Analysis Of Sherman Alexie's 'The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian'

This shows just how connected Junior feels to the reservation. Part of the reason for this was because Junior had no other culture to identify with. White people were viewed as outsiders, and many of the Indians on the reservation loathed them, because they were wealthier and had many more opportunities. Junior was brought up to feel this way about white people, and so Junior didn’t feel connected to them in any way. Although Junior certainly identified as an Indian, he also feels different because of his physical characteristics and personality. Junior was born with “water on the brain” (p. 1), so he had to have an operation when he was just a baby. Because of this, Junior is really skinny, has giant hands and feet, has ten more teeth than is normal, a very large head, and talks with a lisp and a stutter. Aside from this, Junior is also really shy and smart. These things combined make him a target for bullies, and he is constantly harassed, both by other kids his age, as well as adults. At the beginning of the book, Junior shows how he was bullied by explaining,

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.

Synopsis: In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie explores this concept by following the life of adolescent Native American boy named Junior and his struggle to find his identity. The novel explores Junior’s life on a Spokane reservation in Eastern Washington and how his transition to a predominantly white high school drastically alters his reality. Throughout the novel, Junior faces the obstacles that become evident as a result of his decision while grappling with the conflicts of teenage life and what it means to be an Indian in the United States.

He has done it through many different characters and genres of novels, but The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is probably his best work yet. Speaking as the character of a teen-ager forces Alexie to make everything action and emotion packed so that reading becomes more like listening to your funny best friend talking about his day while waiting for a ride home after school. That teen-aged boy, Arnold Spirit Jr. is arguably the geekiest Indian on the Spokane Reservation. He wears big, lopsided glasses, when he doesn’t stutter, he has a lisp, and when he goes outside he gets teased and picked on by the other kids on the reserve. Junior spends a lot of time in his room drawing cartoons.(Off the Rez) To say that life is hard on the Spokane Reservation doesn’t begin to touch it. “My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people.” Junior explains.(Alexie 11) Heavily based on Alexie's own life experiences, this novel depicts struggles, corruption and the long-lasting effects of historical abuse toward Native Americans. Although Junior is a young adult, he must face the reality of living in absolute poverty, deal with the discrimination of the other people outside of the reservation, deal with a corrupt family that is often killed by alcoholism, break cultural barriers at an all-White high school, and maintain the

In the novel, Junior’s dad tells him that “those white people aren’t better than you” as he prepares for his first day at Reardan, and then proceeds to tell Junior that he is very brave and is a warrior (55). Junior doubts himself and his father’s words, but a positive father-son relationship is shown through this overcoming of racial stereotyping. Junior will eventually conquer his fears of being an Indian in an all white school, but his family’s support is what drives him. Also in the novel, Roger, Junior’s primary bully at Reardan, begins to call him “Chief.” He asks Junior if he would like to hear a joke, and Junior complies. Roger proceeds to say, “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo” (64). Junior knows that he cannot let Roger get away with saying something so derogatory, so he punches him. This may not have been the most appropriate action to take for Junior, but on the that is how problems were solved on the reservation. Junior reacts in the only way he knows how, and earns Roger’s respect because of it. This is a controversial scene, but Junior overcomes his fear and stands up for himself, thus showing that it is possible to stand up to a bully instead of cowering in fear, while also overpowering racism. Another display of a racist situation turned

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian of Sherman Alexie is a series of life events of a fourteenth-year old Indian boy Junior who lives in Spokane Reservation. He decides to leave the reservation to attend high school in Reardan, which is considered as a controversial action of him. This leads to that everyone in the rez including his best friend Rowdy looks at him as a betrayal of his tribe. Nevertheless, Arnold has made such a good decision on leaving the rez since there were so many issues which he has to face with. More than that, his decision brings impacts not only for himself, but also for his own family and the tribe.

“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough”, Og Mandino. Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, expresses these feelings through the protagonist, Junior. Junior is a Native American kid that lives during a time of poverty on the reservation. He decided to got to school in the town with mostly white people. During this time he has to face poverty, racism, and people challenging his human rights and ideals, but he managed to stay in school and even thrive. He is taking a big risk and is teaching teens how to act, but some high schools are trying to remove Sherman Alexie’s novel from their curriculum. Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian,

After his transformation to Reardon, Junior became more social and comes out of his comfort zone and gains a lot of friends who care about him and even became more brave. On Junior’s first day there was kids who were looking at him strange as if they’ve never seen a Indian before. A bully named Roger came up to Junior with racist comments. “Did you know that indians are living proof that n****ers are the living proof f*** buffalo.” (64). Junior was used to getting bullied and normally wouldn’t self defend himself but those comments triggered him and punched Roger in the face. After he punched Roger in the face, the friend’s of Roger we’re shocked and Junior felt brave. “I felt all of a sudden brave” (65). Junior met a girl that he thought was so beautiful but when he tried talking to her she seemed to have no interest but that did not stop Junior from trying, Her name was Penelope and they later on became

In Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman uses “Community and ‘homing in”; “Land and Nature”; and “History” to make the historical adolescent novel a part of American Indian literature. “Community and ‘homing in” is used when Junior leaves the reservation for a better future, and in return the reservation resents Junior for leaving the reservation and becoming “White-washed”. Alexie uses “land and Nature” to create liminal spaces when the protagonist of the story, Junior, feels conflict between the dominant race and that of the inferior. Afterwards, “history” is used by Sherman by showing generational references in order to provide the reader a point of view through the eyes of a young Native American boy from a reservation.

To start off, Junior’s choice of transferring schools is a detriment because he never feels welcome, due to his preconceived ideas of being physically and mentally different, as a result, he has difficulty fitting in and the school actively tries to remove his Indian culture. Junior is fully susceptible to these influences, since the school curriculum on the reservation is designed to take away Native American practices (Labelle & Peden 5). This makes him an easy victim for the government because he essentially volunteers to drop his Indian practices, which completely correlates with their intentions (Labelle & Peden 5). In the first place, during Junior’s transition, he automatically is in the mindset that he is different and inferior to white people. Specifically, he expresses his feelings towards the two ethnics by comparing outfits and common words that associate with them (Alexie 46). This cartoon contrasts white people versus Indians, the white people portray to be far more superior and glorious than Native Americans, as they are everything Junior aspires to be (Alexie 46). This shows significance to the novel, since one word that is associated with white people is hope, however, he finds the opposite of hope at Reardan. Secondly, Junior

Junior's physical impairment becomes the source of struggle in his life on the reservation since he gets picked on and bullied for being somewhat different than the others. Junior lives under the constant threat of physical violence. Although he attempts to assuage the threat through his drawings and light-hearted approach to the problem, he is nevertheless subjected to regular beatings by members of the reservation, including the adults. But violence serves as a form of communication in the reservation. Junior believes it is the Indian’s acknowledgment that they are going nowhere that fuels their violence.

Arnold spirit, better known as Junior, in the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian ” by sherman alexie, must confront, racism, stereotype, and rejection from his own tribe when he moves to a small town school named Rederan. But with the help of roger and others he takes back his friendships, gets acquainted, and is liked in his new challenging school. The book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian ” by sherman alexie starts on a far of reservation of the Spokane indians, where they have forgotten that difference is good, and are losing all hope of a better life. But, that is untill, a boy, with some chronic health conditions, moves of the reservation school, and goes to a small town, racist, white, school. Most characters in the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian ” are either friends or foes. But some characters are both friend and foe.

Do you support the Cleveland Indians baseball team? Have you or a friend ever been a Native American for halloween? If you have, you might be racist! American history is often presented in a diminishing or reductive way to the eyes of the world. Even today, media and technology reinforce these ideas by creating incorrect images of Native American history with sports teams, stereotypes, and costumes for certain holidays. Some novels reject these ideas. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, is a novel by Sherman Alexie, about a fourteen year old Indian boy, that shows the racial issues surrounding modern Native American culture. Knowing the history and context surrounding PTI deepens the understanding of critical events, themes, or issues with the novel by viewing Juniors life through the knowledge of Native American history, colonialism, colonization, appropriation, and assimilation. These ideas are scene through the eyes of Junior who is a Spokane Indian freshman going to a predominantly white school.

“It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job. And it didn’t pay well at all,” (Alexie 118). Junior is an abnormal Indian boy on the Spokane Indian Reservation who only wants to find out who he truly is. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Junior discovers his identity by having hope and following his dreams, despite numerous challenges.

He already deals with his poverty, alcoholic parents, and poor health, which he describes as “physical problems that are directly the result of my brain damage” (2). Also, he has to survive at a new school without his best friend Rowdy, who leaves him with a black eye and bruises. Although his life is strewn with problems, Junior realizes that Mr. Pope is right in telling him to leave the “sad, sad reservation” (43) and decides to find hope at his new school. Junior faces obstacles at his new school as well, struggling to find his place and deal with the discrimination that is aimed at him. This is shown through the way Roger and his friends first pick on him by calling him names such as “chief” or “sitting bull” (63). Junior overcomes these obstacles in his own way by punching Roger and gaining the respect of his classmates. Even though most of his school problems are solved, he still faces being shunned at the reservation because of his move to Reardan. However, after his sister’s death, Junior realizes that he doesn’t just belong to the “Spokane Indian tribes”, but that he belongs to many “tribes” (217). Here he realizes that “staying on the reservation would have killed me” (216), and that to truly find his dreams he had to leave the reservation. Junior shows this courage in leaving the rez despite the overwhelming odds against him. His actions to defeat these obstacles