Part Time Indian Poverty

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Robert Dusing P:1 E11A Buchanan March 3, 2024. Poverty “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”(13) Even though Junior was poor he still tried to find a positive in everything he did in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Junior was born into poverty but he never let that get in the way of his dreams. Though many experience poverty, many strive to do better by persevering through life's struggles. Although Junior was poor, he still was smart, friendly, and hopeful about what was to come. Junior was born into poverty due to his prior generations being poor and never having enough motivation to get out of poverty. Junior's dad was also an alcoholic, which caused their families …show more content…

“But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or a choice of two. We’re just a little poor. That’s all we are.”(13) A short term effect of poverty that was demonstrated in the book was when Juniors dog Oscar died. When Oscar got sick “We have to take Oscar to the vet” “He’ll be alright,” she said, but she was lying”(9). This just shows how poverty can affect people's lives just by simply not being able to afford going to the vet to heal your sick dog. With Junior's family not being able to afford a vet, his dad had to end up shooting Oscar when he got too sick to take care of. A long term effect of poverty shown in the novel would be Junior not being able to have many choices or chances in his childhood. One example of this could be when a Juniors family is even too poor to simply bring Junior to reardan to go to school. “Three times, I had to walk the whole way home. Twenty-two miles of the road. I got blisters each time.”(87)This shows how Junior had to grow up with little money. This is significant because it shows how being poor can affect many parts of our lives, even the ones we

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