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Essay about native american literature
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According to merriamwebster.com , alienate is to “ cause someone to feel that she or he no longer belongs in a particular group,society,etc.” This is expressed in factors used in the texts American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. In American Born Chinese the main characters are the Monkey King and Jin. In the graphic novel, these characters prove to be alienated through wanting the be different and feeling isolated through race. While in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the main character Junior is faced with alienation through switching schools, but he is staying with his tribe. In the books The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie …show more content…
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. …show more content…
Jin,the Monkey King,and Junior has made stories understandable about what people with alienation experiences. The books The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and American Born Chinese how alienation is created by how others interact and what changes are made to themselves. These factors change the perspective of alienation on individuals as everyone is impacted from it all over the world. A fictional type of story can change the thinking of a generation to step up and make sure alienation is never a topic society has to face. People should know that by changing stereotypes and other affiliations to making people feel different as they are gives the world rest from separation of loneliness on the outside. As society grows alienation is impacting many people, therefore giving a chance to connect to others will change alienation in our world
Alexie shows a strong difference between the treatment of Indian people versus the treatment of white people, and of Indian behavior in the non-Indian world versus in their own. A white kid reading classic English literature at the age of five was undeniably a "prodigy," whereas a change in skin tone would instead make that same kid an "oddity." Non-white excellence was taught to be viewed as volatile, as something incorrect. The use of this juxtaposition exemplifies and reveals the bias and racism faced by Alexie and Indian people everywhere by creating a stark and cruel contrast between perceptions of race. Indian kids were expected to stick to the background and only speak when spoken to. Those with some of the brightest, most curious minds answered in a single word at school but multiple paragraphs behind the comfort of closed doors, trained to save their energy and ideas for the privacy of home. The feistiest of the lot saw their sparks dulled when faced with a white adversary and those with the greatest potential were told that they had none. Their potential was confined to that six letter word, "Indian." This word had somehow become synonymous with failure, something which they had been taught was the only form of achievement they could ever reach. Acceptable and pitiable rejection from the
Feeling alone or isolated is not only a common theme is all kinds of literature, but something that many people face in life. Alienation is the perception of estrangement or dissatisfaction with one’s life. This means you feel like you don’t fit or connect, whether it’s from society, family, or a physical object. These feelings can be due to a lack of deep connections, not believing the same ideals as your society, and many other things. In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, he discusses a man who goes against governmental rule and reads. EA Robinson portrays a man everyone inspires to be, but in the end he isn’t happy and kills himself. Lastly, WH Auden accounts of an “unknown citizen” who also has a picture perfect life, but in the end
Alienation in All Quiet on the Western Front According to the Webster's New World College Dictionary, alienation is 1. Separation, aversion, aberration. 2. Estrangement or detachment. 3.
In the stories “To Set Our House in Order” and “The Lamp at Noon” the authors are both able to effectively communicate that alienation is self-inflicted, while using multiple different techniques. As a result it becomes apparent that each author can take a similar approach to the alienation of a character in the story yet develop the theme in a unique way.
With the obstacles that happen to Junior, it creates an emotional and traumatic impact on Junior as well as getting the readers hooked to turn the page and keep reading. To begin, in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Sherman Alexie describes a moment in Junior's life before he went to the white school. From comparing the death rates and even mentioning the deaths, Alexie shows an emotional impact on Junior from the deaths he has to go through. Alexie writes about how Junior being an Indian has impacted his life.
Have you ever noticed those few people that are always by themselves or are alienated by others? Maybe it is because they may be poor, or how they dress, or where they are from. There are always those few people that are different, like in “The Doll’s house” how the Kelveys were alienated by their classmates due to what they wore and how they looked like. Being an outsider is universal because it happens in different places around the world. For instance, in “Sonnet, With Bird” the poem by Sherman Alexie, alienation happens all the way in England. Some might argue that it is not universal in the fact that everyone thinks differently or those who are alienated do not mind being alone and end up doing great things.
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.
Over the course of the past semester we have read several books about Native American’s and their culture. The two books I found to be the most interesting were Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. In each story we see a young person from a reservation dealing with their Native Identities, Love, Loss and everything in between. Both of these novels have their similarities and their differences, but I believe they both offer insight into Native American culture that would be hard to come across elsewhere.
People create their own society but remain alienated until they recognize themselves within their own creation. Until this time people will assign an independent existence to objects, ideas and institutions and be controlled by them. In the process they lose themselves, become strangers in the world they created: they become alienated. The notion of alienation is an ancient one. St Augustine wrote: That's a lot.
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.
Alienation is feelings of powerlessness, meaninglessness, and social isolation associated with certain social relationships. For example, in the grocery store, which were owned by white people. The white cashier refused to touch the black peoples’ hands. When handing them their brought items, he would let it hit the counter instead of handing it to them. The same thing occurred when the cashier went to hand them their change. The white cashier treated the black customers as meaningless and powerless. But, Dr. Vernon Johns said that the black people in their community are not business oriented therefore, they have no choice but to shop at the white businesses. Black people need to own more business which would lead to power and meaning for black
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).
The theme of alienation has been depicted by two different characters in a resembling series of events. The two protagonists were alienated by their peers, inflicting negative consequences they must undergo. Both characters are finally pushed to alienating themselves rather than being alienated. In conclusion, the struggles both characters undergo are practically identical to one another. They have experienced alienation in such similar ways that you must ask yourself: are all those who suffer from alienation alike in more ways than one?
THE TERM "alienation" in normal usage refers to a feeling of separateness, of being alone and apart from others. For Marx, alienation was not a feeling or a mental condition, but an economic and social condition of class society--in particular, capitalist society.
Theme of Alienation in Literature A common theme among the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne is alienation. Alienation is defined as emotional isolation or dissociation from others. In Hawthorne's novels and short stories, characters are consistently alienated and experience isolation from society. These characters are separated from their loved ones both physically and psychologically. The harsh judgmental conditions of Puritan society are the cause of isolation for these characters and eventually lead to their damnation.