“From our vantage point, we could see for miles. We could see from one end of the reservation to the other. We could see our entire world. And our entire world, at that moment, was green and golden and perfect”(Alexie 226). This quotation, taken from the latter portion of Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is located at the unifying point of a story that is filled with internal and external conflict involving the narrator, Arnold “Junior” Spirit, and the entire population of the Reservation and of his high school. Throughout the story, the theme of an ongoing battle is present amongst many, if not all, of the characters, whether that battle be against one another, alcoholism, inner demons, depression, or …show more content…
a predetermined fate. The borders of the reservation are that of an impenetrable fortress in which the residents feel there is no escape. Junior, different from the moment he was born, is a paradox in the sense that he sees the light at the end of the tunnel, a light that so many around him see as extinguished. The unifying aspect to the entire story is the idea of a constant fight. Though Rowdy predicts his and Junior’s impending happiness, there is this idea that the two will always be fighting something, whether it be together or alone, alcoholism or even a basketball game, as long as one of them can see a way out, there would be times of exuberance. One of the tensions and oppositions in Junior’s life is a sense of belonging and of not belonging.
On one hand, he belongs to his tribe based on shared history, ancestry, and values. On the other hand, past and present medical conditions alienate him from a group of people that are already alienated by the majority of society: he’s an outcast to the outcasts. As an outsider, Junior oftentimes falls victim to the fists and words of other people on the reservation. It is his best friend, Rowdy, that stands up for Junior on multiple occasions. Rowdy and Junior were born on the same day and like Junior, Rowdy has an alcoholic father. Rowdy’s father, however, beats him where Junior’s father wouldn’t dream of laying a hand on his son. At one point Junior makes the observation: “I was born all broken and twisted, and he was born mad”(17). Their birth foreshadows the way both boys fight when they are older, Rowdy has a direct approach to fighting while Junior has an indirect approach. So when Junior is faced with fighting his “predetermined fate” as a citizen of the reservation, he initiates the battle by throwing a book at Mr. P, his geometry teacher, but then refers back to his own style of fighting. It is because of this “predetermined fate” and a fear of being stuck in a perpetual cycle of alcoholism, abuse, and hopelessness that Junior decides it is time for him to leave the reservation, at least for high …show more content…
school. There are a set of rules for everything that is done in life, and fighting is no exception to that.
It is while Junior experiences his first weeks at Reardon that the reader is introduced to “The Unofficial and Unwritten (but you have to follow them or you’re going to get beaten twice as hard) Spokane Indian Rules of Fisticuffs” (61-62). Following the racist comment of a rather large, athletic upperclassman named Roger, Junior decides that it is time to stand his ground and fires the proverbial ‘first shot’ based off of rule number 10 which states “If you get in a fight with somebody who is sure to beat you up, then you must throw the first punch, because it’s the only punch you’ll ever get to throw” (62). Before punching Roger, however, Junior only made the assumption that Roger would fight back, so we can conclude that the fight is a draw. Junior’s fight with Roger foreshadows what is to come of his long fight with Rowdy that is currently taking place. After his first few months at Reardon, Junior becomes one of the popular students at Reardon, he is friends with Roger, has a girlfriend, and is on the varsity basketball team when Reardon faces Wellpinit and Rowdy, who still holds a grudge against him. During his first few minutes of play time, as Junior is about to take a shot, Rowdy decides to smash his elbow into Junior’s face, knocking him unconscious for the rest of the game. Now fast forward to the end of the novel, it’s summer and Rowdy and Junior seem to be working
their way back to being best friends when Rowdy says: No, I’m serious. I always knew you were going to leave. I always knew you were going to leave us behind and travel the world. I had this dream about you a few months ago. You were standing on the Great Wall of China. You looked happy. And I was happy for you. (229) Based on this statement, Rowdy has always known the Junior would one day leave the reservation, but he was willing to fight Junior if that meant delaying the truth for a while longer, even though he knew that this was one battle he would ultimately lose. Refer back to rule number 10 in “The Unofficial and Unwritten (but you have to follow them or you’re going to get beaten twice as hard) Spokane Indian Rules of Fisticuffs” (61). Rowdy threw the first punch, and although Junior didn’t physically retaliate, winning the rematch between Reardon and Wellpinit was his way of ending the fight. While growing up on the reservation, Junior exposes himself to the many battles the Spokane Indians face in their everyday life; whether it be poverty, alcoholism, depression, or just plain anger. Each of these people deal with their demons in a different way; Junior’s father deals with poverty by drinking away their money, his sister deals with feeling trapped by moving to another reservation in a different state, and Rowdy deals with his anger by physically fighting other people. Although these particular battles are potentially only temporary for Junior, there is still the idea that they will not be the only, and certainly not the hardest, battles that he will face in his lifetime.
In the fictional story, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, a Native American author, describes the problems of a teenager living between two different cultures; one Native American, and the other white. Alexie uses figurative language elements to convince teenagers to be aware and support people living between two worlds in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. By using these literary elements, Sherman Alexie guides the audience to respond emotionally and act upon about the book’s message. Throughout the story, Alexie uses juxtaposition to show the differences between the two worlds the protagonist lives in.
In some situations, people become violent because of their emotions. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior leaves his school on the reservation to go to an all white high school. His Indian friends feel betrayed. He joins the basketball team at his new school and the first game is against the reservation team. The Indian crowd throws things at him and he needs stitches on his forehead. During the game, as Junior jumped into the air, he “heard the curses of 200 Spokanes, and saw only a bright light as Rowdy smashed his elbow into my head and knocked me unconscious”. (pg 146) After Junior left the Reservation, Rowdy felt betrayed, and became violently angry. His emotion of betrayal caused him to turn on Junior and act more evil. This is especially hard on him because Junior was his best friend.
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.
How White people assumed they were better than Indians and tried to bully a young boy under the US Reservation. Alexie was bullied by his classmates, teammates, and teachers since he was young because he was an Indian. Even though Alexie didn’t come from a good background, he found the right path and didn’t let his hands down. He had two ways to go to, either become a better, educated and strong person, either be like his brother Steven that was following a bad path, where Alexie chose to become a better and educated person. I believe that Alexie learned how to get stronger, and stand up for himself in the hard moments of his life by many struggles that he passed through. He overcame all his struggles and rose above them
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
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
In the passage, Indian Education we start off by following Victor who is a Indian boy from the Reservation, from first grade up to high school. Even though he is bullied in first grade, Victor finally gets payback when he gets even on Frenchy SiJohn by shoving his face in the snow and then starts punching Frenchy over and over again. Victor undergoes bad luck as the next two years he has two mean teachers in second and in third grade that do not like him very much, but luckily in fourth grade, he has a teacher named Mr. Schluter who inspires him to become a doctor so he can heal his people in the tribe. The next year life takes a turn for the worse as Victor’s cousin begins sniffing rubber cement. If it was not for his new friend Randy the
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
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” is a humorous and intuitive novel written by Sherman Alexie. The reader gets an insight into the everyday life of a fourteen year old hydrocephalic Indian boy named Arnold Spirit, also referred to as Junior Spirit. He is living on the Spokane Indian reservation and is seen as an outcast by all the other Indians, due to his medical condition. Against all odds, Arnold expands his hope, leaves his school on the reservation and faces new obstacles to obtain a more promising future at a school off the reservation. The novel is told through Arnold’s voice, thoughts, actions, and experiences.
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.
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.
“I’m never going to act like my mother!” These words are increasingly common and yet unavoidable. Why is it that as children, we are able to point out every flaw in our parents, but as we grow up, we recognize that we are repeating the same mistakes we observed? The answer is generational curses: un-cleansed iniquities that increase in strength from one generation to the next, affecting the members of that family and all who come into relationship with that family (Hickey 13). Marilyn Hickey, a Christian author, explains how this biblically rooted cycle is never ending when she says, “Each generation adds to the overall iniquity, further weakening the resistance of the next generation to sin” (21, 22). In other words, if your parents mess up you are now susceptible to making the same mistakes, and are most likely going to pass those mistakes to your children. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows the beauty of hope in the presence of a generational curse. Even though the elders are the ones who produce the curses, they are also the ones who attempt to break Junior from their bond forming mistakes. The curses that Arnold’s elders imprint on him lead him to break out of his cultural bonds and improve himself as a developing young man.
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
To begin, in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Sherman Alexie describes a moment in