Compare and Contrast Paper
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself with others”. In stories The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian and Smoke Signals by Sherman Alexie, the main characters struggle with finding themselves. They spend most of the story going on a journey to find who they really are. Both of these stories are very similar, but also have many differences. True Diary and Smoke Signals are similar but different in characters, plot, and theme. True Diary and Smoke Signals are similar but different in characters. Victor from Smoke Signals and Junior from True Diary both need to leave the Rez, but for very different reasons. Victor needs to leave his reservation to go to Phoenix, Arizona. Victor’s dad left him and moved to Arizona. Years later, they got a call that he died. Victor was sent to retrieve his father's ashes. Junior wanted to leave his reservation. He wanted to have a better education and Mr. P told him that he would lose all hope if he stayed on the reservation. The main characters of both stories, Victor and Junior, have very different personalities. Victor relates more to one of the minor characters, Rowdy. They are both tough, or
…show more content…
They both share a common theme of loneliness but the show it in different ways. In True Diary Junior feels out of place on the reservation and feels the need to leave. He doesn't want to leave his family but he want a better education and he has no hope if he stays on the rez. Once he gets to Reardon, he feels even more lonely because he is the only Indian and has no friends. In Victor's case, his dad left and he didn't know why. He may have felt it was his fault even though that wasn't directly said in the story. He took out his anger because of that on Thomas and that was clear when they were on the bus. The theme helps give meaning to the story and helps you understand the plot
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.
Both these books show how your life as a young adult can be altered by the death of your parents at a young age. In both these stories the authors Jacqueline Woodson and S.E Hinton both portray these boys growing up in a rough area with no parents and the oldest brother taking most of the responsibly if not all somewhat becoming their mother and father in place of what they have lost. You can see right away where a lot of the pressure gets put upon these young men Darry and Ty’ree Bailey. For example, “Darry didn’t deserve to work like an old man” (The Outsiders 16) “Ty’ree had just cashed his check from the publishing company, some evenings he’d sit clipping coupons and take them down when he went grocery shopping” (Miracle’s Boys 30).
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.
The film industries over the years involving Native Americans tend to display various myths and negative portrayals of indigenous people. However, some films like Smoke Signals and Rabbit Proof Fence show real experiences and lifestyles of indigenous people.
People mistake the Indian culture for living in T-Ps and going to powwows and always being drunk. But Smoke Signals really shows how the Indian culture really is. It includes how their culture is different from the white man but the stereo types that people put out for Indians are really inaccurate. Victor and Thomas not only take us on this interesting adventure to see his dad but they show us all of the Indian stereo types.
The film Smoke Signals, screen written by Sherman Alexie, examines the small, ordinary Native American life of a boy that lives on the Coeur d’Alene Indian reservation with family problems. The story is set in 1998 but also has flashbacks throughout the lives of Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor Joseph. Both Victor and Thomas must go on a trip to take care of Victor’s father’s business since he has passed away. Victor and Thomas both must be saved from situations throughout the film. In the film, the theme of salvation preserves both Victor and Thomas from death and conserve Victor from living a life of hatred toward his father and others around him, which allows him to understand why his life is filled with pain due to his father’s actions.
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
In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian there are examples of courage throughout the whole book. Junior decides he wants to go to an all white school. ‘“I want to go to Rearden,” said Junior. I couldn’t believe I was saying it. For me, it seemed as real as saying, “I want to fly the moon.” said Junior.’ (Alexie, 46) This quote is important because it shows that Junior isn’t afraid to try new things and he doesn’t
Both poems are set in the past, and both fathers are manual labourers, which the poets admired as a child. Both poems indicate intense change in their fathers lives, that affected the poet in a drastic way. Role reversal between father and son is evident, and a change of emotion is present. These are some of the re-occurring themes in both poems. Both poems in effect deal with the loss of a loved one; whether it be physically or mentally.
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.
In Smoke Signals Directed by Chris Eyre, Fluidity of time plays the role of the forgiveness and healing of time. Thomas and Victor tell the story of Arnold when he was a kid and how his life growing up was not a normal kid he was hated for being an indian and later sent to Prison for it.
Identity. Social Injustice. Coming of age. Those are three out of several other themes that are touched on in The Diary of a Part-Time Indian, written by Sherman Alexie.
The characters in both the book and the film have very similar traits-one being passive and the other being aggressive. Both tell a story of a journey that takes them out of their home on the reservation, complete with new experiences, people and finding yourself along the way. True Diary takes place over the course of a school year, in which Junior leaves his school, Wellpinit, a poor Native American school on the reservation to attend Reardan, a middle class white school, twenty miles away from his home. Smoke Signals is a story of Victor and Thomas leaving their reservation to retrieve Arnold´s ashes. Yet, they both return changed from their experiences outside of the
In the end, the stories of Perma Red and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian have their similarities and their differences. Both stories tell the tale of two young people from reservations in search of a better future. Whether they succeeded we will never know, but what we do know is that they both advanced as people because of the love they received, the losses they incurred and the trials they overcame.
From Fire to Ash: A closer look at "Smoke Signals" and "This Is What It Means to Say Pheonix Arizona"