Absolutely True Diary Essay

Junior shows a series of self decisions he makes throughout the book for himself. A quote from the book is “ So the day after i decided to transfer to Reardan, and after my parents agreed to make it happen, I walked over to the tribal school, and Rowdy sitting in his usual place on the playground (pg 48).”

Acknowledged in both novels, Junior and Jin’s spontaneous actions leave them both friendless and bruised. In Junior’s case, this meant ditching the reservation’s schooling system and finding one that surpasses the education he was taught. In the spur of the moment, Junior decides to do just that and attend an all-white school in the neighboring town. Getting the courage to tell his best friend, Junior braces himself for Rowdy’s reaction. Denial embedded his friend’s senses; remoteness then trickled its way through his head

Junior’s character arc is focused on him trying to figure out where he belongs and just what makes someone belong there. Is belonging part of birth? Choice? What is the power of a name? We see his struggle identity the clearest when he moves from the reservation to Reardan and is called Arnold rather than Junior. His decision to move splits his identity down the middle, and this novel is him trying to figure out who he is and who he wants to be. There is also a culture of defeat and poverty on the reservation. The poverty in this book, as a theme, is most clearly expressed by Arnold when he states: “poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be

Juniors mom and Dad both had dreams they wanted to follow that they could have had they not felt the crushing weight of their ancestors and poverty sitting on then weighing them down in the race of life. On pages 11, 12, and 13 Alexie writes about what Arnold’s parents would have done had they the opportunities like people who were not in poverty and hadn’t been in poverty for generations upon generations before them. Families often stick together when in poverty because the parent aren’t able to teach or find opportunities for their children so they end up just like their parents. That is why Arnold’s parents never got off the Rez because no one helped them, not that really anyone

Sherman Alexie is the author of Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. In the novel, a boy named Arnold Junior experiences poverty, friendship, death, and being bullied. In this novel, Alexie uses significant events in Junior’s life to illustrate how even though poverty can lead to adversity, people can lead rich lives in other ways.

Junior the protagonist of True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is currently struggling with an abundance of issues ranging all the way from a poverty driven home to medical issues he was born into. It seems to me, that all of juniors problems he was born into and unable to change for example he was born into poverty and he was born indian, setting him up for the racism he would soon enough face and he was born with too much cerebral fluid in his brain. That's not to say all of his problems came along with birth and he was just born to be plagued with, but majority of them stemmed from birth.

“Each funeral was a funeral for all of us”: Notions of Race, Identity and Mortality in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Not only is Junior unpopular and alienated, but the victim of taunts and bullying as well. Furthermore, he’s considered a traitor after he transfers to Reardon. At Reardon, he’s called names and endures racial jokes until he finally finds acceptance through basketball and surprisingly finds friends with similar interests. Ultimately, Junior comes to the “huge realization” that not only does he belong to the Spokane Indian tribe, but to no less than 13 additional groups (Basketball players, cartoonists, bookworms, and sons to name a few). It is the first time he knows that he will be “OK”, sending a positive message to readers that identify with his struggles. By reading about characters similar to themselves, young adults can see that their challenges are not unique and are shared by other adolescents (Bucher & Hinton, 2009)

The novel's second major setting is Reardan, an affluent, mostly-white town 22 miles away from the reservation in Wellpinit. Reardan is home to the high school where Arnold decides to transfer. Arnold's identity in Reardan is not directly related to his tribe or his family. He is known in Reardan not as "Junior," but as

The Absolute Diary of a Part-Time Indian significant theme is disability, poverty, family support, bullying, racism. Junior enter this world with water on his brain, which in turn cause him to have physical abnormality such as seizures, stutter, and a lisp. However, Junior has an excellent family support system in activities he participates in and other particular things that went on in his life. Due to his physical impairments, he experience a unceasing amount of bullying, whether it is an adult or kids at school on the reservation. Poverty is an enormous issue for family and for the people on the reservation. Consequently, his attendance at Reardan highlight his social class too. Junior encounter with racism at Reardan with some students

At first Junior didn't like himself; he was constantly beaten up (but saved by his

As soon as Bifur, Bofur, Thorin and I entered the hobbit hole we were in a heap on the floor, me being on top. Poor Thorin for he was on the bottom. As soon as we were all right side up everyone was requesting their meal of choice and so of course I offered up pork-pie and salad because I was extremely hungry after the trip here. Oh you should have the seen that small creature prancing all over the place trying to serve us. I took pity on him because it is quite a chore to feed 14 hungry men. After being served my brothers and I talked and talked because it had been a while since our last get together, and I of course indulged in the endless amounts of goodies. If you have ever seen my belly you would understand that when it comes to food I don’t play around. At last it seemed the food had run out, sadly, so we began to clean up. I’m proud to say that my duty was to clear off all

Throughout the story, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Junior goes through many ups and downs. This story is about how Junior, an indian from the Spokane reservation, decides to go to Rearden, the school for non-indians because of how run-down his school is and has trouble fitting in. Some of the ways Junior dealt with those downs include his uncanny sense of humor, his love for his friends, and the want to fit in and prove he’s just as good as everyone else at his new school.

As Diary of a Part Time Indian progresses and Junior enrolls in Reardan, he continues to belief that he does not deserve hope, unlike the kids at Reardan, but not necessarily because of his race anymore. Resulting from his choice to leave the reservation, Junior struggles to fit in at Reardan, but not leave his identity behind, since for him living on the reservation is entwined with being poor.

Another mentor in Junior's life is his Wellpinit teacher Mr. P. Mr.P demonstrates great understanding, encouragement and regret towards Junior and his people. Mr. P’s understanding was shown shortly after a mishap where Junior throws a textbook at him in frustration, after finding his mother's name written in it. Instead of getting angry at Junior he is rather understanding. He knows Junior only threw it in anger at the fact he can't learn from new curriculums, Junior is someone who wants more in his education, this is seen when he says “And let me tell you, that old, old, old decrepit geometry book hit my heart with the force of a nuclear bomb. My hopes and dreams floated up in a mushroom cloud.” Instead of getting mad, Mr. P understands Junior's want for education. Lastly, Mr.P is the one who recognized Junior's intelligence and pushes him to find hope in a new school. This was shown when he says “Son,’ Mr.P said. ‘You're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.” (Alexie 43) Thanks to Mr. P’s encouragement Junior makes the decision to attend Reardan, where he meets wonderful people,