In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Grandmother Spirit teaches the entire tribe about tolerance, which is what she represents. Before Grandmother Spirit’s funeral, Junior was not treated like a member of the tribe because they thought he was a traitor for going to a white school off the reservation. The last time the tribe gathered together, at a basketball game, Junior ended up in the hospital. However, at the funeral, they put aside differences to be one community. Two thousand Indians laughed at the same time… It was the most glorious noise I’d ever heard...When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing… Each funeral was a funeral for all of us. We lived and died …show more content…
together. (Alexie, pg 166) This passage proves how Junior is finally accepted into his community because he is using words like “all” and “together” and “we.” It’s significant that this comes after Grandmother Spirit’s death because she is inclusive and treats everyone equally because of her tolerance, which the people on the rez are now doing.
She believes in community, and although she’s gone, her values thrive. Also, the quote “we lived and died together” connects to a cartoon of the doorway to heaven that’s welcoming Grandmother Spirit (please refer to appendix a). It depicts a threshold, which symbolizes an area that’s not in or out. This proves how she’s like a ghost, or Spirit, because that means being in-between alive and dead. However, because “each funeral was a funeral for all of us,” Grandmother Spirit’s death affects every member of the community, which is another reason why Junior uses the word “we” so often to describe death. So with Grandmother Spirit’s funeral, Junior is not only accepted but he appreciates his Indian community because they all mourn …show more content…
together. Grandmother Spirit’s ghost helps Junior to succeed. During the basketball game after her death, Junior is playing for his white school, Reardan, against Wellpinit, his old school on the rez and guarding his former best friend Rowdy. When they played together before Junior left the rez, Rowdy always won. However, this game is different. When Rowdy jumps to dunk, Junior literally rises up above him. Yep, if I believed in magic, in ghosts, then I think maybe I was rising on the shoulders of my dead grandmother and Eugene, my dad’s best friend. Or maybe I was rising on my mother and father’s hopes for me. (Alexie, pg 192) Junior talks about rising up with the hopes of many beloved members of his community, including Grandmother Spirit.
It’s symbolic that Junior is rising above Rowdy; Rowdy isn’t nomadic, and knows he will always stay on the rez. But Junior is the opposite and is aware that staying on the rez would kill him both emotionally and physically. So when Junior is rising above Rowdy, he also is rising above the limitations set because of living on the rez. Before Junior was hopeful about his future, Rowdy always beat him when they played against each other on the rez, because there he was treated like a nobody. This is significant because it proves how Junior’s hope relies on expectations, so with encouragement for him to go to Reardan and not be a quitter from people like Grandmother Spirit, he
soars. Even though she is a mentor for the tribe in some ways, Grandmother Spirit is unable to prevent Indians from using alcohol because it is a way of life. According to Junior, one of her greatest qualities is how she never drunk alcohol. She would say, “Drinking would shut down my seeing and my hearing and my feeling. Why would I want to be in the world if I couldn’t touch the world with all of my senses intact?” (Alexie, pg 158) Although she believes in having her “senses intact,” some feel worthless and turn to alcohol, especially after a death. They try to get rid of the sadness and “shut down” their senses, but then more death and sadness happen, like how a drunk driver killed Grandmother Spirit. Although irony is sometimes used in a humorous way, here it puts emphasis on how addiction is an awful cycle that revolves around all Indians and especially Junior’s lives. His sister Mary is too drunk to feel anything when she burns to death, and his dad’s best friend, Eugene, is shot by a drunk friend who wanted the last sip of a bottle of wine. The cartoon accompanying this scene (appendix b) shows how to get the last sip, with the final option being by force. It takes up a whole page and is in pen, which shows that Junior thought a lot about the connections between alcohol and death and how they are permanent in his life. Although Grandmother Spirit is breaking the cycle, she’s basically the only one.
The novel The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian and the movie Smoke Signals both originated from the mind of a man named Sherman Alexie. The novel and the movie have some similarities, but each similarity has a subtle difference. Some subtle differences between the topics in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian, and the movie Smoke Signals is the emphasis the author puts on each of the topics. There are a few topics that are shown in both the novel and the movie such as racism, identity, and loss. These topics are expressed very strongly in the novel but are vague in the movie.
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).
“Alcoholism is an epidemic among Native Americans”(KCTS9). Many people believe that alcoholism is in the Native’s blood, but it is truly just a situational problem. On the reservations a majority of families are poverty ridden, and these families normally stay on the reservation their whole lives. Junior, a 14 year old Spokane Indian, manages to break the cycle of hopelessness and alcoholism in his family by leaving the reservation school to go to the white school in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Another character that Sherman Alexie brings to life, Arnold, is the typical alcoholic indian stereotype who allows alcohol to affect the course of his life in the movie Smoke Signals. In both Smoke Signals and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, author Sherman Alexie shows how alcohol on the reservation can cause accidents, funerals, and heartache.
One of these moments of loss of hope is when his grandma died by a drunk person on a motorcycle. His grandma has been his one savior in his life. When she died, Junior was really depressed and felt like giving up, but he still persisted because he remembers her final words “forgive him”. Junior’s sister, whom he loved dearly, also died in a house fire while she was passed out drunk. At this point, all hope was lost for Junior. However, he had courage and found a little bit of hope. That hope was Rearden. At Rearden, Junior learned many things. Junior found a new friend, Gordy who teaches him a lot about life, and was very wise. Junior also found love there too. Penelope was his love interest “almost girlfriend”, who really cared about him. Many people at Rearden were supportive of Junior and that inspired him to become the best person he could be. Junior’s coach was especially encouraging to Junior, he even went with Junior to the hospital and stayed up with him all night. An example of Rearden’s support was at two basketball games, one on the rez and one at Reardon. At the rez, all of Junior’s fellow tribe members were booing him, but at Reardon, all of his teammates cheered him up and told him he was going to do great. Junior realizes that he is the only one on his reservation that still has hope, his hope was hope for everyone on his
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
It is said by Jeb Bush that, “Our children can achieve great things when we set high expectations for them”. Well, Arnold (Junior) Spirit in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, doesn’t have high expectations, if anything he is expected to fail, in life and in school. But Junior has ambition like none other, that is why he decides to break away from his reservation and attend the racist school Reardan. During his time in Reardan and on the Reservation, Junior rises above the life he was expected to live; he demonstrates ambition through perseverance and finds his identity, which proves humans ability to rise above expectations.
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.
“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.
After Junior’s sister Mary dies in a terrible fire, he feels sad and alone. At school, his fellow students and friends make him feel better by giving him hugs and small slaps on the back. “They were worried about me. They wanted to help me with my pain. I was important to them.
“I’m never going to act like my mother!” These words are increasingly common and yet unavoidable. Why is it that as children, we are able to point out every flaw in our parents, but as we grow up, we recognize that we are repeating the same mistakes we observed? The answer is generational curses: un-cleansed iniquities that increase in strength from one generation to the next, affecting the members of that family and all who come into relationship with that family (Hickey 13). Marilyn Hickey, a Christian author, explains how this biblically rooted cycle is never ending when she says, “Each generation adds to the overall iniquity, further weakening the resistance of the next generation to sin” (21, 22). In other words, if your parents mess up you are now susceptible to making the same mistakes, and are most likely going to pass those mistakes to your children. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows the beauty of hope in the presence of a generational curse. Even though the elders are the ones who produce the curses, they are also the ones who attempt to break Junior from their bond forming mistakes. The curses that Arnold’s elders imprint on him lead him to break out of his cultural bonds and improve himself as a developing young man.
Deaths were a form of social event, when families and loved ones would gather around the bed of the dying, offering emotional support and comfort. Myth, religion, and tradition would combine to give the event deeper meaning and ease the transition for all involved. The one who was dying was confident in knowing what lay behind the veil of death, thanks to religious faith or tradition. His or her community held fast to the sense of community, drawing strength from social ties and beliefs. (“Taboos and Social Stigma - Rituals, Body, Life, History, Time, Person, Human, Traditional Views of Death Give Way to New Perceptions" 1)
Identity. Social Injustice. Coming of age. Those are three out of several other themes that are touched on in The Diary of a Part-Time Indian, written by Sherman Alexie.
Throughout the beginning of the book, and into the middle, Junior is trying to establish his intrinsic values to this new community of his. Stereotypes and generalizations have become the easy way to justify the separation of races, classes, and genders. Creating these ideas about the cultures that are different than our own is a dangerous habit that must be broken by this generation so that our children can play in merriment without the fear of being misunderstood on a day-to-day basis. So as Adiche said in her TED talk, stories matter, and to only pay attention to specific stories of one’s life, is to overlook all of the other formative experiences of life. “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.