The menacing reservation shrouds and shadows Arnold. The reservation follows him and distorts his decisions, and his entire life in order to “accommodate” the reservation’s tragic attributes. In the following paragraphs, I will describe the relationship between Junior and The Reservation that haunts his life. The reservation is a cruel world. It is encaptured in poorness, alcohol, and despair. By virtue of this, difficult and immoral decisions must be made. “I wanted to run faster than the speed of sound, but nobody, no matter how much pain they’re in, can run that fast. So I hear the boom of my father’s rifle when he shot my best friend.” Page 14 of Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Oscar, Junior's adopted mutt and most reliable living companion was quite sick. According to Arnold’s dad’s primitive diagnostics, he was “suffering.” Ever heard the saying “Just put him out of his …show more content…
P. He is different than his peers.“But not you, Mr. P said. You can’t give up, you won’t give up.’’ In this statement, Mr. P picks Junior out from his peers; defining him as a child who is motivated and is destined to succeed. “You threw that book in my face because somewhere inside you refused to give up.” Junior didn’t just throw the book, he didn’t just throw the book to hit Mr. P, he threw the book at the rez. As an act of perseverance and not giving into the defeat of his fellow Native Americans. Mr. P is the mentor and the propeller for Juniors fight against the rez. He says “If you stay on this rez, they're going to kill you. I’m going to kill you. We’re all going to kill you. You can’t fight us forever. ” Page 43. Mr. P says this not in a literal way, but as a metaphor for Junior’s hope. The longer Arnold resides on the reservation, the more he will be drawn to giving up on life. He will find the most hope the further he goes from the rez. This motivates him so seek better opportunities by attending
The systematic racism and discrimination in America has long lasting effects that began back when Europeans first stepped foot on American soil is still visible today but only not written into the law. This racism has lead to very specific consequences on the Native people in today’s modern world, and while the racism is maybe not as obvious it is still very present. These modern Native peoples fight against the feeling of community as a Native person, and feeling entirely alone and not a part of it. The poem “The Reservation” by Susan Cloud and “The Real Indian Leans Against” by Chrystos examine the different effects and different settings of how their cultures survived but also how so much was lost for them within their own identity.
According to conservative conflict theory, society is a struggle for dominance among competing social groups defined by class, race, and gender. Conflict occurs when groups compete over power and resources. (Tepperman, Albanese & Curtis 2012. pg. 167) The dominant group will exploit the minority by creating rules for success in their society, while denying the minority opportunities for such success, thereby ensuring that they continue to monopolize power and privilege. (Crossman.n.d) This paradigm was well presented throughout the film. The European settlers in Canada viewed the natives as obstacles in their quest of expansion by conquering resources and land. They feared that the aboriginal practices and beliefs will disrupt the cohesion of their own society. The Canadian government adopted the method of residential schools for aboriginal children for in an attempt to assimilate the future generations. The children were stripped of their native culture,...
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.
At a point in time, Arnold and Rowdy become best friends once again. This friendship between Arnold and Rowdy that Alexie has integrated into the novel illustrates a hardship between personal companions and personal prosperity, perfectly. Hardship is everywhere, but Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” is an amusing and intelligent novel that clearly provides the reader with perfect examples of poverty and friendship on an Indian reservation. Alexie incorporates those examples through the point of view and experiences of a fourteen year old boy named Arnold Spirit Jr.
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
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.
“From Rez Life : An Indian’s journey through reservation life” (Treuer) . He said that “at other
Stark, H. K., & Wilkins, D. E. (2011). American Indian Politics and the American Political System. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Although, seeming to be most beneficial for the United States, this has been a yoke for the American Indians. Reservations are prisons where our people are kept to live and die says Carlos Montezuma. Another dilemma that the American Indians have faced is the fact that the government taught them how to live without work which has stripped the meaning of life for them. The American Indians were used to roaming the land and hunting to provide for their family. Constantly they were doing something. Carlos Montezuma states that the Indian Bureau must be done away with in order for his people to acquire the knowledge to appreciate their
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.
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. 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.”
Although the work is 40 years old, “Custer Died for Your Sins” is still relevant and valuable in explaining the history and problems that Indians face in the United States. Deloria book reveals the Whites view of Indians as false compared to the reality of how Indians are in real life. The forceful intrusion of the U.S. Government and Christian missionaries have had the most oppressing and damaging effect on Indians. There is hope in Delorias words though. He believes that as more tribes become more politically active and capable, they will be able to become more economically independent for future generations. He feels much hope in the 1960’s generation of college age Indians returning to take ownership of their tribes problems.
In more of an extreme case, after Junior finally overcame his fear of leaving the reservation for a new and more positive life, he was not treated fairly. In the beginning of his experience at Reardan he writes, “After all, I was a reservation Indian, and no matter how geeky or weak I appeared to be, I was still a potential killer” (Alexie 2007:63). This is a perfect example of how easily people believe things they hear. Junior was literally a weak fifteen year old that could never hurt a fly, yet people looked at him as a killer because that was a stereotype about Indians. This idea goes along with Johnson’s thoughts of symbols, “symbols go far beyond labeling things” and “Symbols are also what we use to feel connected to a reality outside ourselves” (Johnson 2008: 36).
The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 to “‘promote the best interests of Indian children and promote the stability and security of Indian tribes’” (“Indian Child”). Congress gave tribal courts exclusive control over the adoption and custody of Indian children who live in their tribes’ reservations to prevent the practice of Indian children being removed from their homes (“Indian Child”). Even though some suggest the ICWA is racist and increases the risk of child abuse, the law should remain in place with no significant changes because it helps children’s mental health by connecting them to their culture.