Reardan High School: A Short Story

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

Coming from an all-Indian school previously, Junior was at first bound to racist remarks (Alexie, 63). At first, all of his peers seem like they are out to get him. To Junior, he believes that he will be fist-fighting every single day at Reardan High school. But to his surprise, everyone at Reardan is nice and respectful unlike his hometown school at Wellpinit. One of the popular athletes at his new school, Roger, was punched in the face by Junior after telling him an extremely racist joke. To his surprise, Roger doesn’t punch Junior back and instead just walks away maturely (Alexie, 66). At Wellpinit, Junior would have gotten into a full-blown fight just like when he got beat up by the Andruss brothers at the annual powwow (Alexie,

In the novel, Junior’s dad tells him that “those white people aren’t better than you” as he prepares for his first day at Reardan, and then proceeds to tell Junior that he is very brave and is a warrior (55). Junior doubts himself and his father’s words, but a positive father-son relationship is shown through this overcoming of racial stereotyping. Junior will eventually conquer his fears of being an Indian in an all white school, but his family’s support is what drives him. Also in the novel, Roger, Junior’s primary bully at Reardan, begins to call him “Chief.” He asks Junior if he would like to hear a joke, and Junior complies. Roger proceeds to say, “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo” (64). Junior knows that he cannot let Roger get away with saying something so derogatory, so he punches him. This may not have been the most appropriate action to take for Junior, but on the that is how problems were solved on the reservation. Junior reacts in the only way he knows how, and earns Roger’s respect because of it. This is a controversial scene, but Junior overcomes his fear and stands up for himself, thus showing that it is possible to stand up to a bully instead of cowering in fear, while also overpowering racism. Another display of a racist situation turned

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

After this happened everything went downhill. People on the reservation started thinking poorly of him and started calling him names. People on the reservation expressed that Juniors “red on the outside and white on the inside,” calling him an apple. “That's one more thing people don't know about Indians: We love to talk dirty.” Although bullying affects Junior's mental health, his rough home life also takes a toll on mental health.

When Junior started his new high school, he dealt with a multitude of problems because he was different from everyone else. Going to a different high school was difficult for Junior to do; he was going to a school that was off the Indian reservation, to a town where the people are affluent and mostly-white. When Junior started to attend his new school, he had trouble fitting in, and the students treated him as an outsider who did not belong. The first girl that Junior met at school was named Penelope, after becoming aware of his name, she and other students laughed at it because it was alien to them, although on his reservation it was not uncommon. Throughout the school, students would tease him for being Native American by calling him names such as, “Chief” or “Tonto” or “Squaw Boy.” (p 64.) Unfortunately, the student body was not the only ones that Junior had to deal with, some of his teachers treated him wrong as well. For instance, in a class discussion, Junior corrected his teacher on a topic, although he is right, the teacher did not believe him because he thought Junior was just an unintelligent Indian student. Although Junior experienced problems at his new school, he continued to deal with them and try to overcome them.

Growing up on a reservation where almost everyone has lost hope, Junior feels like an outcast for having a passion to chase after his dreams. When he moves to Reardan to find hope, he is gawked at and teased because he is the only Indian there. Junior faces internal conflicts within himself figuring out how to balance his two selves. According to Junior, “traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, [he] always felt like a stranger. [Junior] was half Indian in one place and half white in the other. It was like being Indian was [Junior’s] job, but it was only a part-time job. And it didn’t pay well at all” (Alexie 118). Junior is determined to discover his identity as it is evident in his choice of words. Feeling like a stranger wherever he goes, he believes that he is too white for the reservation while being too Indian for Reardan. The people on the reservation live in an atmosphere where they trust only each other and stick up for one another. However, when Junior goes to the reservation after being exposed to a community filled with white people, the Spokane’s do not see him as a true Indian anymore, hence the reason why Junior

In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist Junior struggles with opening up to new people. In the beginning, Junior is advised to leave the small reservation which he has lived in for his whole life, causing him to go to a public school outside the reservation. Junior is the only Indian at this school, and he constantly believes that this separates him from the other students. Throughout his school year he comes to learn a theme of this novel: Stereotypes create fake images in relationships between people, but the truth is revealed when those people open up. While Junior still went to school at the reservation, he was often bullied and beat up.

On Junior’s first day at Reardan he already starts to notice this difference. The whites, when faced with their first Indian student, are a little afraid so they resort to what they were always taught to do when faced with an unfamiliar situation. They start to insult him by calling him names like Chief and Red-Skin. They also did this because they feared Junior. While explaining his first day at Reardan he says, “None of those guys punched me or got violent. After all, I was a reservation Indian, and no matter how geeky and weak I appeared to be, I was still a potential killer. So mostly they called me names. Lots of names” (Alexie 63). This shows that they fear him just as much as he fears them. Soon, they realize he is not a threat to them, and they quickly became friends with him. This is shown when the Reardan crowd cheered Junior on after seeing the way the Indians treated him at the first basketball game. They also booed the Indian team upon their arrival to the Reardan gym. This shows how the whites use a verbal approach to deal with

Not only is Junior unpopular and alienated, but the victim of taunts and bullying as well. Furthermore, he’s considered a traitor after he transfers to Reardon. At Reardon, he’s called names and endures racial jokes until he finally finds acceptance through basketball and surprisingly finds friends with similar interests. Ultimately, Junior comes to the “huge realization” that not only does he belong to the Spokane Indian tribe, but to no less than 13 additional groups (Basketball players, cartoonists, bookworms, and sons to name a few). It is the first time he knows that he will be “OK”, sending a positive message to readers that identify with his struggles. By reading about characters similar to themselves, young adults can see that their challenges are not unique and are shared by other adolescents (Bucher & Hinton, 2009)

After his transformation to Reardon, Junior became more social and comes out of his comfort zone and gains a lot of friends who care about him and even became more brave. On Junior’s first day there was kids who were looking at him strange as if they’ve never seen a Indian before. A bully named Roger came up to Junior with racist comments. “Did you know that indians are living proof that n****ers are the living proof f*** buffalo.” (64). Junior was used to getting bullied and normally wouldn’t self defend himself but those comments triggered him and punched Roger in the face. After he punched Roger in the face, the friend’s of Roger we’re shocked and Junior felt brave. “I felt all of a sudden brave” (65). Junior met a girl that he thought was so beautiful but when he tried talking to her she seemed to have no interest but that did not stop Junior from trying, Her name was Penelope and they later on became

Junior is like the only Indian in the school. Many of the white kids pick on him. One day one of the white kids named Roger said a horrible thing to Junior. “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?”(Alexie 64). He was being very prejudice to

A stranger in the village is someone that is new to a place or isn’t familiar with something. Approximately two years ago I moved, which meant I had to move schools too. I was 15 years when I moved to McEachern High School but it made me be a more independent person.

The absolutely true story of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie is about a young boy name Junior. He wanted to attend Reardan, the school where whites attended, to better himself, but he wasn’t accepted by the whites at the school. It wouldn’t be anything new to him because he wasn’t accepted at the Reservation with the rest of the Indians. Junior was the weaker Indian he couldn’t do what most Indians were expected to do he would lose all his fights and would get bullied for being a weak Indian. At Reardan, he was seen as the outcast and was bullied, but one day he stood up for himself, other races, and the buffalo and was able to knock a big bully jock down with one punch and at that moment he recognized how different it was at the school

In this part of the book Junior is complaining about how his education isn't what he wants it to be. It's not good enough. This is when he realizes how bad his education and school system is. To show his outrage, Junior throws the book across the room His teacher and him then each confirm with each other what education and school means to them. Soon afterward, Junior starts to realize that something needs to change. Junior contemplates about what he wants to do and finally decided to go to the all white school, Reardan. Junior explained to his parents, ¨ I want to go to reardan,¨Í said. Reardan is the rich, white farm town that's in the wheat fields exactly twenty-two miles from the rez. And it's a hick town. I suppose, filled with farmers and rednecks and racist cops who stop every indian that drives through”(46)..Junior decides he needs to take a stand for his future. He makes a tough decision that will impact his whole life. Even with the risk of being bullied and brought down by his tribe, he still decides to change his education for the better. Hence Junior being one of the only Indian kids in his school. He doesn't know how other people behave and their