To begin with, the main character Arnold Spirit Jr. is introduced. He suffers from hydrocephalus which is an abnormal build of cerebrospinal fluids. As a result, he is nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other, has ten more teeth than the average human and a large skull. The children on the Spokane Indian Reservation taunt him to no end. Junior is bullied because of his speech impediment, which causes him to lack confidence, he states that if his story was not written it would be,“filled with stutters and lisps, then and you'd be wondering why you're reading a story written by such a retard.” (Alexie 4) Junior feels like an outcast on the reservation. He uses his cartoons as a form of self-expression that can be universally understood. …show more content…
For instance, he states, "If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning. But when you draw a picture, everybody can understand it.” (Alexie 5) His cartoons give him the chance to escape the reservation. Junior compares the world to a series of broken dams and floods, and his cartoons are little lifeboats. This demonstrates that his cartoons are a sanctuary from the outside world. From the information presented in the text, Junior can be characterized as intelligent and strong.
Junior experiences an internal struggle when he wishes to pursue a better education; this would mean leaving Wellpinit High School. He would be the first person to leave the reservation in this manner. Junior states that “Indian families stick together like Gorilla Glue, the strongest adhesive in the world.” His parents lived within two miles from their birthplace, and his grandmother lived one mile from where she was born - it’s uncommon to leave each other. Considering this information, Junior was in a difficult situation which ties into two themes presented in the novel: coming of age and identity. If he transferred to Reardan High School, it would be like abandoning his heritage and turning his back to his people. Whereas, if he remained on the reservation, he would face with limitations and unable to pursue his dreams. As a matter of fact, after the textbook incident with his teacher, he is not reprimanded but encouraged. Mr. P tells him that, “[He] must leave this reservation. All these kids have given up. We’re all defeated.” (Alexie 43) He expresses his disappointment with how reservation schools have failed to give the students a chance to follow their dreams. Junior’s older sister, Mary, had the potential to become an upcoming author but was not given the chance. She was a bright and shining star that faded out, and Junior could not follow the same
fate.
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
First, Junior confronts the dreariness of the Wellpinit school system by deciding to transfer to the Reardan school system. Junior initiates this decision when he throws a book across the room upon discovering his mother’s name inscribed inside the cover. His outburst signifies Junior’s recognition of Wellpinit’s misery and desire to achieve. This ambition drives his decisions throughout the novel and defines his unique character. In addition, Junior discloses his decision to his parents with fearlessness and trepidation. Junior confesses, “I want to transfer schools... I want to transfer to Reardan” (Alexie 45). Junior’s bluntness highlights his fearless personality and validates his ability to confront his problems and tasks head-on. In complex situations, Junior possesses the skills to navigate his future. Finally, Junior’s ability to overcome problems appears in his ability to navigate his way to Reardan each day for school. With the uncertainty of gas money in his family, Junior often finds himself walking or hitchhiking to the school, however
Junior’s emphasis on the positive characteristics implies that Wellpinit High School does not have these standard facilities unlike most schools today. This resonates with the audience, as they most likely go to a school with all the amenities of Reardan High School. This causes the audience to pity Junior, creating pathos and causing the reader to care about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’s message of living between two worlds. Furthermore, the author use metaphors to show the trials and tribulations of living between two worlds, further connecting the audience to the books message. After Junior and Gordy have a conversation about what it means to be White and Indian, Junior states that “A Lot of them call me an apple...because they think I’m red on the outside and white on the inside” (131).
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.
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
During the course of the story, Junior and Rowdy both tackle the theme of identity. This is especially clear when Junior abandons him and leaves the reservation school to attend a predominately white school in a nearby town. In Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Rowdy is an aggressive character, but he uses this trait in a positive manner as he is also fiercely caring. This synthesis of positive and negative traits reveal that one's flaws can be good, and they allow for the separation and reunification of Rowdy and Junior in the novel.
Next, we are placed in Jodee’s stable home as she is getting ready for her first day of high school. We see how truly desperate Jodee really is as she describes how her new shoes should make her popular. Throughout the story we see that Jodee is not poor, stupid, cubby, or socially awkward. She is simply prude, and is hated by the classmates of every school she attended in the attempt to become accepted. This explains how loving parents can be so wrong, schools cannot prevent disaster, and children in general can be just plain mean.
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...
The exceptional novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, possess a great amount of themes. Yet the one that stands out the most is the theme of friendship. This essay will explore the various relationships that junior has with his friends Rowdy, Roger, Penelope, and Gordy. The audience and Junior learn that friendship can be found in the most unusually places or even when its least excepted.
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
Jeanette shows her experience as a marginalized group who is trying to fit in the subcultural group at school. When she says,“Some of the kids looked as poor as me, with home-cut hair and holes in the toes of their shoes. I found it a lot easier to fit in than at Welch Elementary”(199). The word “fit in” closely represents that she is considering herself at a fringe. This is described when she enters a school that is full of students. Some of those students are also not even privileged and they have made a subcultural people of group that is considered as poor. She tries to settle in it easily because she is going through the same existing environment that is marginalized.
In this novel the main character, Arnold but also goes by Junior, "betrays" his reservation by going to a "white" school but he is bullied because he had a big head and a little body. Since the novel is semi-autobiographical it shows what Alexie went through as a child. He was bullied by everyone, even the adults of the reservation. Alexie widely bases his writings on race and also makes an effort to include the stereotypes that play along with each race, such as in the poem Go, Ghost, Go. Within the poem Alexie calls a white professor rich and unjust while calling Indians red men and also stating brown people will attack other people. (Alexie, Pg 21) Alexie largely bases his writings on his past, especially the parts in which he spent on the reservation. (Poetry Society) Another reason for his style of writing may be the fact that he wants his readers to know about Native American
When Junior went to Reardan, it was a new opportunity for him to succeed and find hope for a better future. This was beneficial for Junior because it made him put in more effort into trying to succeed and be a better student. He tried out for the basketball team, and he surprised himself, “Heck I ended up on varsity” (142). Reardan gave Junior hope by believing in him, and that gave him hope and confidence that he could make the basketball team at Reardan. At Wellpinit (his old high school on the reservation), they expected everyone to give up and not go to college, and not be successful. But at Reardan, all of the teachers expected all of the students to succeed and never give up. The two schools were polar opposites and Junior was stuck in the middle, but then Reardan gave him hope again and the path he needed for a better future, “ 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. I guess that’s what it all comes down to. The power of expectations” (180). Since Reardan expected Junior to be successful, it encouraged Junior to try harder in school and in sports. He gained confidence because of the
Junior’s grandmother was important to everyone in the village. When Junior’s Grandmother died it impacts a lot of people. “ We were stunned because almost two thousand indians came that day to say goodbye.” (Alexie 159). Because of this Junior realizes that his grandmother wasn’t just important to him, she was important to two thousand more people. This is also good for Junior because he had just changed schools and was being called a disgrace and a traitor but people leave him alone because of this. It also makes Junior realize that his grandmother was an amazing person and he should be proud of that. Junior’s Grandmother was important to people from out outside of the village. At the funeral more than just indians come. “ Yep, about two thousand indians (and a few white folk) sat and stood on the football field as we said goodbye to the greatest Spokane indian in history” Also, “My grandmother knew billionaire Ted” (Both 161) Because of this, Junior feels even better about his grandmother and
During this time, many of the white population were racist, so the Indians hated them. When the reservation heard the news of Junior switching to Reardan (the all white school), they immediately turned on him, including his best friend. “I knew that my best friend had become my worst enemy.” p. 53 Junior doesn’t have anyone supporting him, not even his best friend. He is slowly starting to fall apart, just because nobody on the rez believes in him. At his new school, no one believes in him until he proves himself. Junior is split between two different worlds; on the rez, he is an outcast, and in school he is just Arnold. He is the thing that falls apart in the book, split between two different things. As the book goes on, terrible things keep throwing themselves at Arnold, which makes it hard for him to hold it together. For example, when his sister died, he was laughing! In both of these texts, something has gone wrong, which has caused something to fall apart. The poem “The Second Coming” relates to this book because when Junior is at his new school, he loses touch with his beliefs and customs on the reservation. He is an outcast now, and nobody believes in him. Though, in his other universe, school, he has hope. Junior is living in two different worlds. “Traveling