desire to achieve his goals was when he threw an old geometry textbook at his teacher: “My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from. That is absolutely the saddest thing in the world…My hopes and dreams floated up in a mushroom cloud” (Alexie, 31). Junior clearly understood his disadvantaged education and he was very upset about it. He longed for a better education. Junior was passionate about education, because it would allow him to achieve his goals and break the depressing pattern he was trapped in. Bravery and determination are caused by passion, and heroes are very passionate about their actions. Passion clearly drove Junior when he walked to school, since he said, “Getting to school was always an adventure…Three times I had to walk all the way home. Twenty-two miles. I got blisters each time” (Alexie, 87). Putting all of this effort into simply going to school, Junior must have had
Picture yourself in a town where you are underprivileged and sometimes miss a meal. In the novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Sherman Alexie wrote the book to show hardships that Native Americans face today. Alexie shows us hardships such as poverty, alcoholism and education. In the novel, Junior goes against the odds to go to an all white school to get a better education to have a better life
Junior is constantly being told that white people are better, white people have more hope. Junior sometimes believes these expectations himself, but through all of that negativity he perseveres and demolishes those expectations:
Vast majority of Indian reservations are suffering from chronic poverty. According to American Indian Relief Council, the reservations have been cited as, “Comparable to Third World”, in terms of living conditions. In the novel written by Sherman Alexie, entitled, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, the main character, a fourteen year old, Native American teenager, which belongs to the Spokane tribe named Junior; stated that, “Poverty does not give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” This indicates that poverty can turn an individual to become a pessimist. On the contrary, poverty is not a destiny. Instead, it is a source of power, an encouragement that through hard work, patience and dedication, a person can succeed in every aspect of life.
Adolescents experience a developmental journey as they transition from child to adult, and in doing so are faced with many developmental milestones. Physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes are occurring during this tumultuous stage of life, and making sense of one’s self and identity becomes a priority. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian addresses the challenges of adolescence in an engaging tale, but deals with minority communities and cultures as well.
Growing up as an only child, I was everything to my parents. They were always overprotective of me and wanted to be sure that I was never in danger. When I graduated high school, they expected me to stay in my hometown, living with them, to further my education at the local University Center. Unfortunately, despite what they wanted, I chose to be independent by going away for college. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Mary is in the same position I am. It is stated, "Ever since the Spokane Indian reservation was founded back in 1881, nobody in my family had ever lived anywhere else"(Alexie 89). Not caring about her family 's history, Mary decides to pack up and leave the reservation. She has a vision for
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian T.I.Q.A.T.I.Q.A.W In the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, the theme of the story is; “no matter what people say or think of you, always follow your heart.” There are so many examples in this book that lead to this. According to Sherman Alexie, the author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, he says; “You have to leave this reservation.” (Alexie 42).
Friends come and go, it’s the good ones that stay. In the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time India” The author convey many themes but friendship is one of the biggest. Throughout the book, Junior the main character talks about his life and how friendship is very important to him. He learns to make new friends and understand to let go of some.
The book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie tells about how Junior feels as a part-time Indian in Wellpinit and a part-time white boy at Reardan high school. Junior was an outcast, he had no friends, all he had in common with others was basketball. At the end of the story, Junior cames to accept the two places as home. In the beginning, Junior was is outcast in both Wellpinit and at Reardan High school.
What is hope? Hope is the feeling of desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope is something that even when everything goes wrong you still believe that there is still good somewhere. Hope is something that even the toughest people will feel. Hope relates to the theme in S.E Hinton’s, The Outsiders. The theme of this story, is just because something bad happens, that doesn’t mean that you can’t stop living life to the fullest, and even when the going gets tough you still have to have hope that it will get better.
Junior sometimes had to go to bed hungry, but that wasn’t the worst thing about being in poverty. He made a diary entry stating, “Poverty= empty refrigerator+empty stomach. And sure sometimes my family misses a meal…and hey, in a weird way, being hungry makes food taste better (8).” This really puts the diary reader in his shoes about how many times he had to go without food and starve while trying to go to sleep, simply because his family couldn’t afford it. But to Junior, being hungry wasn’t necessarily that bad. What he felt was the worst thing about his poverty was that there was no money to save his beloved animal Oscar. Oscar became really ill and Junior wanted to take the animal to the doctor, but the family couldn’t afford it. When it came down to it, his father had to put the dog out of misery, and decided to shoot him. Visualizing someone having to shoot your best animal friend is heart wrenching. Most people have been in Juniors shoes where they have a sick animal, however they never imagine having to shoot it. This comparison of being hungry and losing an animal, shows Junior’s great strength at a young age about going through poverty, and sometimes even hope...
Imagine walking 22 miles to school every single day. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a book by Sherman Alexie following the life of Arnold, also known as Junior, and his struggles as a poor Native American boy going to a wealthy white school. Being poor throws challenges at Arnold in and outside of school, and he must hold onto hope, new friends, and perseverance to escape the cycle of poverty.