When you believe in yourself you can do anything you set your mind to. In Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold, the main character, takes basketball very seriously. Arnold lives on an Indian reservation, and he used to go to school there too. After a motivational conversation with one of his teachers, Arnold decides to go to Reardon, the all-white school with a better educational system. His switch to Reardon also means that he needs to switch teams. When Arnold from first meets the Coach of the varsity basketball team, he doesn’t know what to expect. He had first assumed that Coach would be racist, (like all of the other teachers.) but then after try-outs Arnold realizes that Coach is far more equal. “Heck, …show more content…
I ended up on the varsity. As a freshman. Coach said I was the best shooter who'd ever played for him. And I was going to be his secret weapon” (page 142). When Arnold steps into his first game against his previous team, Wellpinit.
He is surprised by an arranged protest against his going to Reardon. The entire stadium turned their backs on Arnold, as a way of publicly shunning him. Arnold laughs bravely in response, but when he gets to the locker room with his team he breaks into tears. “But Coach knew exactly what to say. ‘It's okay,’ Coach said to me, but he was talking to the whole team. ‘If you care about something enough, it's going to make you cry. But you have to use it. Use your tears. Use your pain. Use your fear. Get mad, Arnold, get mad’” (page 144). This quote shows how Coach cares for Arnold, and how he understands Arnold. He shows this through knowing exactly what to say to Arnold as to motivate him but also by not shaming him for crying in front of his teammates. When Arnold steps onto the court, someone throws a quarter at his already delicate head, causing him to get three stitches. Even after his injury Arnold is desperate to play and asks to be sent in again, but moments later he receives a minor concussion due to Rowdy elbowing his head. Arnold had to be sent to the hospital in an ambulance, so Coach came and visited with Arnold, and gave him praise for his dedication. “So Coach and I sat awake all night. We told each other many stories. But I never repeat those stories. That night belongs to just me and my coach” (page
149). The best thing about having friends and enemies in your life is that you can learn from them. Coach learned that Indian people are equal to white people. He also learned how to really believe in Arnold, and this positive attitude spread to Arnold causing him to believe in himself too. “Coach had become, like, the priest of basketball, and I was his follower. And I was going to follow him onto the court and shut down my best friend. I hoped so. ‘I can do it,’ I said to Coach, to my teammates, to the world. ‘You can do it,’ Coach said. ‘I can do it.’ ‘You can do it.’ ‘I can do it’” (page 189). This support from his Coach and teammates gives Arnold confidence and makes him want to be a better person. “I mean, I'd always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole—I wasn't expected to be good so I wasn't. But in Reardan, my coach and the other players wanted me to be good. They needed me to be good. They expected me to be good. And so I became good. I wanted to live up to expectations” (page 180).This shows me how influential it is to have someone who believes in you.
Modern day Native American are widely known as stewards of the environment who fight for conservation and environmental issues. The position of the many Native American as environmentalists and conservationists is justified based on the perception that before European colonists arrived in the Americas, Native Americans had little to no effect on their environment as they lived in harmony with nature. This idea is challenged by Shepard Krech III in his work, The Ecological Indian. In The Ecological Indian, Krech argues that this image of the noble savage was an invented tradition that began in the early 1970’s, and that attempts to humanize Native Americans by attempting to portray them as they really were. Krech’s arguments are criticized by Darren J Ranco who in his response, claims that Krech fails to analyze the current state of Native American affairs, falls into the ‘trap’ of invented tradition, and accuses Krech of diminishing the power and influence of Native Americans in politics. This essay examines both arguments, but ultimately finds Krech to be more convincing as Krech’s
Wes Moore, the author, had many important role models in his life that would eventually enable him to live up to his full capability. Uncle Howard, Wes’ mother’s brother, filled the hole that was left when Moore’s father died and when“[he] was eleven… and having difficulty in and out of the classroom [he could lean] on Uncle Howard’s shoulder”. Moore’s uncle was the man who convinced Moore that he could achieve more than just basketball at school, that education would allow him to reach his full potential. The persuasion to drop basketball as a career, enabled
God and the Indian is a two person play written by Drew Hayden Taylor. In this play we have a man named George that was a former priest at a residential school. We also have a lady named Johnny Indian that was a former student at said residential school. In the play Johnny accuses George of having molested her as a child. George tells Johnny that she is delusional and will not admit to his wrongdoings. The author tells the story from both George and Johnny’s sides. I think what the author is really trying to portray here is the denial of the people that worked in the name of the church at residential schools years after they had left and/or been shut down.
Indian culture has been disappearing for centuries since the Native Americans were forced to migrate from their original homes. In the book, The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, an Indian boy displays 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 Native American boy Arnold is able to show toughness, courageousness and the capability to overcome obstacles, by illustrating comics and playing basketball. For Arnold, drawing comics and playing basketball is a way to build his character and self-esteem. Without the freedom in writing comics and the self-confidence builder in playing basketball, Arnold would act
The first personal traits that Coach Dale was forced to exhibit were his toughness and his assertiveness. On his first night in Hickory he met the men of town in the barbershop who were all willing to provide their experience and insight on the team and how to coach. Coach Dale had enough self confidence to know that none of these “insights” were going to help the Hickory team win basketball games and let them know they weren’t welcome by turning his back and walking out. Additionally, he was forced to demonstrate his toughness twice more on the first day of practice by telling the temporary coach, “Secondly, your days of coaching are over,” and then by standing up to the group of men after he dismissed Buddy from the team. These actions made no friends of the men; however, th...
Before European contact with Turtle Island, the Native Peoples fully occupied the lands, maintaining extensive trade networks, roads that tied different nations together, and successfully adapted to the specific natural environments across the continent.15 In her book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes of the Natives also adapting the environment to their needs,
Can you imagine growing up on a reservation full of people with no hope? The character Arnold in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie did. In the beginning of the book, Arnold was a hopeless Native American living on a hopeless reservation. In the middle of the book, Arnold leaves the reservation and finds out that his sister left too. By the end of the book, Arnold experiences a lot of deaths of people who mean a lot to him but he still found hope. Arnold becomes a warrior for leaving the reservation and going to Reardan.
Defending Titles Diversely: A Persuasive Essay about the Lack of Diversity in Sports Many Americans have seen or at least heard of the movie “Remember the Titans.” The classic film focuses on a school that blends black and whites and takes on an African American head coach. The coach knows the importance of winning, but also knows the team must work together to get those wins and have respect for every single person in the locker room. Although coach Boone was still put in a tough situation with the school board and the community, he was able to lead his team, with the help of a white assistant coach, to an undefeated season. The team coming together is exactly what America does with sports.
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.
In “The School Days of an American Girl,” by Zitkala-Sa, she writes about her childhood struggles to adapt into the white American society. The author who recreates a story of her younger self’s journey attending a paleface school in which she had a hard time adjusting to. She left behind her Native American culture and tried to conform to the national body, not by choice but by subtle pressure. Her new self and what she had become after attending boarding school would later alienate her from native ways and make her different than her mother and brother who were living on the plains. This change in herself would ultimately affect the relationship she cherished with her
The book “Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie and the movie “Finding Forrester” are hilarious stories in their own profane ways. In this essay i will be talking about the different themes of the two stories and how they are similar.
“The odds of a high school basketball player making it to the “next level” to play college basketball (DI, II, or III) is slim. In fact, only 3.4% of high school players go on to play college basketball. Taking it even further, only 1.2% of college basketball players go on to get drafted in the NBA” (Winters, 2016). There are two types of players in the game. There are the kids who play basketball because they are athletic, and all they are seeking to gain is the recognition and awards. They want to be known. Those players are self-centered, they do not play for the team, and generally don’t play because they love the game. These are the types of players who don’t usually go on to play at the next level. On the other hand, there are the players that absolutely dedicate their life to the game of basketball just because they love the game. That is what coaches are looking for in a player, and that is the kind of player I am striving to be.
Why do Indian college students have high dropout rates? Why do Indian college students have hard times in college, and university atmospheres? Why do Indian college students have difficult times when it comes to making good grades? Maybe it’s because they have no role models in the home. Maybe they can’t relate to individuals with different cultures and backgrounds? Perhaps it is something simple as having poor study habits. The answers could Possibly be that Indian college students are just uncomfortable in a college environment, and don’t have an Indian studies program to go to, as in Reyhner’s essay. Whatever the reason may be Indian college students are scarce within the college scene, just as Indian people are in the United States of America.
In the spirt of taking risks like in both short stories, “Miss. Lora” and “The toughest Indian Alive” I too have taken bold risks like they did. I am of Chinese heritage, but I was born and raised here. My views on dating a person is different than other people of my heritage because I don’t believe that people should only date within their own race. I believe that love has no boundaries. I believe that if you love someone or even like someone it’s because of who they are as a person not what they look like or what religion they believe in. Traditionally, many elders don’t like the idea of the younger generation dating other races because especially with immigrant parents they always bring up the question about communication, how will we communicate with one another if we do end up getting married.
What would it be like to be a poor, non-white kid in a rich white school? Junior is a poor, outcast, kid from the Native American Reservation who chooses switches to a better school where he has a better future. Here, He goes through many changes, and grows in many ways. He changes his name to Arnold. He creates many new friendships and also becomes a star on the varsity basketball team. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Arnold is stuck between two totally different worlds and he learns how to survive on both. Through this growth, Sherman Alexie teaches the reader that you can accomplish whatever you want no matter where you come from or your race, as long as you have the right mindset toward your goal.