preview

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

Decent Essays
Open Document

Depending on who you are, we all react differently to negative events in our life. For me, I go into a state of shock and can not focus on the positive aspects of my life after a tragic event. For many other people, they may go into a drinking spree or start abusing drugs to numb the pain. But for those like Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, they channel their negativity into something that is positive and productive. In this story, Junior surpasses the sorrow of losing his three precious family members by receiving support from his family and friends, and carrying beneficial qualities such as resilience, ambition, and confidence.
For Junior, his ambition was what drove him to move to Reardan High School to attain a better education. In the beginning of the story, he shows a huge amount of this characteristic when he explains to us that he draws cartoons because he thinks that it will give him a chance to escape the reservation. It makes him feel important and is a huge part of who he is as an individual in the reservation. He also showed this quality when he decided to switch schools and attend Reardan High to improve his life. Although his Geometry teacher helped nudge him in the right direction, it was …show more content…

Junior displays this aspect of himself through how he reacted to the loss of three beloved family members. After his grandma died, he was grieving peacefully along with the rest of his tribe, laughing and crying as they slowly buried her (Alexie, 166). When his dad’s best friend, Eugene, died he felt just as “helpless and stupid” as anyone else would. However, he does not go through the pain from losing his family members and friends alone as he still has support from other family members and friends, which influences his decisions and allows him to be resilient and have hope for the

Get Access