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The absolute true diary of a part time indian - essays
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Theme The theme for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is poverty. Poverty plays a main role in this book because it influences the decisions that Junior makes. It is also one of the biggest obstacles that Junior has to overcome. Poverty isn’t only an obstacle for Junior, but also some of the people that surround him. Poverty means “the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount” (Google). I believe that both of these definitions fit into The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
It is hard to escape poverty. People in poverty usually fall into one of the two circles or both. The first circle is when you fall into poverty, you get stuck there. First of all, you don’t have a steady or high income, so
To conclude, in the book The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian an Indian boy shows 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.
It is much harder to exit poverty once one is inside, but that doesn’t mean that he has to give up and stay there. The book says, “They (lower class) are bound to tire of getting so little in return and to demand to be paid what they're worth. There'll be a lot of anger when that day comes, and strikes and disruption. But the sky will not fall, and we will all be better off for it in the end” (Ehrenreich 120). This shows that the lower class work very hard. Some of those people might be at the top of the social chain in a couple of years if they find the right path. People should always be striving to fly up the social ladder. People should do whatever it takes, no matter how much work and effort it
The notion of poverty has a very expanded meaning. Although all three stories use poverty as their theme, each interprets it differently. Consequently, it does not necessarily mean the state of extreme misery that has been described in ?Everyday Use?. As Carver points out, poverty may refer to poverty of one?s mind, which is caused primarily by the lack of education and stereotyped personality. Finally, poverty may reflect the hopelessness of one?s mind. Realizing that no bright future awaits them, Harlem kids find no sense in their lives. Unfortunately, the satisfaction of realizing their full potential does not derive from achieving standards that are unachievable by others. Instead, it arises uniquely from denigrating others, as the only way to be higher than someone is to put this person lower than you.
In “Another Holiday for the Prince” by Elizabeth Jolley, the author draws upon many themes, one in particular that Jolley illustrates is how poverty influences changes in the individual lives within one family. To begin with the head of the family; a father is never mentioned in the story, not even once. But by not having a father figure in the story, the reader can understand a lot. In society the man is the one who earns the money and provides all the essentials for his family, however this story is presented in a society where the mother has to be the man of the family. Ones self-esteem can be diminished as a result of poverty, alienation and the destructive effects of a weak personality or society on the individual.
When one thinks of poverty often the mental picture that comes to mind is of single parent welfare, dependent, women and unemployed, drug-addicted, alcoholic lackadaisical men. The children are often forgotten. The impact of poverty, the destruction of crime and stigmatization of the violence on the children is more devastating and irreversible than the miseducation and illiteracy that most often companies poverty. The implication is not the poverty can not be overcome but that the cycles of teenage pregnancy, welfare dependency, and dropping out of high school continues and are hard to break. The badges of poverty are just as addictive and capitiving as any disease such as alcohol or drugs.
Have you ever wanted something really badly, but couldn’t afford it? This is a common occurrence, but what about food? Have you ever went to be hungry because you couldn’t afford to eat? Unfortunately, Junior, the main character in the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, felt exactly this way for food. Even though Junior didn’t have as many resources as the other “white kids,” he still chose to look at the positives. This novel shows that even in times of great hardship, people can still choose to have hope and look at the good in their lives.
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.
Poverty is a complex and growing problem in the United States. As of right now there is no solution. There are proposals and acts, such as Obama Care, that were enacted in an attempt to help people in poverty, and there are so many organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity and The Hunger Project, that try to aid people when they start to lack the necessities, like food and shelter. College students are graduating college with a large amount of student loans and no way of paying them off, people are being evicted from their homes, and employees are being laid off. The unemployment rate in the United States in 2015 was five percent, that’s about fifteen million people. It’s becoming difficult for people to find jobs, therefore making it hard for people to get back on their feet and start living a comfortable lifestyle. Poverty in the
Poverty is a potential outcome for everyone. It’s sneaky and many people fall victim to it every year. No one believes that they have the potential to fall into debt, but it can happen through a string of bad luck, time running short, and other possibilities that can’t be controlled. People who are struggling with difficulty believe that there is no way out because no one will help them. However, there are ways for us, as a society, to help those who are short on income receive the help that they need. Many of the impoverished are thought to be slackers, addicts, or self-destructive to their lives. Society can help each other by dismembering the stereotypes given to people who are underneath the “Poverty Line” that they used as wedges between the classes. Labels given to those who’re poor have nothing to do with who they are as humans.
Be poor and have many difficulties does not mean stop to dream . If you have a dream, fight for your dream.No matter the economic status. No matter any obstacle that you have to face. I totally agree when Jo Parker states, “Even the poor can dream, A dream of the time where there is money. Money for the right kinds of food, for worm medicine, for iron pills, for toothbrushes, for hand cream, for a hammer and nails and a bit of screening, for a shovel, for a bit of paint, for some sheeting, for needles and thread.Money to pay in money, for a trip to town, and money for hot water and money for soap” (Parker 126). Have you ever think how awesome will be the world without poverty?. The world where no one has to suffer from hunger, where no one has to sleep in the cold on the street. The world where everyone can live without concerns about how to produce money to pay for medical attention. In Jo Parker view, “ The poor can dream, a dream of when asking for help does not eat away the last bit of pride. When the office you visit is a nice as the offices of other governmental agencies, where there are enough workers to help you quickly, where you don’t have to prove your poverty over and over and over again’’ (Parker 126). Poor people have the right to receive appropriate benefits. Unfortunately, there are many poor people without this because the government has many requirements to give benefits,But poor people still with the right of decent jobs,
Playing sports in high school can help get students off the streets and get them to focus on school. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a story of an Indian kid named Junior who transferred to an all-white school. At his new school, he becomes a good basketball player but he faces lots of hate from his old school at the reservation. Junior joined a basketball team to help him go there problems. More students should be involved in high school sports which can help them with there school academies.
The obvious solution to fighting poverty is to get a job. But, the problem still occurs when the wages for jobs are so low. No matter if you have your doctorate, or your G.E.D.,
So far in the text “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” I see a theme of identity developing. Junior’s sister, I assume, like all the other indians has been put down all her life. She's been through many struggles. One of which is her love for writing and reading romance novels, she feels outcasted. "Well, she wasn't shy about the idea of writing books. She was shy about the kind of books she wanted to write." Mr.P said. "She wanted to write romance novels.". “I laughed for real. A big
Gans (1971) explains that the "terms and labels" used to depict the poor as second class citizens may be contributing to their inability break away from poverty. He also provides an understanding of the perseverance of poverty in American. Without the poor underpaid members of society, there are many types of enterprises that would cease to successfully operate because they currently rely on the under paid workers for their profits and continued
There are two ways to categorize poverty from a sociologist viewpoint. Absolute poverty simply refers to the condition in which one is unable to afford the necessities of life, whereas relative poverty refers to the condition in which one is unable to afford that which is considered a normal standard of living in society. Absolute poverty is far more worse than relative poverty because they could quite possible not have a house or food to live on for everyday survival. There are basically five different categories in which each poverty stricken person can be placed in. The first category are those who are not able to work because they are too old, too young, disabled, or tied down by social responsibility. The second category are those who are able and qualified to work but can not find work. The third category are those who are not equipped to fill available jobs either because they are undereducated or because their skills have become outdated. The fourth category are those whose social and personal problems have brought them to a point of self-defeating discouragement. The last category are those who are underpaid, or unable to get a fair price for what they have to sell. After defining which people are in poverty, these categories can answer my question of why are they in poverty and how they can be helped.