Indian Junior Sparknotes

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Junior, the main character, is a fourteen-year old boy living on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington. The Indians living on the reservation are mistreated, abused, and looked down upon. They are the bottom of the heap, the low of the low, and wherever they go they are judged. In the book the main character, Junior, defies all odds and follows his dreams to leave the reservation and make something of himself, unlike his parents who gave up on their dreams and gave in to the peer pressure of the world.
Junior is a 14 year old boy who also enjoys playing basketball. Like the other members of the Coeur d’Alene tribe, who live on the reservation, Junior has grown up in an alcoholic home. Yet Junior goes against all expectation, follows his dream and transfers to Reardan, an academic school with a mostly white student body.

As a result, he is mistreated at his new school and on the reservation, as well as his best friend rowdy who after his move started to abuse him. Junior makes a new friend Gordy who teaches him how to read and retain information better, which helps Junior become more studious.

The next character, Junior’s mother, wanted to become something other than a poor Indian and as junior states in the book,
I know my mother and father had their dreams when they were kids.

They dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams.
This states how she wanted a better life but through hard times and misfortunes she couldn’t foresee herself becoming college graduate. Her dream died off and she became an alcoholic mother of two. Just another day in the life of an Indian, filled with disappointment and frustration.
Just like his mother Junior’s father also had a dream. He was an aspiring musician but just as Junior says in the book, “we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams.” He also became an alcoholic who even spent what little income his family had at the bar, an act that would cause his kids and family to go hungry for weeks on end, although this is true and may seem heartless Junior and his dad had a good relationship. Nonetheless it was hard for Junior and his family to get

by.
Defying all odds Junior, a 14 year old boy living on a reservation in Washington, surprises when he leaves his poor school and transfers to a new school to follow his dream, unlike his parents whose dreams died out for them long ago. Junior faces many hardships like being ridiculed and abused by old friends and new classmates but this doesn’t shake his resolve to secure his dream of changing his way of life. The poverty, ridicule, and all the people looking down on him Junior wanted to change it all that is what his dream is all about.