“Indian Education” is a short summary of Sherman Alexie’s journey through his school years until high school graduation, he used Junior as his character of this journey. Alexie was born on the Spokane Reservation in Washington to a poor family with three siblings (Sherman Alexie biography, 2010). The family rarely even had food to eat, and a bright educational future was not expected on the reservation. Those who lived on the reservation were normally looked at as not being social, nor sophisticated during the time Alexie lived there. Alexie went against the odds and learned to read at a young age since he was house bound for a while due to his medical complications (Sherman Alexie biography, 2010). Alexie is an advocate for education …show more content…
and learning, regardless of the background he came from on the reservation. The writing can be seen as a valid piece, since it is firsthand accounts of Alexie’s encounters throughout school and his personal experiences. Additionally, since Alexie’s work can be noted as being credible since it is coming from an educated man with a college education from Washington State University. Unfortunately, being Indian and a minority, Alexie had many who probably doubted his ability, especially the teachers who were not Indian. Discrimination against Indians is harsh, but real; Alexie did not allow this discrimination to prevent him from being successful. As you look deeper into “Indian Education” you will see the rhetorical situations that Alexie uses throughout the writing.
For example, Ms. Towle said, “Indians, Indians, Indians” and Junior said “Yes I am, I am Indian, Indian I am” (Alexie, 1993, p.2). Alexie used this argument toward his teacher to prove he is Indian, but can be a positive influence to all other Indian kids on the reservation. He does this by fighting the stereotype that Indian kids cannot read, nor get a good education. This is the purpose of the writing to prove to the kids, his teachers, and society that just because you are from an Indian reservation that does not mean you can achieve goals. The purpose shows that anyone can learn to read anywhere, it does not have to start in school. The audience intended is for Ms. Mathers, classmates, and also anyone else who may be in the same situation he grew up in as a child. Alexie is trying to reach out to an audience of Indians from his own personal experience to help move past the stereotypes, and get a good education. The time referenced by Alexie is his past, and now for the current people that live on reservations. Alexie is showing the time and place of your upbringing does not have to limit your abilities to learn to read, get an education, and reach your …show more content…
goals. As we look deeper at the tone, voice and dictation of “Indian Education” the importance and depth of the writing becomes evident. Alexie tends to use a funny, humorous, yet inspirational tone throughout the writing. Alexie shows the message of inspiration that even though he faced harsh times while in school, there really was nothing negative through his journey. Through all of his journeys in school everything he endured pushed him in a more positive direction. For example Junior invented his own name about being a doctor, “Doctor Victor, I called myself, invented and education, talked to my reflection. Doctor Victor to the emergency room” (Alexie, 1993, p. 4), is an example of his humorous, but inspirational tone Alexie portrayed. The diction, or word choices used by Alexie was evident of his Indian heritage, and his knowledge as well. When Junior passed the test meant for a junior in high school while he was in elementary school, his teacher was mad (Alexie, 1993). When she sent the letter home to tell him to cut his braids, and his parents came in and ran their braids on desk the silent words of his parents were enough. The way they stood up for their son and their heritage, showed the teacher they would not stand for being attacked on their Indian background. The situation presented a sarcastic tone, as well as a funny tone. Alexie uses ethos authority in a positive manner in “Indian Education” as well.
Alexie uses authority through the character Junior to make his message solid on discrimination of Indians in the school system and society. The discrimination was evident when the Chicano teacher (Alexie, 1993) immediately thought Junior was ill from drinking too much alcohol, because that is what society thought all the Indian kids did, not from Junior having diabetes. This was an additional tone used when Alexie said, “sharing dark skin doesn’t necessarily make two men brothers” (Alexie, 1993, p. 5). The fact is Indians deal with discrimination more often than most realize. Listed below are some astounding numbers, (Vavrasek,
2015) Pathos is the most commonly used rhetorical strategy Alexie in “Indian Education” with the emotions the reader can feel throughout the article. Alexie makes his point clear throughout the paper that it is not the norm for Indians to successful and educated. Alexie’s words shows how it takes very hard work, discipline, and dedication to achieve these goals. Statistics shows that graduation rates among Native Americans are typically lower than other cultures. (American Civil Liberties Union, 2005) Alexie went on to prove he was able to beat the statistics, and his emotions in the article shows his dedication to other Indians they can do the same as well. The issue that teachers never believed that the Indian kids were as smart as the white kids. When in third grade, and Junior had to stand in the corner for making his stick portrait that was taken by teacher. Junior was put in the corner for freedom of expression, but as he said while in the corner and still, “I’m still waiting (Alexie, 1993, p. 4) for freedom of expression. The logos rhetorical strategy was used, but not as much as pathos and ethos in the article. The article was written more to get to the readers emotions, not so much the logic. Alexie still included some logic throughout “Indian Education”. Junior received his award for being valedictorian, but when he posed for the picture he remained stoic (Alexie, 1993), even though he knew he had a bright future ahead of him. The logic of remaining stoic comes from the stereotype that Indians have no sense of humor and rarely smile (Vavrasek, 2015). The odds were beaten and Alexie proved again that anyone can achieve their goals, just as he did. Alexie went on to college, which is very unusual for those from Native American tribes. As you can see below, only 10% of Native Americans graduate college. (American Civil Liberties Union, 2005) Another factor according to logic that may be holding some Native Americans back from pursuing their education is family traditions. “About one-third of the students interviewed (32%) pointed out that for Native American students, higher education is one among many other indicators to be successful in life. Their family members would like them to be more attentive to family values than education” (Varma, 2009, p. 2). Sherman Alexie is a notable writer that uses rhetorical situations in his writing, this is what helped keep me interested in the article. The use of pathos, ethos, and logos gave the piece a variety to hold the attention of the reader. His use of the rhetorical situations that assisted Alexie in getting his point across to kids at Indian reservations and society. Indians are just as smart as anyone else, and that Indians can do just as well as other cultures when it comes to learning and their futures. Alexie had a purpose for teaching himself to read at young age, and that was to prove everyone wrong. The motivation Alexie acknowledged came from the discrimination, the many people that looked down upon him, and anyone who doubted his ability to be successful.
Sherman Alexie illustrates through the short story, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” how he developed the same reading and writing skills taught in a classroom solely from a Superman comic book. Alexie’s situation was unique from not only non-Indians but Indians as well. Alexie’s family was not privileged, which was the case for most of the people who lived on the Indian reservation. They, Indians, had access to very limited resources which ceased any aspirations they had at being successful. Alexie, as a young Indian boy, was not supposed to be educated by the societal norms expressed of his era. However, Alexie refused to fall victim to a stereotypical uneducated Indian boy. As a product of an Indian reservation, Sherman Alexie informs his audience, mostly dedicated to Indian children that he did not fail simply because of the joy he had for reading and writing.
Imagine growing up in a society where a person is restricted to learn because of his or her ethnicity? This experience would be awful and very emotional for one to go through. Sherman Alexie and Fredrick Douglas are examples of prodigies who grew up in a less fortunate community. Both men experienced complications in similar and different ways; these experiences shaped them into men who wanted equal education for all. To begin, one should understand the writers background. Sherman Alexie wrote about his life as a young Spokane Indian boy and the life he experienced (page 15). He wrote to encourage people to step outside their comfort zone and be herd throughout education. Similar to Alexie’s life experience, Fredrick
After reading “Superman and Me,” by Sherman Alexie, I was shown how the author learned to read, and how he used his love for reading to impact his life and the lives of others. Alexie grew up with his family on an Indian reservation, relying on irregular paychecks and government surplus food. Alexie learned to read, on his own, at the young age of three. His love for reading originated from his father’s passion for books, and reading whatever books he could get access to. Alexie’s reading level reached such a high level to where he was reading Grapes of Wrath in kindergarten. He knew he was smart, and he didn’t want to take on the stereotype that all Indians are stupid. Unlike the other Indian children in his class on the reservation, Alexie tried to become as educated as he could, despite being teased by the other kids. Alexie came to describe himself as smart, lucky, and arrogant. This attitude of who he was and what he was capable of allowed ...
In "Indian Education" by Sherman Alexie, the story is about our narrator of the story Victor. Telling the sad, miserable cruelty and the emotions that his fellow students and teachers gave him from 1st grade all the way through 12th grade. The meaning of this story at first seems the most current for kids in school; bullying each other and calling each other names but the story goes much deeper than that. It shows a reality of the life on the reservation and how the education system is terrible and demeaning to other children who are considered soft spoken. Two pieces of dialogue that were the most interesting to me happened to be "Give me your lunch if you're just going to throw it up," because it ends with the sentence "There is more than one way to starve.
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.
“But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances.” (p. 13) In The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Junior, the narrator, is an Indian teenage boy living on a reservation, where no one's dreams or ideas are heard. The Indians on the reservation feel hopeless because they are isolated and disenfranchised. Junior learns how to cope with his hopelessness and breaks through the hopeless reservation life to find his dreams. Examining his journey provides important examples for the reader.
Culture has the power and ability to give someone spiritual and emotional distinction which shapes one's identity. Without culture, society would be less and less diverse. Culture is what gives this earth warmth and color that expands across miles and miles. The author of “The School Days of an Indian Girl”, Zitkala Sa, incorporates the ideals of Native American culture into her writing. Similarly, Sherman Alexie sheds light onto the hardships he struggled through growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven in a chapter titled “Indian Education”.
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
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that
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 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. Alexie incorporates one point of view, different themes and settings, such as poverty, friendship, Spokane and Reardan within Arnold’s journey to illustrate the different hardships he must overcome to gain a higher education.
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.
Racism, stereotypes, and white privilege are all concepts that affect all of us whether we believe it or not. If an adolescent of a minority can distinguish these concepts in his society then we all should be aware of them. These concepts are all clearly demonstrated in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”. Anyone and everyone could clearly understand this novel but the intended audience is middle school to college level students. The novel’s goal is to help white students understand the effects of white privilege in an easier, more understandable way. Concepts are easier to understand when someone feels like they are connecting to someone they have things in common with, which is exactly what this novel does. I, for one, was always
With the obstacles that happen to Junior, it creates an emotional and traumatic impact on Junior as well as getting the readers hooked to turn the page and keep reading. To begin, in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Sherman Alexie describes a moment in Junior's life before he went to the white school. From comparing the death rates and even mentioning the deaths, Alexie shows an emotional impact on Junior from the deaths he has to go through. Alexie writes about how Junior being an Indian has impacted his life.