The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Growing up as an outcast is never easy, no matter the circumstances. Mental, physical, and social differences can all be challenging. In the adolescent novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, he outlines the difficulties, stereotypes, and discrimination that can occur in today's minorities. Arnold Spirit, a high school student born with hydrocephalus “water on the brain” is athletically gifted as well as unusually intelligent. Stuck on an Indian reservation, also know as the rez, Arnold, who goes by Junior, must make some life changing decisions regarding his future. Is it time to break the cycle of self destruction? No matter how ambitious, those on the rez feel as though they amount to nothing; nothing but drunks with dead end jobs and pessimistic views. Outside of the rez, the future is unknown. Going to Reardan, an all white high school, looking for a better education and life seems reasonable; nonetheless, overwhelming confrontation is inevitable. Forevermore, change is taxing, especially when the surrounding individuals are different.
Red, white, yellow, brown, black, Native American, Caucasian, African American, different races, different cultures, different religions, different outlooks; the list goes on and on. Remember the Holocaust? Well, guess what-- it did not work. There is not a superior race, there is not a culture that stands above, only differences that prevent a pointless,
Do you think looking forward and trying to change a bad situation into a good one for having a better life is a wrong decision? The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is a novel written by Sherman Alexie. The novel is about Arnold Spirit; everyone calls him Junior. He is a teenage boy with a tough life who lives with his family in poverty on a Spokane Indian reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. He hates living in poverty and wants something better for himself. “I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important. An artist”(6) he claims. His living conditions are horrible; he studies in a school with a lack of resources. He considered the different aspects of moving to Reardan, he struggled about leaving
Poverty hits children hardest in the world. When I was younger, the Armenians had faced the hard facts of poverty after they break up with the Soviet Union, war with Azerbaijan, and a devastating earthquake. My family moved into our motherland Armenia while our nation was going through these huge dramatic changes. Furthermore the poor economy and inflation destroyed numerous hopes and futures. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Arnold Spirit, describes his hardships involving poverty living on Spokane reservation. The people on the reservation are stuck in a prison of poverty. They are imprisoned there due to lack of resources and general contempt from the outside world, so they are left with little chance for success. Like Arnold, I also went through hardships regarding poverty and education.
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 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.
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
In the late 1400’s a navigator by the name Christopher Columbus was sent in search of a new trade route to the west indies from the motherland of Spain, but was accidentally sent off course during the excursion. As a result, him and his crew members discovered an entirely new land mass that eventually became one of the most famous discoveries of all time. Christopher Columbus and his crew had found a new land inhabited by multiple different cultures and people. And although this was thought to be a magnificent thing at the time, we soon realized that it was quite the opposite of that. After the discovery of North America, European people moved by the masses to the new land taking over and destroying
Adolescents experience a multitude of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social, and mental changes during a short span of years in their developmental journey to adulthood, and this transition period is full of many developmental changes and milestones. Some typical changes and milestones in an adolescent’s life include puberty, learning to drive, dating, developing new social relationships and social roles, cognitive changes, becoming sexually active, obtaining employment, and graduating high school. In addition to all of these changes in this tumultuous time of life, adolescents are identifying, developing, and coming to terms with their own sense of self, and learning about their identity becomes a priority. Teens and young adults must also address certain challenges that may arise in their lives such as bullying, drug and alcohol use, violence, sexual abuse, eating disorders, depression or other mood/mental health issues, and issues concerning sexuality, and gender identity. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is an engaging story that deals with many of the challenges that all adolescents face, and this novel also addresses challenges that are unique to those teens who may be grappling with issues that face minority cultures and communities as well.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Literary Analysis In 2007, with racial inequality on the rise and diminishing hope for Native Americans increasing, Sherman Alexie, a Native American author, published the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, to describe lack of education and hope for the people on Indian reservations which ensued from the abundance of poverty. Alexie uses the theme of poverty to develop the characteristics through external conflict, internal conflict, and metaphors. While the main character, Arnold, was in school on the reservation, he received his geometry textbook which had his mother’s name inside. “My school and tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from” (Alexie 31).
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
In the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” the main character, Junior never really describes his parents, even though they play an important role in the novel. His parents are often involved in most scenes throughout the story and yet they have a considerable lack of description compared to other characters. Junior’s parents aren’t described as much as they are portrayed through pictures. The majority of the character building for his parents are conversations that they have with him and how they talk to each other.
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.
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……
“When people rely on surface appearances and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of heart, mind, spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised” (Forbes). In the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian a Indian boy named Arnold lives on a reservation and decides to leave the reservation and go to a white high school. In the movie, The Searchers the Indians attack a white family's house and abduct a little white girl, the girl's uncle, Ethan goes after the Indians years later after coming back from the war to bring her back home. There are many similarities between the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and the movie, The Searchers,
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.
Mentors are people who provide support, strength, and inspiration. Many people have a mentor in their life that they aspire to be like, and seek out for guidance. Mentors play a big role in many lives, including Junior's from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Some of the biggest mentors for Junior are his parents, his Wellpinit teacher Mr. P and his Rearden basketball coach. If it weren't for these mentors inspiration and support, Junior wouldn't have taken some of the risks he does.