Sherman Alexie's comic novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, follows Junior, a 14 year old Indian boy, who lives on a Spokane Indian Reservation with his two parents and his sister, Mary. Junior, a young cartoonist, was unfortunately born with many medical issues and is picked on by many people on the Rez, except his best friend Rowdy. At first, he seems to be this shy, little boy who would do anything to not be made fun of. The novel shows him getting beat, teased and tormented on his Reservation. Eventually, he takes a stand in his life and decides to better his education by enrolling in an all white school in Reardan. Despite being called a traitor by his own kind, Junior continues to live a double life, balancing both …show more content…
On the reservation, many of the boys teased him for his appearance and eventually he began to look at himself the same way; a helpless, weird Indian boy. Specifically he states, “I looked like a capital L walking down the road” (3), referring to his big feet and small body. Because of the constant teasing Junior experiences, he reluctantly believes what people say about him and immediately thinks lowly of himself as a result. All Junior wants is to be accepted somewhere. He decides to leave the Reservation school and transfers to a school in Reardan. This being an all white school, Junior the Indian boy didn’t quite fit in at first. When he arrives, he has a hard time particularly with the jocks that paid special attention to him. Unlike the boys on the Rez, they did not get violent, but instead called him many names, such as “Chief”, “Red-Skin”, “Sitting Bull”, “ Squaw Boy” and “Tonto” (63). Throughout this difficult time, he attempted to cope with the treatment he experienced and persevere through these tough social interactions. While trying to integrate himself into Reardan’s community, Junior comes across Gordy, a genius white boy, whom is stuck in the same situation as him. Both of these characters show qualities that place them as outcasts in their school and they proudly wear it. When Gordy and Junior first meet, Gordy says “I’m quite aware of my differences. I wouldn’t classify them as weird” (93). In a way, Junior needs Gordy for reassurance; afraid that he is too different and weird to ever fit in. Even though Junior and Gordy are different from most kids in their school, both characters seem to make a difference in their small community. Specifically, Junior feels as if he is living a double life, “half Indian in once place and half white in the other” (118). Sick of constantly juggling two lives, Junior eventually builds up
Junior’s emphasis on the positive characteristics implies that Wellpinit High School does not have these standard facilities unlike most schools today. This resonates with the audience, as they most likely go to a school with all the amenities of Reardan High School. This causes the audience to pity Junior, creating pathos and causing the reader to care about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’s message of living between two worlds. Furthermore, the author use metaphors to show the trials and tribulations of living between two worlds, further connecting the audience to the books message. After Junior and Gordy have a conversation about what it means to be White and Indian, Junior states that “A Lot of them call me an apple...because they think I’m red on the outside and white on the inside” (131).
What do the following words or phrases have in common: “the last departure,”, “final curtain,” “the end,” “darkness,” “eternal sleep”, “sweet release,” “afterlife,” and “passing over”? All, whether grim or optimistic, are synonymous with death. Death is a shared human experience. Regardless of age, gender, race, religion, health, wealth, or nationality, it is both an idea and an experience that every individual eventually must confront in the loss of others and finally face the reality of our own. Whether you first encounter it in the loss of a pet, a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a pop culture icon, or a valued community member, it can leave you feeling numb, empty, and shattered inside. But, the world keeps turning and life continues. The late Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers and of Pixar Animation Studios, in his 2005 speech to the graduating class at Stanford, acknowledged death’s great power by calling it “the single best invention of Life” and “Life’s great change agent.” How, in all its finality and accompanying sadness, can death be good? As a destination, what does it have to teach us about the journey?
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
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
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a novel about Arnold Spirit (Junior), a boy from the Spokane Indian Reservation who decides to attend high school outside the reservation in order to have a better future. During that first year at Reardan High School, Arnold has to find his place at his all-white school, cope with his best friend Rowdy and most of his tribe disowning him, and endure the deaths of his grandmother, his father’s best friend, and his sister. Alexie touches upon issues of identity, otherness, alcoholism, death, and poverty in order to stay true to his characters and the cultures within the story. Through the identification of the role of the self, identity, and social behavior within the book, the reader can understand Arnold’s story to a greater depth.
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” is a humorous and intuitive novel written by Sherman Alexie. The reader gets an insight into the everyday life of a fourteen year old hydrocephalic Indian boy named Arnold Spirit, also referred to as Junior Spirit. He is living on the Spokane Indian reservation and is seen as an outcast by all the other Indians, due to his medical condition. Against all odds Arnold expands his hope, leaves his school on the reservation and faces new obstacles to obtain a more promising future at a school off the reservation. The novel is told through Arnold’s voice, thoughts, actions and experiences. Alexie incorporates one point of view, different themes and settings, such as poverty, friendship, Spokane and Reardan within Arnold’s journey to illustrate the different hardships he must overcome to gain a higher education.
Arnold “Junior” Spirit is not like his fellow Spokane Indians, Junior has aspiration to get out of the reservation and make something out of his life. This is a difficult task for Junior considering the environment he was raised in, surrounded by alcoholism, as well as poverty and racism. Junior was able to succeed once he was able to escape from his reservation and go to Reardan High School. When Junior elects to go to Reardan, his close friend Rowdy does not react well to his decision. Rowdy comes from a very dysfunction and abusive household; Rowdy loses his best friend to the predominately white school. Rowdy is even more isolated than he normally is considering he has just exiled his best friend. When Arnold “Junior” Spirit makes the decision to go to Reardan it was a very difficult transition, going from a school where it is mainly Native Americans, to the generally white school, not only did Rowdy not react well to the news, but the surrounding Spokane Indians did not take kindly to his decision to pursue a brighter future. The Spokane tradition is so culturally rich, and they stand by what they believe in. When Junior does decide to leave the reservation he is criticized being exploring anything outside of the reservation is out of the norm. The Spokane community continuously scrutinizes Arnold “Junior” Spirit, referring to him as an
“I hate you, YOU SUCK, you white lover!”- rowdy. These show that Jr was disowned by his tribe and his best friend because he and rowdy were best friends, but after Jr told rowdy that he is transferring to redardan he got punched and rowdy was not in “touch” with Jr after that till basketball. For Jr to get jumped on Halloween means something bad had to happen and betraying a tribe is very bad. Both of these show that Jr was disowned because nobody from any tribe could do this for no reason.When Jr gets to the new school he gets shamed for being at a white school and being Indian.The teachers treat him different than the others in the class. “They stared at me like I was Bigfoot or a UFO”-Jr, this here shows that people are not used to seeing Indians.The teachers treating Jr different is showing as if he doesn't matter as much as the others in the class. On Jr’s first day when all the kids first saw him, they looked at him like bigfoot or a UFO is not a good thing because that means they are scared and shaming him. Both of these show that he is being shamed by the white kids
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.
Sherman Alexie grew up on a Spokane Indian reservation, in fact Junior and the story as a whole is based on his childhood; as he also struggled with the effects of poverty, alcoholism, identity, and social injustice. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is follows the life of Junior; a fourteen year old, Spokane Indian boy, who lives on an Indian reservation filled with poverty and addiction. The story begins when Junior decides transfer to a high school called “Reardan,” which is located outside the reservation in a rich white farm town. At first, Junior is a misfit at his new school; he has trouble making friends, mainly because he’s Indian. His transition to Reardan also causes a fight and other conflicts between him and his best friend, Rowdy, who feels betrayed by Junior. In fact, the whole reservation sees him as traitor.
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.
The book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie tells about how Junior feels as a part-time Indian in Wellpinit and a part-time white boy at Reardan high school. Junior was an outcast, he had no friends, all he had in common with others was basketball. At the end of the story, Junior cames to accept the two places as home. In the beginning, Junior was is outcast in both Wellpinit and at Reardan High school.
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).
Imagine walking 22 miles to school every single day. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a book by Sherman Alexie following the life of Arnold, also known as Junior, and his struggles as a poor Native American boy going to a wealthy white school. Being poor throws challenges at Arnold in and outside of school, and he must hold onto hope, new friends, and perseverance to escape the cycle of poverty.
Throughout the beginning of the book, and into the middle, Junior is trying to establish his intrinsic values to this new community of his. Stereotypes and generalizations have become the easy way to justify the separation of races, classes, and genders. Creating these ideas about the cultures that are different than our own is a dangerous habit that must be broken by this generation so that our children can play in merriment without the fear of being misunderstood on a day-to-day basis. So as Adiche said in her TED talk, stories matter, and to only pay attention to specific stories of one’s life, is to overlook all of the other formative experiences of life. “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.