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What is the significance of the text sherman alexie used to read
The joy of reading and writing sherman alexie
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is a first person narrative written by Sherman Alexie in 2007. It is a story about hope and how hard life can be when it leaves and takes you on a journey of both heart rendering and also uplifting moments. The novel is written in diary form to give the reader a direct insight to Junior’s life and his daily struggles. It also uses humour to soften the tough and emotional story and cartoons drawn by Junior because he believes “words are to limited” (pg. 5) The story is one that is funny and very relatable to many people in different ways. It could relate to someone of another race who is struggling with discrimination or poverty, or even teenagers who are finding it hard to fit in at school. Junior describes himself as a lanky weirdo, with an overly large head, too many teeth, a lisp and goofy glasses who gets beaten up daily. He comes from a very poor family with parents who are alcoholics and feels like he will never quite fit in. Race, poverty, discrimination and self-esteem are all themes that are present throughout this novel and play a role in Juniors life.
Junior refers to his family’s Poverty a lot throughout the story through his visual and verbal presentation. Junior and his family came from the Spokane reservation which judging his sarcastic tones was not the nicest of places to live as it consisted of a lot of poverty, abuse, and alcoholism. The poverty his family face is a never-ending cycle. Junior decides that he is going to be the one to break this cycle as he cannot stand to be poor his whole life. “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teachers you how to be poor” (pg. 13). This is the turning point in the story...
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...u’re a different colour” (pg. 13). After many meetings and marches the new law was set and aboriginals became equal citizens. The passing of the new law acted as a milestone in Diggers life and also in the story as he felt as if he had grown from being a boy to a man. The novel can relate quite closely to “The Little Refugee” as he too was discriminated against for being of different culture and being directly affected by the Vietnam War.
The story of Digger J Jones is create a fantastic insight into his life and creates a childish view on very serious issues, such as war, death and discrimination. Discrimination being one of the main focuses of the novel along with the referendum and diggers personal problems is still one of the biggest issues that many people face in today’s society. The author has created a very witty short story that many people can relate to.
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.
To conclude, in the book The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian an Indian boy shows how to escape the poverty of his Indian Reservation by going to a wealthy white school, as well as keeping his Indian Culture alive when living on the reservation.
One of these moments of loss of hope is when his grandma died by a drunk person on a motorcycle. His grandma has been his one savior in his life. When she died, Junior was really depressed and felt like giving up, but he still persisted because he remembers her final words “forgive him”. Junior’s sister, whom he loved dearly, also died in a house fire while she was passed out drunk. At this point, all hope was lost for Junior. However, he had courage and found a little bit of hope. That hope was Rearden. At Rearden, Junior learned many things. Junior found a new friend, Gordy who teaches him a lot about life, and was very wise. Junior also found love there too. Penelope was his love interest “almost girlfriend”, who really cared about him. Many people at Rearden were supportive of Junior and that inspired him to become the best person he could be. Junior’s coach was especially encouraging to Junior, he even went with Junior to the hospital and stayed up with him all night. An example of Rearden’s support was at two basketball games, one on the rez and one at Reardon. At the rez, all of Junior’s fellow tribe members were booing him, but at Reardon, all of his teammates cheered him up and told him he was going to do great. Junior realizes that he is the only one on his reservation that still has hope, his hope was hope for everyone on his
In the fictional story, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, a Native American author, describes the problems of a teenager living between two different cultures; one Native American, and the other white. Alexie uses figurative language elements to convince teenagers to be aware and support people living between two worlds in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. By using these literary elements, Sherman Alexie guides the audience to respond emotionally and act upon about the book’s message. Throughout the story, Alexie uses juxtaposition to show the differences between the two worlds the protagonist lives in.
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
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.
Alexie, S. (2009). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2007. Print.
Living in poverty is not easy. Sometimes you can’t get the education you want, but it’s the key to breaking it. Harlem’s harsh living is difficult for Buddy along with its outside influences that can get in your way. In the story “Sweet Potato Pie” by Eugenia Collier, Buddy begins his life in poverty and then graduates college and becomes a professor. Buddy and his family are hardworking and want to break the chain of poverty. He is a very dynamic character. Buddy teaches us a few life lessons such as, sacrifice for family, love which can be shown greater than words can, and perseverance.
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 how Junior being an Indian has impacted his life. Junior says how he has been to many funerals and is at a young age. “Jeez, I’ve been to so many funerals in my short life. I’m fourteen years old and i’ve been to forty -two funerals. That’s really the biggest difference between Indians and white people” (Alexie 199). Throughout the years Junior has been to many funerals which impacts Junior in an emotional way. The way that the funerals and deaths that happens to Junior impact him in an emotional way because He has to go through the funerals of loved ones many times that sometimes he doesn't know how to react. With the emotional impact it shows how Junior deals with it. By emphasizing the funerals, it hooks readers to know more and keep turning the
Jolley uses characterization to individualize each character in a poverty stricken family. The son is referred to as a prince by his mother several times throughout the story even though he is a high school dropout. “Mother always called him Prince; she worried about him all the time. I couldn’t think why. He was only my brother and a drop out at that” (117). The author portrays the son to be someone with low self-esteem because he is poor and a drop out he lives a miserable life. His mother tries to provide him with as much, but is unable to do this because of her social status is society. “‘Sleeps the best thing he can have. I wish he’d eat!’ She watched me as I took bread and spread the butter thick, she was never mean about butter, when we didn’t have other things we always had plenty of butter” (117). Through this passage the author convincingly demonstrates that they are poor and cannot afford an assortment of thing...
Can you imagine growing up on a reservation full of people with no hope? The character Arnold in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie did. In the beginning of the book, Arnold was a hopeless Native American living on a hopeless reservation. In the middle of the book, Arnold leaves the reservation and finds out that his sister left too. By the end of the book, Arnold experiences a lot of deaths of people who mean a lot to him but he still found hope. Arnold becomes a warrior for leaving the reservation and going to Reardan.
He goes through the struggles of deciding who he wants to be and who he is. He lived on a reservation with his family and attended the school there. He decided one day the only way he would go anywhere in life was if he were to attend Reardan, an all-white school. Here, Junior was forced to find who he really was. Junior experienced more struggles and tragedies than any white student at this school. He had to fight through the isolation he first experienced to building up the courage to play in a basketball championship. I believe that every event Junior wrote about throughout the novel had an important purpose, and even more importantly, could be related to sociology. As I read the novel, I constantly thought about questions such as the following: What importance does he have to write about this? Could I relate this to my life? Who is Alexie’s audience? Could anyone read this novel and learn something from it? By the time I completed the novel, I could answer all of these questions without a
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...
To be human is to confront challenges and difficulties on life’s journey. Individuals may react to such changes in their lives with determination and courage. Determination can be a powerful and driving force; it can lead people to strive to where they want to be and what they want to do. Courage is the quality of mind and spirit that enables a person to endure difficulty, danger and pain. Courage allows a person to show great bravery. The Stolen Generation was a horrific period in history when the Australian Government were forcing the removal of Aboriginal and half caste children from their families and homes to live in white Christian settlements across Australia. The forced removal was official government policy from 1905 to 1971. Rabbit Proof Fence by Phillip Noyce allows the viewer to witness such challenges as they follow Molly on her long journey home to Jigalong in 1931 after she and her sister Daisy and her cousin Gracie are ‘stolen’ and put into a white English settlement, named Moore River, to ‘protect them from themselves’.