“I’m never going to act like my mother!” These words are increasingly common and yet unavoidable. Why is it that as children, we are able to point out every flaw in our parents, but as we grow up, we recognize that we are repeating the same mistakes we observed? The answer is generational curses: un-cleansed iniquities that increase in strength from one generation to the next, affecting the members of that family and all who come into relationship with that family (Hickey 13). Marilyn Hickey, a Christian author, explains how this biblically rooted cycle is never ending when she says, “Each generation adds to the overall iniquity, further weakening the resistance of the next generation to sin” (21, 22). In other words, if your parents mess up you are now susceptible to making the same mistakes, and are most likely going to pass those mistakes to your children. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows the beauty of hope in the presence of a generational curse. Even though the elders are the ones who produce the curses, they are also the ones who attempt to break Junior from their bond forming mistakes. The curses that Arnold’s elders imprint on him lead him to break out of his cultural bonds and improve himself as a developing young man.
Mr. P bestows the curse of hopelessness to Arnold, which inspires him to break free from the bonds of his ancestors. Even though his students see him as worthless, Mr. P is humble, poor, hurt by the ones he is trying to save, an educator, and merciful, which leads to the betterment of Junior. Going back to biblical references, the readers can see that these adjectives also line up perfectly with the personality of Jesus: the higher power capable of breaking generation...
... middle of paper ...
...ibe.
As Mr. P, Grandma, and Mary share a small piece of their lives with Arnold, they show him how hopelessness, insecurity, and disregard to curses can make people's lives miserable. Even though everyone in society recognizes this, they cannot break free because they do not have the opportunity of a higher power to break them from their generational curses. As Junior observes all of this, he decides to be the one who breaks free by using the hardships of the curses presented to him as a motivation. He is a symbol of hope in the midst of a generational curse.
Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2007. Print.
Hickey, Marilyn. Breaking Generational Curses. Tulsa: Harrison House, Inc., 2000. Print.
Moore, Beth. So Long Insecurity. Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2010. Print.
Encountering struggles in life defines one’s character and speaks volumes about their strength, ambition, and flexibility. Through struggles, sacrifice, and tragedy, Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, adapts to survive difficult situations and faces his problems head-on. As he makes life changing decisions, adapts to an unfamiliar culture, and finds himself amongst misery and heartbreak, Junior demonstrates resilience to overcome adversity and struggles.
To conclude, in the book The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian an Indian boy shows how to escape the poverty of his Indian Reservation by going to a wealthy white school, as well as keeping his Indian Culture alive when living on the reservation.
The novel The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian and the movie Smoke Signals both originated from the mind of a man named Sherman Alexie. The novel and the movie have some similarities, but each similarity has a subtle difference. Some subtle differences between the topics in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian, and the movie Smoke Signals is the emphasis the author puts on each of the topics. There are a few topics that are shown in both the novel and the movie such as racism, identity, and loss. These topics are expressed very strongly in the novel but are vague in the movie.
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
It is said by Jeb Bush that, “Our children can achieve great things when we set high expectations for them”. Well, Arnold (Junior) Spirit in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, doesn’t have high expectations, if anything he is expected to fail, in life and in school. But Junior has ambition like none other, that is why he decides to break away from his reservation and attend the racist school Reardan. During his time in Reardan and on the Reservation, Junior rises above the life he was expected to live; he demonstrates ambition through perseverance and finds his identity, which proves humans ability to rise above expectations.
Adolescents experience a developmental journey as they transition from child to adult, and in doing so are faced with many developmental milestones. Physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes are occurring during this tumultuous stage of life, and making sense of one’s self and identity becomes a priority. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian addresses the challenges of adolescence in an engaging tale, but deals with minority communities and cultures as well.
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
What drives people to work hard? Where does determination come from? What causes us to want to make something of our lives? These questions are answered through two prominent themes that run through this book. In reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, the character of Junior helps explore these questions through the power of expectations and hope. These themes give people drive, determination, and passion for their lives. When one or both of these important elements are taken away, that determination, passion, and drive goes with it.
For many, finding where they belong is not always easy. Many feel as if they don’t connect with the people around them. They feel like outsiders because of their looks, skin colour or disabilities. The feeling of not knowing where you belong can leave you with an internal battle. In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” written by Sherman Alexie, the main character, Arnold, struggles with the feeling of belonging. He feels as though he’s split between his new school, Reardan, and his home on the reservation.The novel develops the theme, “One may find where they belong somewhere unexpected.” through plot and character. After moving schools from Wellpinit, on the reservation, to Reardan, a predominantly white school, Arnold starts
Over the course of the past semester we have read several books about Native American’s and their culture. The two books I found to be the most interesting were Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. In each story we see a young person from a reservation dealing with their Native Identities, Love, Loss and everything in between. Both of these novels have their similarities and their differences, but I believe they both offer insight into Native American culture that would be hard to come across elsewhere.
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. Stuttgart: Klett Sprachen, 2009. Print.
Have you ever wanted something really badly, but couldn’t afford it? This is a common occurrence, but what about food? Have you ever went to be hungry because you couldn’t afford to eat? Unfortunately, Junior, the main character in the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, felt exactly this way for food. Even though Junior didn’t have as many resources as the other “white kids,” he still chose to look at the positives. This novel shows that even in times of great hardship, people can still choose to have hope and look at the good in their lives.
As he grew older, he learned how to direct his hatred of his mother to the cat, and spent happy moments watching it suffer”. (Pg 86) Junior starts to realize that his mother care more about the cat instead of him. So he starts to release all his built up hurt and pain and let’s all that out on the cat. The third quote has to deal with Junior getting older and he started to enjoy bullying girls. It was making them scream and run. There was one girl in particular that he loved to bully and that was Pecola. Junior treated Pecola bad but that was his way of having “FUN” . “No!” He pushed her down, ran out the door that separated the rooms, and held it shut with his hands. Pecola’s banging on the door increased his gasping, high-pitched laughter. Junior traps Pecola in a room and he thinks it fun ,but she is scared and she is trying to escape. (WP-U) Self- worth can affect you bad. To the point that you retaliate back. Junior did not have the love from his mother that he was wishing for so he felt like no one else could have the love they wanted, because he suffered the people he mistreated had to suffer as
... mourning of his father), an encounter with a ghost who claims to be his father and asks him to exact revenge on his own uncle, and an innate sense of overly analytical and indecisive qualities which likely stem from the upbringing of the character in his youth. These perils which plague the character, along with the long drawn-out soliloquies the character delivers, all create for a character which is by definition, depressed.
In this situation, the white people symbolize hope and Arnold choosing to go to Reardan shows that he believes that he can be successful in the future. Even though he is taunted by his tribe for being “Disloyal” Arnold sticks with his decision which will help him in the long run to leave the reservation. Secondly, while talking to Penelope Arnold realizes that they both have big hopes and dreams in the world. He shows this when he says, “And I couldn’t make fun of her for that dream. It was my dream, too. And Indian boys weren’t supposed to dream like that. And white girls from small towns weren’t supposed to dream big, either. We were supposed to be happy with our limitation. But there was no way Penelope and I were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly” (112). By saying there was no way he is going to sit still, Arnold shows he has hope that he will not end up stuck on the reservation like he would be if he just stayed still. He takes the courageous step of getting off his butt and hiking the twenty-two miles to school every day. With the education Arnold receives at the better school his future is much brighter that it would be if he accepted his impoverished lifestyle. Finally, despite being doubted by adults, Arnold makes the school varsity basketball team at a young age and describes his excitement towards his