Indians have lived and continue to live a difficult life on the reservation. In Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Indians deal with alcoholism, poverty, violence, and many other hardships. One of the main hardships on the reservation involves poverty. Oftentimes poverty has much affected the community negatively and affecting the communities’ future. For a better future and to escape poverty, Arnold transfers to Reardan. Throughout Arnold’s journey of searching for a better future. Arnold comes to realize the power of his Indian culture, which he can compensate for the communities’ poverty. The harsh difficulties of poverty has made the reservation feel hopeless. Arnold describes one of the many …show more content…
When Arnold is around his Reardan friends, he “...pretended to have a little money...”(Alexie 119). Because at Wellpinit, he did not belong and many of the Indians picked on him, he desperately wanted to feel the sense of belonging to something. But to fit in, Arnold felt that he had to lie about having money. Especially during when his friends and him go out to eat, Arnold learns that "If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing."(129). At Wellpinit, to build a strong and trusting relationship with someone was hard for Arnold. On the reservation, physical fights showed how much one was worth, often times then, friends were made because they knew one could fight. White at Reardan, building a relationship with someone for other reasons besides strength was unexpected for Arnold. He realizes that he does not need to lie in front of and can actually trust them because they are his true …show more content…
During Halloween night, Arnold gets an unexpected beating, “They didn’t beat me up too bad. I could tell they didn’t want to put me in the hospital or anything. Mostly they just wanted to remind that I was a traitor”(Alexie 79). At this point, Arnold shockingly does not give up even after a hard beating. He still sticks to his word that, “I have to do this” (Alexie 55). For Arnold, there is no future for him on the Indian reservations. Out of many of the Indians, he is the only who seems to care for his future. In order for a bright future, has to get away from the bad, such as alcohol and the limited
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.
“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.
“Alcoholism is an epidemic among Native Americans”(KCTS9). Many people believe that alcoholism is in the Native’s blood, but it is truly just a situational problem. On the reservations a majority of families are poverty ridden, and these families normally stay on the reservation their whole lives. Junior, a 14 year old Spokane Indian, manages to break the cycle of hopelessness and alcoholism in his family by leaving the reservation school to go to the white school in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Another character that Sherman Alexie brings to life, Arnold, is the typical alcoholic indian stereotype who allows alcohol to affect the course of his life in the movie Smoke Signals. In both Smoke Signals and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, author Sherman Alexie shows how alcohol on the reservation can cause accidents, funerals, and heartache.
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
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.
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.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2007. Print.
To begin, in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Sherman Alexie describes a moment in
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.
Inside the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie you are constantly being slammed in the face with such depressing matters that are dealt within the book, if it’s not racism it’s death, which there’s a lot of death. Other than being slammed in the face with those things there’s also a lot of hope and dreams mentioned along the way that doesn't just involve the main character but those around him, lastly the main character also comes to realization and acceptance of his true identity towards the end of the novel. There’s a lot that goes on inside this novel and within the characters such as Arnold, Mary, and
Although there is hardly any hope on the reservation, Arnold knows that there is hope outside of the reservation. The reservation has a horrible education and on page 3 when Arnold was at school Arnold says, “My school and tribe are so poor that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from.” This shows that the reservation is too poor to buy new textbooks for the students to study from. The teacher gave Arnold some advice to find hope on page 93. Arnold and Mr.P were sitting in the porch of Arnold’s hous...
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.
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.