The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian is a novel written by Sherman Alexie that depicts the struggles of Junior, a Native American teenager living on a reservation while attending a predominantly white school. In this novel, the majority of the obstacles faced by Native Americans were due to alcoholism. Alcohol reveals its damaging effects by destroying family relationships, exacerbating violence and mortality rates, and demonstrating its generational nature. Alcoholism has the power to destroy family relationships and create distance between its members. This destructive influence is evident in Junior’s family, especially between Junior and his father. In the novel, Junior describes how sometimes he walks many miles to school when his …show more content…
Research has shown that children of parents who misuse substances are more than twice as likely to have a substance use disorder by young adulthood compared to their peers (NCBI). This means that when parents frequently misuse alcohol, they unconsciously pass these habits down to their children, who pass them down to their children, and so on. Hence, the ongoing problems with alcohol are not from Native Americans’ desire to consume it, but rather because many of them are trapped in an addictive and inescapable cycle of alcoholism, carried through generations. Junior recognized this dangerous truth when he expressed, “I cried because more Spokanes would die because of booze. They were slowly killing themselves and I wanted them to live. I wanted them to get strong and get sober and get off the reservation” (Alexie 216). Alcohol’s harm extends far beyond its immediate effects on families and death rates. The grim nature of it lies in its ability to captivate the entire community, making escape unreachable, while current and future generations remain stuck in its vicious
Revelations at the Reservation The novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” was written by Sherman Alexie, as he depicts the struggles and challenges faced by a Spokane Indian boy, Arnold “Junior” Spirit as he travels through his first year in high school. Alexie’s adolescents inspired him to write this National Award Book winner. This novel was “banned in schools nationwide” (Alexie). “The novel was No. 2 on the American Library Association’s list of most frequently challenged books
“Naked woman+right hand= happy happy joy joy” (Alexie, 26) is one of the many lines that contribute to the restriction of the book Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie in many distinct school districts. Sherman Alexie encompasses a few different inappropriate categories in the book, mainly to show an evolving conception of life on the “Rez”. Part Time Indian has won various awards including the National Book Award, yet still has been banned by a plethora of school boards across the country. One
The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian: a Journey of Hope “There is another world, but it is in this one” (W.B Yeats), this is how Alexei Sherman managed to begin the journey of his eye-opener novel, The Absolutely True Dairy of Part-time Indian. It is a magnificent story of overcoming the obstacles associated with being an Indian teenager by stepping outside the reservation world and striving for better opportunities in another world. Junior, who carries the native blood in his veins, gives
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 In the novel Junior fights the burden of poverty in his house and at school
the Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, is about a young boy name Junior, who life gets affected with racism and alcoholism. He was a part time Indian that left his Rez to go to a school for Rich people even though he was very poor. During the time he was there, he is treated different then everyone just because he was an Indian. His family and friends were affected by alcohol and junior realized that alcoholism and racism affected family, friends, and the community around
In, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie discusses many serious subjects that are incredibly prevalent in modern society. The issues Alexie discuss lack emphasize in the current climate of the world and it is unacceptable to imagine that certain readers can only focus on sexual innuendos and occasional bad language in this novel. Through discussion of; un-banned books, literature that appeals to young adults, and racism, it will prove obvious why the bans around “The Absolutely
Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is located at the unifying point of a story that is filled with internal and external conflict involving the narrator, Arnold “Junior” Spirit, and the entire population of the Reservation and of his high school. Throughout the story, the theme of an ongoing battle is present amongst many, if not all, of the characters, whether that battle be against one another, alcoholism, inner demons, depression, or
Adolescence is undoubtedly the hardest time of one’s life and during these years many face an abundance of pressure and want nothing more than to fit in with their peers. In Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part – Time Indian, Junior is no exception to this. In addition to the stereotypical teenager issues that everybody faces, he deals with hydrocephalus, speech impediments that result in bullying, and discrimination against his culture. Throughout the novel Junior is constantly
“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
Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, peruses the life on the “rez” and the inner conflict of a Native American boy’s decision to break free from the constraints put on Native Americans and live a fulfilling life far expected of a kid on the reservation, by conforming to a “white culture”(Alexie Pg. 42). Throughout the novel, Alexie emphasizes Native American life to be a culture based off of addiction, poverty, and death. (Alexie Pg. 43) Although the novel contains
Personality Bestselling author Sherman Alexie wrote a book called “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”. The two main characters are Junior and Rowdy. The novel tells the story of an Indian boy named Junior, because of dissatisfaction with life situation in the reservation, resolutely transfer to the white school far from home. The rest of the reservation include Rowdy begins to shun him as well, and treat him as a traitor. The story mainly talks about the twice changes of their friendship
Indians have lived and continue to live a difficult life on the reservation. In Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Indians deal with alcoholism, poverty, violence, and many other hardships. One of the main hardships on the reservation involves poverty. Oftentimes poverty has much affected the community negatively and affecting the communities’ future. For a better future and to escape poverty, Arnold transfers to Reardan. Throughout Arnold’s journey of searching
The book, The Absolutely True of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is light-hearted. It focuses on the life of Arnold Spirit, Jr., a character developed from Alexie’s experiences while maturing on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA. The narrator, Arnold itself, is a hilarious, sensitive, honest and talented fourteen-year-old Native kid who draws cartoons for his pleasure. He is unhappy with his poor life and dreams of something greater for himself, perhaps becoming an important artist
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” (2007) highlights the adversities in the ever prevailing issue of class and money, racial discrimination, war with alcoholism that exist within the universal concerns resonating in modern context. The cumbersome & elongated title of this poignant novel mirrors the life of a hydrophilic child providing a central understanding for readers. As events in the modern novel progress from the perception of a fourteen-year-old American Indian, Junior’s language and
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” tells the story of a medically and socially challenged native American teenager named Junior who transfers from his reservation high school to an affluent white high school twenty miles away from the reservation borders. The selection tells the story of Junior’s victories and losses in navigating the complex social hierarchy that is public high school. A majority of my notes revolved around finding the “deeper meaning” within the text. I needed