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 the harsh reality of reservation life, Junior is the one ray of hope that proves despite all social expectation heavily set on the Native Americans, it can all be disbanded and proven there is still some hope and joy awaiting if you are willing …show more content…
11) The theme of poverty portrays how detrimental life is for the Natives, who are unfortunately forced to deal with it. Throughout the novel, we are consistently introduced to a theme of prejudice and stereotypes that further strengthens the division between any minority group and Caucasians. The theme of injustice toward Native Americans on the reservation is evident as one of Junior’s teacher confesses, “We were supposed to make you give up being Indian.. We were trying to kill Indian culture”(Alexie Pg. 35) The stigma of Native American culture is also immensely apparent when Junior decides to attend a Caucasian dominated school. He is consequently condemned by his Native people as he is told, “The Indians around here are going to be mad at you”(Alexie Pg. …show more content…
The reader is introduced to the concept of white privilege when Junior is introduced to the whites living in Reardan, WA (Alexie Pg. 56). The privilege is still around today, including the problems we see in the novel, “A bright future, positive role models, and hope,” for the whites, but, “A vanishing past, family history of diabetes and cancer, and bone-crushing reality,” for the Natives (Alexie Pg.57). It shows an importance of understanding, despite all criticisms based on your ethnicity and culture, you are your own individual person who is capable of
“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 his journey provides important examples for the reader.
Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within himself.
Sherman Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington as a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal member (Sherman Alexie). He began his personal battle with substance abuse in 1985 during his freshman year at Jesuit Gonzaga University. The success of his first published work in 1990 incentivized Alexie to overcome his alcohol abuse. “In his short-story and poetry collections, Alexie illuminates the despair, poverty, and alcoholism that often shape the lives of Native Americans living on reservations” (Sherman Alexie). When developing his characters, Alexie often gives them characteristics of substance abuse, poverty and criminal behaviors in an effort to evoke sadness with his readers. Alexie utilizes other art forms, such as film, music, cartoons, and the print media, to bombard mainstream distortion of Indian culture and to redefine Indianness. “Both the term Indian and the stereotypical image are created through histories of misrepresentation—one is a simulated word without a tribal real and the other an i...
Dr. Peggy McIntosh looks at white privilege, by “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” She describes white privilege as almost a special check or coin that she gets to cash in on. Dr. McIntosh tells that white privilege has been a taboo and repressed subject – and that many white people are taught not to see or recognize it. However, she is granted privileges (McIntosh 30). Dr. McIntosh goes on to describe twenty-six ways in which her skin-color grants her certain privileges. In example twenty, she describes how she can buy “…posters, postcards, picture books…” and other items that “…feature people of my race” (32). Additionally, in her first example, she talks about being able to be in the “company of people of my race most of the time” (McIntosh 31). Instances in which a privilege person would not even recognize unless they were looking, show evidence for white privilege. People take these advantages for granted because they simply expect them. Due to the lack of melatonin in her skin, she was granted privileges and her skin served as an asset to her. Dr. McIntosh conveys how her privilege is not only a “favored state,” but also a power over other
Culture has the power and ability to give someone spiritual and emotional distinction which shapes one's identity. Without culture, society would be less and less diverse. Culture is what gives this earth warmth and color that expands across miles and miles. The author of “The School Days of an Indian Girl”, Zitkala Sa, incorporates the ideals of Native American culture into her writing. Similarly, Sherman Alexie sheds light onto the hardships he struggled through growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven in a chapter titled “Indian Education”.
As the wild buffalo roamed the plains and the salmon ran plentiful throughout their wild habitat the Native American lifestyle flourished. The dawn of the white man’s culture had a drastic effect on the Native Americans. They were kicked out and put in reservations by the government so they could stay contained. Sherman Alexie a prominent writer is a member of the Spokane tribe and grew up on a reservation. Life on the reservation has a huge impact on Sherman Alexie’s views on life and he in cooperates this into his writing pieces. He tells his readers about a story of triumph and defeat of a once great culture. Prominent features in Alexie’s writing include the religious views of the native people, the monetary status of most people living on and off the reservation, the deeply rooted
The poverty that poor black Americans experience is often different from the poverty of poor whites. It is more isolating and esoteric. It fans out of family homes and inundates the entire neighborhood; the streets, the schools, the grocery stores, the community centers. A poor black family, in short, is much more likely than a poor white family to live in a neighborhood where many other families are poor. Creating what is called the "double standard" of poverty. “The sense of privilege that he [Marks], a multi-generation white class guy has to share his wisdom with all of those ‘poor black socially-orphaned children out there in the West Phillies of the world’ is astounding” (DNLee 256). Assuming that those children have no direction is a misconception that many white privileged Americans assume. And that assumption is why the life chances and opportunities of people of color in the United States are limited as compared to whites. Place continues to be a defining characteristics of the opportunity structure. Children growing up in more privileged neighborhoods often ponder what they will do when they grow up; as were poor children ponder on if they will even have the opportunity to grow up. The privileged are so blind that even they do not realize it, and they do not see that others are not privileged. As Cinderella’s privileges and opportunities were taken from her, her chance at the ‘good life’ was too. The element of the good life, however defined, is only accessible to those who are
Poverty is a huge issue for Native Americans, an everyday trip to school is walking in the freezing cold with only a T-shirt and a ripped pair of jeans. Walking down the road you see nothing but rundown houses and a group of punks beating up a kid. Looking to the side of the road you see a man, about thirty-two years old, lying on the sidewalk surrounded by about eight empty liquor bottles. You get to school, and in the hallway there is a kid leaning up against a cold brick wall, he is pale, skinny, and he looks really sick. He is so hungry and so skinny that you can see under his rib cage. You also notice that half the teachers chose not to go to school and all the hallways are empty from lack of kids actually going to school. In my essay,
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that
Experience changes one’s outlook on the world. Growing up on an Indian Reservation is a tough thing to do. Everyone is poor, and almost every adult is drunk and unhappy. Junior’s father suffers from alcoholism.
Whites are responsible for the murder of millions of Natives- almost the whole population. In order to cope with their resentment towards whites and the poverty and alcoholism that plagued the reservations, Native Americans developed strategies to survive reservation life. In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie shows through several interconnected short stories that Native Americans can improve their current situations and live more fulfilling lives through humor, community gatherings, and by demonstrating compassion and forgiveness towards one another.
“What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” by Sherman Alexie gives readers a look at the life of homeless, easygoing, middle aged Native American, Jackson Jackson. The story, which is set in Seattle, describes the conditions that Jackson finds himself in. Alexie’s choice of motifs emphasizes the significance of cultural and historical references. With these concepts in mind, the reader is taken through a journey of self-realization. “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” narrates the internal struggle Jackson feels trying to figure out his personal identity as a Native American. The story chronicles situations that illustrate the common stereotypes about Natives. Through Jackson’s humble personality, the reader can grasp his
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.
When a native author Greg Sams said that the reservations are just “red ghettos”, the author David disagree with that. He thinks there must be something else beyond that point. After his grandfather died, he somehow changed his mind. Because he could not think anything e...
Although, African Americans are considered minorities in the United States, not all of them live in poverty. Many African Americans live in a middle class society along with the dominant culture. However, many African Americans do not live in a middle class society, but rather live in poverty and have to suffer along with this poverty. For instance, Donald Goines’s Black Girl Lost and Tina McElroy Ansa’s Baby of the Family, two narrative novels, that illustrate the difference in two young African American girls lives and the society in which they inhabit. Not only do these young African American girls represent the two sides of poverty, they also represent how children can also qualify in the minority category. For example, Sandra lives in a run down apartment with a drunk mother who could care less about her daughter. In addition, Sandra remains all on her own and has to find ways in which to survive each day. But on the other hand, Lena lives in a nice size home with her two parents, her two brothers, and her grandmother, all who love her very much. Moreover, Lena has many family members who look after her and take extra special care for her because she is the baby of the family. Although, both Sandra and Lena lead very different lives, both are faced with challenges as a minority and as a child which questions their view on life.