Absolutely True Diary Of Part Time Indian Analysis

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a book that depicts cultural differences; the issues of alcohol; and friendships in a harsh, yet humorous way. Junior, the main character of the book, stands out in many ways, both to the reader, and in the book itself. He is courageous, yet also emotional and smart.

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.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a book about a young boy just entering high school who leaves his best friend and family to go to school mostly occupied by white people. This whole book follows him through his first year in this school where he tries to get a better education than he can get on the Rez, in the hopes that he will one day get off that reservation and out of his soul crushing poverty. “The Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian” ATD, Sherman Alexie uses unfortunate events, social class and conversations to show that not everyone gets the support they need to follow their dreams.

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,

This book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, is about a boy called Arnold Spirit aka Junior. He is a Native American that lives in an Indian Reservation. He isn't really satisfied with his life, since he's pretty poor, but he gets along. He doesn't really accept himself, since he has multiple medical problems, and he has been beaten up since he was little. When he starts to gain more friends in this new (American) school, he starts to like and accept himself more than before. In this book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" (by Sherman Alexie), the main theme is about Arnold trying to accept himself.

In this part of the book Junior is complaining about how his education isn't what he wants it to be. It's not good enough. This is when he realizes how bad his education and school system is. To show his outrage, Junior throws the book across the room His teacher and him then each confirm with each other what education and school means to them. Soon afterward, Junior starts to realize that something needs to change. Junior contemplates about what he wants to do and finally decided to go to the all white school, Reardan. Junior explained to his parents, ¨ I want to go to reardan,¨Í said. Reardan is the rich, white farm town that's in the wheat fields exactly twenty-two miles from the rez. And it's a hick town. I suppose, filled with farmers and rednecks and racist cops who stop every indian that drives through”(46)..Junior decides he needs to take a stand for his future. He makes a tough decision that will impact his whole life. Even with the risk of being bullied and brought down by his tribe, he still decides to change his education for the better. Hence Junior being one of the only Indian kids in his school. He doesn't know how other people behave and their

The American Indian occupies a unique place in the White American imaginary. Indians, one is told, are cordial, wise, poor in the “humble poverty” sort of way, brown, there assist whites with either mystic knowledge or humorous ignorance. Figures such as Squanto, Tonto and Disney’s Pocahontas along with a large smattering of Westerns and cartoonish depictions have created this image of the Native American – an image which rarely translates into the present day. In contrast to this, Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a Native American coming-of-age story centered around the first-person point of view of the Native protagonist Arnold “Junior” Spirit, Jr. and his dual life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his time off the reservation at an all-white public school in the town of Reardan, Washington. The novel revolves around themes like race, identity formation and mortality and details life on Indian reservations as it attempts to give a realistic account of contemporary Native American life, each which shape the novel in unique ways.

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.

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)

He had to adapt to the new environment, knowing that Junior would be here for maybe the rest of his school year. At this time Junior explains how he feels going to Reardan and when he gets there how he feels. For example: “I walked like a zombie through the next few weeks in Reardan” (82). At first he did not like it, he really did not want to go. Things changed though and he ended up liking it and he made new friends also. Which actually helped him alot and suprised him. Junior’s first day he did not feel wanted at all or liked by people. As he describes here: “They surrounded me. Those kids weren’t just white. They were translucent. ” (56). He was in Reardan for a long time and eventually made a lot of friends and adjusted to the environment. That was good for him because it helped him actually get through his high school

Another topic of importance to the book is collective identity. Matsumoto and Juang (2013) describe identity as “the way individuals understand themselves and are recognized,” while collective identity is more specifically about people’s association with “social categories” (p. 357). Identity is considered fluid as it can change depending on the situation, its players, and each individual’s point of view (Matsumoto & Juang, 2013, pp.357-358). This explains how Arnold’s identity appears to morph throughout the book . For instance, Arnold’s early identification as a poor Indian kid juxtaposes Arnold’s later feelings of

The community surrounding an individual impacts their opinion of selfhood, consequently moulding their identity and being part of a cultural group leads one to surrender their personal ideologies and beliefs, thus challenging the strength of individuality. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian chronicles Junior’s journey of self-discovery as he searches for his cultural identity among a tribe full of miserable and hopeless individuals and he finds himself spanning multiple identities as he tries to figure out where he belongs. With its setting on the Wellpinit reservation, the book explores the major differences between the white community of Reardan High School and the hopeless rez of the Native Americans. The text

Have you ever lost someone or something like a privilege; become hurt or angry and refused to let anyone help you? Well, you may want to think that over. Junior and Teo From The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and from The Lightning Queen have both suffered losses. Junior, is an indian living on a reservation. Education from him was not great, and he let one of the teachers know it when he got a textbook with his mother’s name in it. In maybe not the calmest manner, he throws the book at his teacher. But that teacher stayed by his side and encouraged him to go to the white school so he could get a better education. So, he went. And it turned out better for him then he would have ever expected. Teo, lost his sister to a storm. His

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian features two main settings, the Pacific Northwest towns of Wellpinit and Reardan. These contrasting locations – one an impoverished Indian reservation and the other an affluent white community – become very important to the ever-shifting identity of our narrator, Arnold Spirit, Jr.

Sherman Alexie book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part – Time Indian” is a comical yet heartbreaking true story of an Indian teenage boy living on the reservation trying to figure out his own identity. Throughout the book the reader can see the identity struggles that the main character Arnold Spirit Jr (Junior) faces. Being on the reservation is both a home and a place Junior is ready to leave. Through Juniors illustrations and……