Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on current aboriginal education
History of Indigenous education
Indigenous education
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essay on current aboriginal education
In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Junior, the main character, is a fourteen-year old boy living on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington. The Indians living on the reservation are mistreated, abused, and looked down upon. They are the bottom of the heap, the low of the low, and wherever they go they are judged. In the book the main character, Junior, defies all odds and follows his dreams to leave the reservation and make something of himself, unlike his parents who gave up on their dreams and gave in to the peer pressure of the world. Junior is a 14 year old boy who also enjoys playing basketball. Like the other members of the Coeur d’Alene tribe, who live on the reservation, Junior has grown up in an alcoholic home. Yet Junior goes against all expectation, follows his dream and transfers to Reardan, an academic school with a mostly white student body. …show more content…
They dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams. This states how she wanted a better life but through hard times and misfortunes she couldn’t foresee herself becoming college graduate. Her dream died off and she became an alcoholic mother of two. Just another day in the life of an Indian, filled with disappointment and frustration. Just like his mother Junior’s father also had a dream. He was an aspiring musician but just as Junior says in the book, “we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams.” He also became an alcoholic who even spent what little income his family had at the bar, an act that would cause his kids and family to go hungry for weeks on end, although this is true and may seem heartless Junior and his dad had a good relationship. Nonetheless it was hard for Junior and his family to get
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.
At first, Junior was stuck on the rez and he felt hopeless because Indians who lived on the rez never got a chance to have hope, and some of the things that lead to losing hope are alcoholism,
Junior was born in a desperate, hopeless place. His parents and community were withering in despair. However, Junior did not choose to languish like the rest of his community; he boldly left his comfort zone for a better education—facing obstacles from losing
Junior says that he has been to 42 funerals and that, “About 90 percent of the deaths had been because of alcohol.” This shows that Junior should be majorly affected by alcohol because the closest people to him died because of alcohol. His sister, his grandma and Eugene have all died because of alcohol. In almost all Indian homes in his tribe someone drinks in their house. Junior overcame it by getting away from it and going to Rearden where alcoholism is not an issue. The importance of alcoholism in his life is so that he could get away and find hope although most native americans face it in their lives and do not get away from it and it becomes a problem their whole
Junior is constantly being told that white people are better, white people have more hope. Junior sometimes believes these expectations himself, but through all of that negativity he perseveres and demolishes those expectations:
Establishing an identity has been called one of the most important milestones of adolescent development (Ruffin, 2009). Additionally, a central part of identity development includes ethnic identity (ACT for Youth, 2002). While some teens search for cultural identity within a smaller community, others are trying to find their place in the majority culture. (Bucher and Hinton, 2010)The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian chronicles Junior’s journey to discovery of self. As with many developing teens, he finds himself spanning multiple identities and trying to figure out where he belongs. “Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger. I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other” (p.118). On the reservation, he was shunned for leaving to go to a white school. At Reardon, the only other Indian was the school mascot, leaving Junior to question his decision to attend school he felt he didn’t deserve. Teens grappling with bicultural identities can relate to Junior’s questions of belonging. Not only is Junior dealing with the struggle between white vs. Indian identities, but with smaller peer group identities as well. In Wellpinit, Junior is th...
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
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.
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.
His father will sometimes forget about Junior and never show up to give him a ride home. Junior is then forced to walk or hitchhike all the way back to the reservation. His father also constantly spends all of his money on alcohol, even during the holidays, “.Dad did what he always does when we don’t have enough money. He took what little money we did have and ran away to get drunk” (Alexie 150). Junior’s unfortunate understanding of alcoholism makes him see the world as an unfair place.
Junior had alcoholic parents but tried not to end like them. Unfortunately, his parents died in a drunk-driving accident. Sherman Alexie used their death as a symbol that alcohol can ruin and tear apart families. Junior decided he wanted a better life, but his past trials were defeating him and bringing him to the lowest point in his life emotionally. Junior is highly unaccounted for as a character. He never told anyone he was depressed that he ended up committing suicide. Meagan Lacy shared a statistic from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health about alcoholism and how it affects parents and their children. It all ties back to the kids not always ending up like their parents. Many Native Americans conceal their feelings and let it build up then they break or harm themselves. The white people do not see Native Americans as people, but see them as objects they can move and toss around. Not all Native Americans are troubled. All they need is a little guidance into the right direction. Today’s culture is screwed up. Nobody can do anything right and will get judged for doing something wrong. Stereotypes are just standards that people want other people to look up
One can only achieve their dreams if they persevere because conquering obstacles strengthens one’s resolve. Junior decides to transfer from Wellpinit (a school on the reservation) to Reardan (an all white school outside of the reservation), only to prove that he can live up to his dream without giving up, unlike the other Indians on the reservation. This results in him losing his only best friend and facing many conflicts. Junior overcomes many of the obstacles that he faces throughout his journey by persevering through hardships, which help make him stronger. In the novel, Junior perseveres in spite of overcoming many of the obstacles that he faces throughout his journey. Despite the sacrifices that he makes and the hardships and struggles
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
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.