Jin vs. Junior
As life goes on everyone goes through a series of events that either change your life for the good or bad. In this case Junior and Jin must both battle with many different problems because they two different cultures. This affects their lives in several aspects. Which ultimately leads to major changes i their lives throughout the books. Junior from The Absolutely True Diary of A American Born Indian by Sherman Alexie (ATD) and Jin from American Born Chinese (ABC) by Gene Luen Yang both have to deal with work through finding an identity for themselves, relationships, and race.
High school is usually a difficult time for some individuals that are coming from foreign country. You are being torn between your culture and American
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Rowdy feels betrayed because Junior decides to go to another school and so he decides to not be friends with him anymore. Part of him feels bad because he will be leaving his best friend behind so that he can go to a school of the reservation which has not been done before. This makes him feel remorseful because he does not want his best friend to hate him and at the same time he has to do what 's best for his future. Jin also has friend troubles. Jin does not want to become friends with Wei-Chen because he is nerdy and foreign which are things that Jin is afraid of being persecuted for. After some times past he realizes that is okay to be friends with him. For Jin he is trying to assimilate to American culture so that he does not stand from the rest of the students at his school. Like Wen-Chi when he first arrives to their school his two front teeth stick out, some high pants on and a shirt that says “Robot Happy” which made him stand out. Their friendship the gets tested when Jin struggles to get a girlfriend so he decides to kiss Wen-Chi girlfriend. He tell Wen-Chi that he does not dereve her and so that is why he kissed. This leads to him losing his best friend. He goes through a face of feeling defeated because he has no one to support him. On the other hand Junior did not do anything to physically hurt …show more content…
He do not fully comprehend all of the words so he says some of the things wrong and he is scared of being singled out. Being apart of this new culture race become very important because all of the chinese kids stay far apart from each other instead of sticking together. They know the consequences of what would happen if they were to do that. It is crazy to think about because nowadays that is very different. Most foreign kids stick together and create little communities which later become support groups because they can all relate having gone through similar things. For Junior his race issues come from him begin different and poor. It is not hard for him to stand out at his new school because he does not look like everyone else and he does not dress like everyone else. And he is called red because he is an indans. Plus Junior deals with race problems at school and at home. He feels left out out home on the reservation as well because he is going to a different school and everyone knows because it is a small community and that means everyone knows. Some people assume he 's thinking he is better because he goes to a white school. This is hard because he is trying to have a better life and just keeps wronging in to problems no matter where he goes. It is not fair to him since he is trying to make a change by improving
First, Junior confronts the dreariness of the Wellpinit school system by deciding to transfer to the Reardan school system. Junior initiates this decision when he throws a book across the room upon discovering his mother’s name inscribed inside the cover. His outburst signifies Junior’s recognition of Wellpinit’s misery and desire to achieve. This ambition drives his decisions throughout the novel and defines his unique character. In addition, Junior discloses his decision to his parents with fearlessness and trepidation. Junior confesses, “I want to transfer schools... I want to transfer to Reardan” (Alexie 45). Junior’s bluntness highlights his fearless personality and validates his ability to confront his problems and tasks head-on. In complex situations, Junior possesses the skills to navigate his future. Finally, Junior’s ability to overcome problems appears in his ability to navigate his way to Reardan each day for school. With the uncertainty of gas money in his family, Junior often finds himself walking or hitchhiking to the school, however
How White people assumed they were better than Indians and tried to bully a young boy under the US Reservation. Alexie was bullied by his classmates, teammates, and teachers since he was young because he was an Indian. Even though Alexie didn’t come from a good background, he found the right path and didn’t let his hands down. He had two ways to go to, either become a better, educated and strong person, either be like his brother Steven that was following a bad path, where Alexie chose to become a better and educated person. I believe that Alexie learned how to get stronger, and stand up for himself in the hard moments of his life by many struggles that he passed through. He overcame all his struggles and rose above them
They have opposing views on male and female roles in Chinese culture and do not agree on what it means to be a Chinese-American in modern society. These differences lead to their literary and verbal assaults. Each author claims that their individual narrative accurately represents the history of Chinese-Americans, and it is their obvious differences of opinion that has brought about contention between the two.
Danny came from a family where his mom is white and his dad is Mexican. He was made fun of at school for being white by the Mexican kids and made fun of for being Mexican by the white kids. He tried out for the baseball team, and they made fun of him for not making it because he was Mexican. He didn’t fit into any group. So that summer he went to stay with his aunt, uncle, and his cousin Sofia, in National City, California. He was in a place where everyone was Mexican. Even though he was Mexican he still didn’t fit in because he was also half white. He didn’t know any Spanish like the rest of his friends and family did in National City. That made him feel left out when they would speak in Spanish. They still accepted him though.
the reality of a racist society. He must also discover for himself that his father is wrong
The mothers really struggle to transform their daughters, but the daughters finally realize that they want to be Chinese, not because it is cool, but because they come to understand who they really are. All four daughters are able to learn something from their mother that can be used to further their relationship and bond. Despite the differences first presented, the girls each find ways to bond with their mothers and make a happy connection between their American lifestyles, and their Chinese backgrounds.
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.
Malcolm shares his dream job with the class and his teacher, Mr. Ostrowski. Mr. Ostrowski told him “Malcolm, one of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic. Don’t misunderstand me, now. We all here like you, you know that. But you’ve got to be realistic about being a nigger.”(Page 38) and this makes Malcolm realize that Mr. Ostrowski has supported and encouraged his peers but not him. The teacher heartened the other students not because they were performing better than Malcolm but because they were white. This event develops the idea of of systemic oppression and racial tensions. Malcolm isn’t allowed to say what he wants to be because of the color of his complexion and because of this event, he comes to adapt the ideal of integration vs separation later in his life.
P tells Junior that he must leave the rez and that if he stays everyone is going to kill his hope and make him give up, Junior says he doesn’t want to fight anybody. Mr. P tells him that he has been fighting all of his life and kept his hope. Now Junior must “take [his] hope and go somewhere where other people have hope” (43). Junior asks where to find hope and Mr. P responds that he’ll find more and more hope the farther he walks away from the “sad, sad, sad reservation” (43). These details and repetition show that Junior now knows that in order to succeed, in order to have a fulfilling life, he must leave the rez with all of its sadness and hopelessness behind. This is the strongest motivator yet for him to
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.
Knowing that it would be four years of relentless pestering, I knew that someday I would surpass my tormentors; I would keep under cover of my books and study hard to make my brother proud one day. It would be worth the pain to someday walk into a restaurant and see my former bully come to my table wearing an apron and a nametag and wait on me, complete with a lousy tip. To walk the halls of the hospital I work in, sporting a stethoscope and white coat while walking across the floor that was just cleaned not to long ago by the janitor, who was the same boy that tried to pick a fight with me back in middle school. To me, an Asian in an American school is picking up where my brother left off. It’s a promise to my family that I wouldn’t disappoint nor dishonor our name. It’s a battle that’s gains victory without being fought.
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
Jin Wang, the main character in American Born Chinese transforms in order to deal with stereotypes and prejudice. After moving from Chinatown San Francisco to a new school, Jin realizes he is the only Asian other than Suzy Nakamura (31). Jin immediately faces racial stereotypes and slurs, such as “Chinese people eat dogs”, and arranged marriages (31). Even the teachers have preconceived ideas about Jin’s heritage. His third grade teacher Mrs. Greeder has little understanding of the pronunciation of Jin’s name and from where he moved, thinking he came “all the way from China” (30). In order to integrate in his new environment, he assimilates himself into American culture, transformed into a “regular” American. After stereotyped for eating dog, Jin is seen eating without chopsticks, part of his Asian tradition, and begins to eat “normal” American cuisine, such as sandwiches (37). When Wei Chen arrives, Jin tells him “(he’s) in America” and to “speak English” (37). Even though Jin is fully capable of communicating with Wei-Chen, he decides to abandon his previous culture. Jin chooses to fully transform into an American. He tries to completely dispose of his Asian identity and develop a new one. In order to do this he develops the n...
Everybody has his own life, and everybody has his own personality. No one can change someone’s life style, unless himself wants to. In the “Alive” by Ha Jin and “who’s irish?” by Gish Jen, there’s someone has the same personality, but someone has the other difference. It may due to the countries education method, different period, or something else difference, but they are building up the different person, different personality. It’s no matter in real life or in the stories.
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.