Literary Analysis Of The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian

In the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, the character I’ll be focusing on is Arnold. Chapter after chapter, Arnold has contrastive impressions and temper. From the beginning of the book to the end, Arnold finds himself trapped in obstacles that he has to overcome, as well as developing a crush on a white girl named Penelope. Because of the way Arnold transforms his impressions makes me think of how interesting this character is. In the beginning, Arnold speaks of his life as an Indian on the reservation. As soon as he first stepped foot in Wellpinit High, he met his teacher, Mr.P, in which convinced Arnold to vacate the Rez even after everything Arnold’s been through such as troubles in his life. One quote is “If you stay on this Rez, they’re going to kill you. I’m going to kill you. We’re all going to kill you. You’ve been fighting off that brain surgery, you fought off those seizures. You fought off all the drunks and drug addicts,” (p.g 43)

Arnold’s family was protestant, and his mother was a firm believer in the quote from the bible, “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” Aside from growing up in a strict religious family, Arnold’s father was an alcoholic. The author talks about how the burden of his father’s addiction became a heavy weight on him and his mother. The author goes on to talk about Arnold’s successful business in pharmaceuticals as an adult, and then proceeds to tell the reader how Arnold became involved in the military. The author describes Arnold as a fearless and determined leader in the militia, and how the marriage of his second wife who came from a family of loyalists would sway him to betray the United States. The book ends with the exposure of Arnold’s betrayal, and the author describes the rest of his life as lonely, in debt, and in constant pain from the injuries he sustained during battle. Although this book talks about similar things to “The Patriot Traitor: The life and Legacy of Benedict Arnold”, there were a lot of points here about Arnold’s life that were not discussed such as his family’s religious views and the introduction to British forces by his second wife’s

Arnold Spirit Jr is a courageous character who scarifies his identity to achieve better opportunities in life to reach his dreams. According to the novel, “I want to go to Reardan, I said” Arnold wants to have a better future than most of the Indians on his reservation. Most of the people on the reservation have lost all hope of their dreams, but not Arnold he still has that hope his future would be different. The people on the reservation see their dreams floating further and further away, Arnold can see his dreams coming a closer towards him. In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” the conflict that forces Arnold to make a decision to impact his future is whether he should stay at the reservation and not get the best education

The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is about a Spokane Native American boy named Arnold, or Junior as he is referred to on the reservation, and his life living on and off the Spokane reservation. Arnold had severe health problems as a young child, leading to him being bullied and transferring to a more prestigious school. These two events, and more, led to Arnold facing some extreme adversity. With the help and support of his best friend Rowdy, his girlfriend Penelope, his classmate Gordy, and his teammate Roger, Arnold overcame the adversity he faced through the help of friendship. In the book, Arnold’s first and best friend is Rowdy.

Although we never fully discover the humanness of Arnold, one thing is for sure, “He invites fear rather than attraction when he claims to know things about her family and neighbors that he couldn’t possibly know.”(SparkNotes Editors)

The novel also talks about themes of racism, prejudice, and poverty in several ways. Arnold grew up on the Native American reservation in Spokane and personally seen his people suffering from alcoholism,

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

This book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, is about a boy called Arnold Spirit aka Junior. He is a Native American that lives in an Indian Reservation. He isn't really satisfied with his life, since he's pretty poor, but he gets along. He doesn't really accept himself, since he has multiple medical problems, and he has been beaten up since he was little. When he starts to gain more friends in this new (American) school, he starts to like and accept himself more than before. In this book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" (by Sherman Alexie), the main theme is about Arnold trying to accept himself.

And he is right. Nobody would miss me if I was gone.” (Sherman Alexie 32). Arnold has paid his best friend for leaving Indian reservation. On the other hand, it can be seen that Arnold has made up his mind to leave the reservation. It is clearly shows that Arnold has endured poverty so much. For the Mexicans, the blocks before migrant America are much more difficult than they expected.

16). Arnold perceives himself within his relations with his family and the reservation, thus his self-esteem is directly tied to his place within the two groups. However near the end of the book, Arnold cries for his “fellow tribal members” future in the reservation (Alexie, 2009, p. 216) and acknowledges that he “was the only one who was brave and crazy enough to leave the rez…. The only one with enough arrogance” (Alexie, 2009, p. 217). Although part of his self image is still tied to his tribe, Arnold sees himself as independent from them. He has a sense of who he is from his choice to leave the reservation and the qualities that allowed him to do so. The experiences Arnold encountered along the way such as exclusion, individuals with highly independent self-construals, and the deaths of his led to changes in his self-concept.

Even after hanging out with a bunch of the American people, Arnold still feels attached to his own heritage. He loves his family and his best friend, Rowdy, and he feels that he needs to make amends with Rowdy. He was really scared that Rowdy would hate him and Junior would need to leave his old Indian self. Later he fixed his problems while playing "one-on-one (basketball) for hours..." (pg. 230) and they "didn't keep score" (pg. 230). Also, Junior cares about his family a lot. When two of them died in a row (his grandmother and sister), he didn't know what to do without them. He also thinks that Indians are forgiving of any kind of eccentricity (until the Americans came). "Gay people were seen as magical, too...Gay people could do anything. They were like Swiss army knives!" (pg. 155). He is pretty accepting of his heritage. He knows that he is Indian going to a white

Arnold’s change of identity is shown through the author’s use of setting. At first, he lives in Wellpinit, an Indian reservation. On the reservation there is violence, poverty, and alcoholism. Arnold does not appreciate where he lives because his “reservation is located approximately one million miles north of [important] and two billion miles west of [happy]” (Alexie 30). Arnold does not like his culture, nor does he like his home. He thinks that his race is far from important and happy. This contributes to his identity crisis. He does not like his identity, but one thing that keeps him from forsaking it, is his

I didn’t begin life with such a befitting name as “Diggs.” I was born Betty Jean Thompson. From as early as I can remember, I was always digging for something. At the age of five, my parents purchased a brand new home. This purchase for a young black couple with five children under the age of 6 had to be very special. Yes, I was the second oldest child and one more baby was on the way.

Death. A strong topic, frequently but solemnly discussed. However, when I read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”, I was immediately captivated by the new angle brought to my attention regarding death. While the topic of death is usually associated with either sympathy or horror, Poe succeeded in portraying a feeling caught between the two; and at the same time bringing forth new feelings I would never thought to consider regarding death. These feelings reflect a sorrow so deep into a psychological madness, a feeling that the pain death brings has ruined one forever. After analyzing this poem I came to the conclusion that Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” demonstrates that the sorrow the death of a loved one brings will stay with you forever. Poe communicated this theme through abstract language , tone, and allusion.

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, has laws that date back to the Code of Hammurabi in Babylon. The first recorded death penalty case took place in the 16th century BC where a man was sentenced to death for his alleged use of magic. The death penalty in the United States was influenced by Britain power over the original thirteen colonies. In the 1700’s, Britain had two hundred and twenty-two crimes that could be punished by death. The first legal execution in the United States took place in Virginia in 1622 where the defendant was put to death for theft (PBS). The first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason was Michigan in 1846. Capital punishment is legal in the federal government and