Part Time Indian Symbolism

Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie explores the concealed world of the Indians on the Spokane Reservation. Sherman Alexie exhibits humor, sadness, and reality through his main character, Arnold aka Junior, to make readers understand what the Native Americans are enduring. Indian reservations have had a long history of being prison-like homes to some of the most culturally rich and spiritual people in the world. In modern society, hopeless Indians that inhabit these reservations suffer through desperate poverty that continues to dominate. In this dark world filled with poverty
P encourages Arnold to be better in life. Mr. P is responsible for Junior’s fight against hopelessness and his wish of not giving up hope and realizing dreams. Mr. P, at first, appears to be your average teacher who hates their job, stuck in the middle, and can’t achieve a higher level job. Everyone thought that Mr. P looked really weird. He was only 4 feet tall, had no hair, but had dandruff, there would be food stains on his shirt, visible nose hair, and weighed maybe 50 pounds but only when he’s carrying his 15 pound briefcase. But the strangest thing about Mr. P is that sometimes he forgot to come to school. He tried to start a reservation Shakespeare Theatre Company, but failed miserably. Oftentimes, students would have to be sent down to the housing compound behind the school to wake Mr. P, who is always napping in front of his television. He sometimes teaches classes in his pajamas. He is fairly popular among the students, as not much is asked out of the students. On Junior’s first day back to school, he is given a Geometry book. But on the first page of the book, he sees the words “This book belongs to Agnes Adams.” Agnes Adams is his mother, which meant that the book was over 30 years old. Enraged by this thought, he threw his book at Mr. P. Consequently, Arnold is suspended for a week. Mr. P goes to talk to him. He talks to him about his sister, and how she used to write romance novels, but then suddenly stopped, and telling Junior things about
He decided the placement of all players, and what teams they would be in. When it came to Junior’s turn, Junior thought he was going to be in the C team, but surprisingly he got into the top team, the Varsity team as a Freshman. He was stunned, but when he asked why he was placed in the C team he said that he was one of the best shooters he had seen in a while, and that he would be their secret weapon. When Junior was given 3 stitches, Coach was there to comfort him and tell him that his team would be fine without him if he went to hospital. Later on, when Arnold was given a concussion both teams got into a series of shoving matches and push-fights. The tribal police had to pull twenty or thirty adult Spokane's off the court. Coach was passionate about that game, he was furious when the referees gave 4 of his players technical fouls to please the mainly Indian crowd. He cursed and screamed and was thrown out of the game. After the game, Coach went to see Junior in the hospital and apologized for putting him in the game, and that he should have cancelled the game completely because of the anger of the Indians that he left the reservation. He cared about his players and didn’t want them to run 50 laps of the gymnasium, he cared about their feelings while also being serious about letting them win. He's always quick to give Arnold words of encouragement and support. Before games Arnold