Cliff Cushman Ms. Grinnell American Literature 10 June 2024 In Sherman Alexie’s coming-of-age novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior struggles to balance both parts of his life. Alexie demonstrates the importance of friendships in Junior’s life, and they help him through all his struggles and succeed in his complicated life. Specifically, Roger helps with friendship through challenging times, by befriending Junior. After the school dance, Junior, Penelope, Roger, and others go to a diner wanting to order pancakes. Later that night, Penelope asks Junior if he is poor, and Junior finally admits he is. Penelope and Roger then surprise Junior with their reactions since they are both positive towards him. Junior ends the late-night thinking, “If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing”(Alexie 129). …show more content…
Junior feels relieved after knowing that he does not need to go through the challenge of carrying a secret around his friends. Junior can stop worrying anymore about this struggle, decreasing the number of conflicts he faces. Another example of true friendship is through his white friend, Gordy. After Junior comes back after missing many days of school from having wakes, funerals, no rides, no money, and helping out struggling family members, Mrs. Jeremy mocks Junior for being absent. Since Junior is upset and grieving, he is not going to do anything, except Gordy and many others stand up for Junior to show they care. After Mrs. Jeremy mocks Junior, he does not defend himself, “It was Gordy who defended me. He stood with his textbook and dropped it. Whomp! I am a snob! He looked so
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.
Encountering struggles in life defines one’s character and speaks volumes about their strength, ambition, and flexibility. Through struggles, sacrifice, and tragedy, Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, adapts to survive difficult situations and faces his problems head-on. As he makes life changing decisions, adapts to an unfamiliar culture, and finds himself amongst misery and heartbreak, Junior demonstrates resilience to overcome adversity and struggles.
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.
Vast majority of Indian reservations are suffering from chronic poverty. According to American Indian Relief Council, the reservations have been cited as, “Comparable to Third World”, in terms of living conditions. In the novel written by Sherman Alexie, entitled, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, the main character, a fourteen year old, Native American teenager, which belongs to the Spokane tribe named Junior; stated that, “Poverty does not give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” This indicates that poverty can turn an individual to become a pessimist. On the contrary, poverty is not a destiny. Instead, it is a source of power, an encouragement that through hard work, patience and dedication, a person can succeed in every aspect of life.
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. 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.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a novel about Arnold Spirit (Junior), a boy from the Spokane Indian Reservation who decides to attend high school outside the reservation in order to have a better future. During that first year at Reardan High School, Arnold has to find his place at his all-white school, cope with his best friend Rowdy and most of his tribe disowning him, and endure the deaths of his grandmother, his father’s best friend, and his sister. Alexie touches upon issues of identity, otherness, alcoholism, death, and poverty in order to stay true to his characters and the cultures within the story. Through the identification of the role of the self, identity, and social behavior within the book, the reader can understand Arnold’s story to a greater depth.
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” from Sherman Alexie is a novel which shows a normal native American boy’s life, author tells the story as the first person, Arnold. In the book, it shows the life of Arnold’s teenager time and his life between the reservation full of Indians and a little full of white people. Like the name of the book, the way author writes down the story is like the diary, they are in chronological order, the only difference is that there is no date shows on the book. The reason that author uses the word “part-time Indian” is because protagonist, Arnold was studying in Reardan, “Reardan is the rich, white farm town that sits in the wheat fields exactly twenty-two miles away from the rez”, but he was studying
According to Explore Campaigns more than 1.3 billion people in our world live in extreme poverty. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Arnold Spirit has to prove that he can break the never-ending circle of hardship that is present on his rez. The struggles associated with stepping out of his comfort zone are clearly shown throughout the novel. As the book progresses Junior chooses to go to a rich white school in hopes of a better future, and when he gets there he is treated differently than the other students because he does not look or act the same as them. Middle school is a difficult time for a normal kid, but coming 22 miles everyday from a reservation makes life even more challenging. Arnold
“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.
Ever wondered what gets readers hooked on a book? In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie the authors have many ways to grab the reader's attention by using many techniques from humor to emotional and traumatic to suspense. In the book the main character named Junior is an Indian boy growing up on a reservation. By growing up on the reservation junior makes a choice to leave the reservation and go to a white school which gives Junior obstacles in his life.There are many obstacles that happen even before Junior decided to go to another path with his life. 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.
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.
In Part I, Sakura has been shown as someone that can change personality frequently and quickly, depending on who she is with: Around Ino, Sakura has been shown as competitive towards her, for example, when they randomly met up while heading to the academy ninja after passing the test. Around Naruto, she's most likely rude to him and insults him. Around Sasuke, Sakura is more likely to act reserved and nervous as she likes him. With her superiors, Sakura is very polite and collected.