Censorship In 'The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian'

In Sherman Alexie’s novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” the narrator portrays both internal and external conflicts throughout his journey to success. Arnold Junior Spirit is a fourteen-year-old boy who believes that in order to pursue his dream he will have to choose between staying in his Spokane Indian reservation or moving out to an all-white school in the neighboring farm town. But things aren’t as easy as they seem when Junior tries moving schools because he know has to be part of two communities. Many conflicts form within the Spokane Indian reservation and the Spokane Indian reservation as well comes into conflict with the white community.

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 is a Native American man who is well known for his novels and short stories based on his experiences as a member of many different Native American tribes. In his short story “Indian Education”, Alexie details the struggles with bullying and discrimination one Native American boy went through during his time in school. Although “Indian Education” is written differently from other short stories it still conveys a solid theme and has a well written plot. Alexie’s style is also a benefit to the reader as they make their way through grade school with the main character, Victor.

One of the main obstacles Junior overcomes is stereotypes. Junior is an Indian who lives on a reservation. Indians have many stereotypes that are towards them. For instance one stereotype is that they have no hope. Junior had a conversation with one of his teachers about his future, which involved him switching schools. Junior knew that if he stayed at the reservation high school he won’t be able to make a future for himself. So when his parents got home he asked them who has the most hope, “’White people, (Alexie45)’” his parents told him at the same time. Even

Education —an institution for success, opportunity, and progress — is itself steeped in racism. In Sherman Alexie’s short story “Indian Education” from his book The Longer Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is set in two places, the Spokane Indian Reservation and a farm town nearby the reservation. The story is written in a list of formative events chronologize Victor’s youth by depicting the most potent moment from each year he is in school. Alexie addresses the issue of racism in education by examining examples of injustice and discrimination over twelve years in a boy’s life. Victor faces his initial injustice in first grade when he is bullied by bigger kids, but his understanding of injustice becomes much more complex in grades two through twelve as he experiences discrimination against his American Indian identity. Familial experiences of a Native woman, Alexie’s style and humor, and Victor’s awareness of discrimination from grade one to twelve all reveal the grim reality of growing up and being schooled on an American Indian reservation.

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.

Going into Reardan as an Indian, people thought of Junior differently and therefore treated him differently. He is viewed differently because people believe that the whites are better and wealthier than the Indians. Junior explains to his friend Gordy that “...some Indians think you have to act white to make your life better. Some Indians think that you become white if you try to make your life better, if you become successful” (Alexie 132). Junior may be Indian physically, but that does not mean that he does not have the same traits and should not be treated different than any other white person at Reardan. Additionally, Junior’s classmates started of thinking of Junior as a weak individual because of his skin colour. Junior’s classmates think it is alright to call Junior names because of his physical appearance but “weak and poor and scared, [Junior] let them call [Junior] names while [Junior] figured out what to do..So [Junior] punched Roger in the face” (Alexie 64/65). Junior proves his classmates wrong when they think that he is too scared to pick fight with them when in reality, Junior had the guts to punch Roger in the face. Junior clearly proves how his physical appearance does not define his strength or power. Junior should be treated equally and not judged based on his race because that does not define who he is as an

The Spokane Indians held these "rules" in such high regard that when Junior actually followed these rules and struck his bully in the face, the bully just stood in awe. In Junior 's society the logical thing to do would be to attack when you are highly insulted. But on the contrary, this new society did not follow his rules, nor did they have any of their own. By giving us, the readers, this list the author has strengthened his logos factor in this particular story.

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 Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, people are slow to warm up to these concepts. The main character Junior, his friends Penelope, Roger, Gordy, and Rowdy, and his Grandmother are the main focus of tolerance and forgiveness. Being an Indian in the rules of their society, Junior should be an outcast with no friends among all the white people. However, he somehow manages to overcome that stigma with the tolerance and forgiveness of his friends.

This draws a connection to the erasure of Native American culture in history, they are seen as rare and different from the ordinary, and for some people their existence is completely forgotten or denied. His own comments of not belonging at a white school, because of his nationality and family history further show the division of race that he can see at Reardan. Junior’s cursing accentuates how frustrated and pathetic he feels, viewed as less than everyone at his school, and constantly rejected and isolated by his white peers. The negative, demeaning mindset of those white kids is that Native Americans do not deserve anything from white people, not their time, attention, care, or even a proficient education. According to Jens Manuel Krogstad at Pew Research Center, Native Americans have the second highest high school dropout rate- eleven percent. This is very high, especially when compared to the white or Asian dropout rates- five and three percent, respectively. Additionally, it says Native Americans have the second lowest percentage of bachelor’s degrees, only seventeen percent, compared to the two highest, white and Asian, at thirty three and fifty percent (Krogstad). Many Native Americans today are not allowed a chance at education because of poverty at reservations, and lousy, penniless schools. These issues are not thought about or spoken of often, because they are simply not

In “Indian Education”, Junior went from grade school all the way to graduation being looked at as “different”. Not only was he judged by his class mates, he was also looked at differently from his teachers. His struggles began with the current generation he was born into and the current attempt of civilization by the U.S. government beginning in the 1950’s. During that time in history, Native American children were removed by force from their houses and sent off to boarding schools where they were

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

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a novel about a young boy named Arnold Spirit. He lives on an Indian reservation, but doesn’t fit in. He was born with cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull which made his head abnormally large and caused him to have a stutter. This made him a target on the rez. He was constantly being bullied and tormented by all of the other Indians. “Everybody on the rez called me a retard about twice a day. They call me a retard when they are pantsing me or stuffing my head in the toilet or just smacking me upside the head.” (Alexie 4) Arnold would face hatred and prejudice like this everyday. The people on the reservation are prejudice because they call Arnold a retard, a word sadly associated with stupid, without even knowing his actual mental intelligence. Everyone on the rez

“‘Hey Chief...You want to hear a joke?..Did you know Indians are living proof niggers fuck buffalo?’”(Alexie, 119).Junior was an outcast at Reardon High School at first. He was short, skinny, and had a multitude of other problems, including having had too many teeth and a rather large head-to-body ratio. He was also brilliant and brave. When Roger started ribbing at him, calling him ‘chief’ and ‘sqaw boy’, Junior punched him in the face. Roger gained a certain respect for him and they eventually became friends.