Junior's Identity Overpowers The Identity Of Indian Identity

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

In the short story “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie the theme that is represented in each grade is racism. Throughout Alexie’s life he experiences more and more accounts of racism in school. Also, Alexie experiences levels of hardship as he gets older. Thus, the story’s theme statement could be summarized that racism enables hardship in one's life.

So many of the Indians on the reservation had given up on trying to move on from their poor lifestyle and have decided to stay with their Indian culture. However, this is not the case for Junior. Despite the fact that he grew up with a variety of medical problems and unlucky experiences, he still did not give in. Now why didn’t he just stay within the reservation he was on? It would have been much simpler if he just stayed there with his family than travel outside of the reservation (not to mention the low chances of him succeeding in getting anywhere). So why bother? The simplest reason would be that he’s determined to get a better life.

My graduating class has a reunion every weekend at the Powwow Tavern” (Alexie2). This quote from Sherman Alexie’s “Indian Education” represents how reservation life results in a life cycle of depression and large amounts of risk-taking among Indians who feel confined to what the reservation has to offer. Throughout the short story Junior, whom is both narrator and protagonist gives great insight into what life is like for a young Indian boy on and off the Spokane reservation. He is able to both identify with and distance himself from his Indian ancestors. In “Indian Education”, reservation life reveals the social depression experienced by the Indians, it defines who Junior is and who he

There were many places throughout the parts of the book I read, where I felt extremely grateful. Two of them were when I was reading from page 11 through page 13, and I stumbled against two things Junior said that struck me. The first part was when Junior said “They (his parents) never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams”, on page 11. While the second part was when he said, “But we reservation Indians don't get to realise our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re poor. Thats all we are,” on page 13. While and after reading this I felt extremely fortunate, yet apologetic. I felt extremely fortunate, due to the fact that I was born into family that isn’t a victim of poverty and also because

Junior begins to realize that he’s not inviable and that he belongs to a lot of things near the end of the story. Along with that, he also is emotionally affected when he talks about his love for drawing cartoons. As Junior starts to reflect upon his life he thinks, “I realized that, sure, I was a Spokane Indian. I belonged to that tribe. But I also belonged to the tribe of American immigrants. And to the tribe of basketball players” (Alexie 217). At this moment in the book, Junior's improved analyzing skills come into play and he himself proves that he isn’t nothing. Junior tells himself that he matters, which improves his emotional being for the better. Secondly, right at the beginning of the book when Junior talks about how he likes to draw cartoons, he states, “So I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation” (Alexie 6). As Junior speaks about himself he states that cartoons are a way for him to avoid all the emotional stress put on him by others, but also when he says this, it resembles a self-fulfilling prophecy. As he thinks like this, he starts to believe that cartoons are his only real escape, which shows once again how emotionally affected he is by his own actions. Therefore, it’s shown that Junior puts his own toll on himself emotionally through self-fulling prophecy when he talks about drawing cartoons,

Junior’s words are true because Sherman Alexie doesn’t like to romanticize his writing. His writing expresses what their lives are actually like. Junior’s desire to leave does challenge the media portrayals because everyone writes what they feel is the stereotype for Native Americans. Like what Sherman Alexie said, other novels write what they feel Indians are supposed to be or the way media portrays them instead of what they are. It would feel less Indian if they wrote about an Indian having a white collar job or if they wrote about Indians being successful.

Junior’s character arc is focused on him trying to figure out where he belongs and just what makes someone belong there. Is belonging part of birth? Choice? What is the power of a name? We see his struggle identity the clearest when he moves from the reservation to Reardan and is called Arnold rather than Junior. His decision to move splits his identity down the middle, and this novel is him trying to figure out who he is and who he wants to be. There is also a culture of defeat and poverty on the reservation. The poverty in this book, as a theme, is most clearly expressed by Arnold when he states: “poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be

First, we interviewed his former math teacher, Mr. P, we asked how he broke his nose, and why he encouraged Junior to leave the reservation. He said, “I broke my nose because of junior. He was sick of everyone around him giving up, so he was frustrated and threw a book at my” “I encouraged him to leave the rez because all they’re being taught to give up and to become a drunk.” We then interviewed his parents, but they gave a simple statement of “We just want what’s best for him.” And finally, we interviewed his best friend Rowdy “He said Junior was a white loving traitor” before trying to hit the interviewer. We decided it was in our best interest to leave him

His parents, sister, friends and neighbors have given up changing the environment they live in. Most of them think themselves as Indians, reservation is becoming the cage for Aboriginal people. They live inside the cage and they are going to be forgot and isolated. Consequently, they are the group that being marginalized by the U.S society. The name the family given to the protagonist also given their expectation.

In addition, Junior and his family sometime skipped dinner because they don’t have money to buy food. The worse more than skipped dinner is a junior’s poor little dog, Oscar, is shot by his father because Oscar was very sick and they didn’t have money bring him to a vet. Also, his parent decided to kill him because a bullet cost only two cents, and anybody can afford that. It feels sad when I read this point because don’t want kill Oscar but the poverty bring to this points. Furthermore, poverty of Indian tribe required Indians kids learned the same books as his parents studied. For example, Junior needed to learn the geometry book that his mum studied before. The books are at least more 31 years old because right now his mum is 31 years old. Overall, after I read these chapters I feels sad and pity all Indian people that need to fight poverty to

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

Junior became more into his life he wanted more.He doesn’t want to be like his parent. “It sucks to be poor and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor.”(53)

How did Junior face social injustice or was he the same as everyone else in his community? What did junior do differently than the rest of the community on the reservation?

Everyone has a cultural identity, although sometimes we have a hard time accepting them. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is about a brain damaged Indian boy named Junior who lives in a Spokane Indian Reservation and decides to make a move that will alter his life and the lives around him drastically. One thing about Junior is that he loves to draw, he loves to draw so much Sherman states, “ So I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation”(6). Junior believes just because he is Indian doesn’t mean he has to follow the same path other Indians, including his parents, followed. With the help of his family he tries to make a better life for himself. In order to change his life Junior does something no other person has done before. Since he is the first Indian to make a change, many of his town people don’t agree with his decision. As a result, Junior goes through many challenges, some harder than others and no matter what, once he starts his journey, he cant go back. Junior doesn’t want to completely accept his cultural identity, he wants more than what surrounds him so he must challenge himself and do the unspeakable, although everything comes with a price.