Review Of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian

Junior grows up on the reservation where he has been bullied his whole life for being different, only when leaving does he learn to accept his differences, and all aspects of his personality, both Arnold and Junior. When he first enters Reardan his birth name is introduced as Arnold, and when he tells people his name is junior they do not believe him. For example, when he first meets Penelope he introduces himself as Junior, then when his birth name is revealed he says this “She accused me of telling her my real name. Well, okay, it wasn't completely my real name ... "My name is Junior," I said. "And my name is Arnold. It's Junior and

In the Absolutely True Diary Junior expresses great growth in his view of himself and who he is, because he sees that he is not just someone who belongs to one group, but someone of many groups. This is conveyed, because Junior states, "I 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. And to the tribe of bookworms. And the tribe of cartoonists. And the tribe of chronic masturbators. And the tribe of teenage boys.

He also deals with an Identity-crisis and not able to recognize which should relate to. As he says ''They stared at me, the Indian boy with the black eye and swollen nose, my going-away gifts from Rowdy. Those white kids couldn't believe their eyes. They stared at me like I was Bigfoot or a UFO. What was I doing at Reardan, whose mascot was an Indian, thereby making me the only other Indian in town? (Sherman 27). On his first at the new school, Arnold sees himself not only through his own eyes, but also through the eyes his classmates as well. He realizes that they don't see him as Junior the weirdo Indian, to them, he is something foreign. In this sense, Arnold starts seeing the way he sees himself and the way his classmates sees him.

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.

Progressing through the middle of the book, Junior faces multiple instances of embarrassment, and friendship. When Junior first arrived to Rearden, he was treated poorly because of his skin and origin, “...I was still a potential killer. So mostly they called me names. Lots of names” (63). The name-calling and bullying continued for a while before Junior stood up for himself, by “punching Roger in the face… he wasn’t laughing when he landed on his ass” (65). Though, standing up for himself was only the beginning. Roger responded with respect for Junior (72), but Penelope didn’t, “...I might of impressed the king, but the queen still hated me” (73). The embarrassment ensues when the Winter Formal rolls around. Following the dance, Junior and his friends hang out at a breakfast diner. Junior is ashamed by the fact he doesn’t have any money to pay for the food. This is where his friendship comes into play. Roger doesn’t mind, and, in fact, Roger “...opened his wallet and handed me [Junior] forty bucks… what kind of kid can just hand over forty bucks like that” (126). Consecutive to the diner incident, Penelope also reveals to Roger that Junior doesn’t have a ride home (129), and friendship also saves the day in this particular

The high school on the reservation was so helpless that the books were as old as Junior’s parents! There were times when Junior’s breakfast was a gallon of orange flavor drink mix. The only Christmas gift he’d receive was a five dollar bill if he was even lucky. Living like this and to not give up like the rest made him a survivor. Junior’s sister had given up school, but once had a dream of writing romance novels. Along with Junior’s sister, Junior’s father and mother gave up way before she did. Everyone else on the reservation had given up since it was ultimately a death camp. Even the young teenagers had given up in school.

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

The upshot of all this is that, Junior’s decision about leaving the Rez and moving to Reardan for a better education was tough. He faced lot of problems; he felt lonely because of losing his best friend, and afraid of death of his tribe and family. Although he suffered from the entire bad things that happened to him, it was the best decision that he had made for his life. “I realized that I might be a lonely Indian boy, but I

“When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible,” according to Brené Brown, a scholar, author, and public speaker. Junior, the main protagonist of the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie, tries to find a place to truly belong to throughout the piece. However, Junior shifts between two different societies in the book; Wellpinit, the reservation Junior lives on, and Reardan, the school in a mostly-white neighborhood outside of Wellpinit that Junior attends. While Junior is a part of both communities, by the end, Junior belongs

A new level of expectations and accomplishments came about Junior when he moved to Reardan. He finally had somewhere to have a fresh start where people didn’t know what he was capable of, nor did anyone have a presumption set for Junior. With this new chapter in his life and new beginnings Junior had become someone he never had a chance to be at the Reservation. Junior was smart, intellectual, confident, observant and had a completely different mentality. Thanks to some very important people at Reardan like Gordy and Junior’s basketball coach, they were able to mentor and drive Junior to be the person he was ultimately trying to become. Gordy was an intelligent young man in Junior 's life who was able to connect books to some life morals. Because of Gordy, Junior finally made his own realization that “if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment of life should be taken seriously as well” (95). At this moment in the book, Junior started to realize there was meaning to his life; why not enjoy it doing the things you love and are passionate about. One passion in

Junior grows up on the reservation where he has been bullied his whole life for being different, only when leaving does he learn to accept his differences, and all aspects of his personality, both Arnold and Junior. When he first enters Reardan his birth name is introduced as Arnold, and when he tells people his name is junior they do not believe him. Consequently, when he first meets Penelope he introduces himself as Junior, then when his birth name is revealed he says this “She accused me of telling her my real name. Well, okay, it wasn't completely my real name ... "My name is Junior," I said. "And my name is

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian features two main settings, the Pacific Northwest towns of Wellpinit and Reardan. These contrasting locations – one an impoverished Indian reservation and the other an affluent white community – become very important to the ever-shifting identity of our narrator, Arnold Spirit, Jr.

Through the exaggeration of Junior’s writing, it becomes clear that the reserve is unpleasant at best where learned helplessness is prevalent alongside oppressive amounts of alcohol and drugs, brawling, and poverty. Coming from a long line of those who have given up and surrounded by those surrendered to their conditions of life, it is unsurprising Junior’s parents dreams laid forgotten to as shown by the illustration on page 12. Yet Junior’s parents support Junior’s whim to go to Reardan. With no more persuasion beside Junior asking for some place better, they instantly provided what they could to allow him to go, being it funds or drives. It impresses and touches me how far the selflessness of those who gave up for their own. They who had

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……

Now, as puzzling as this will sound, in fact I had been a true preacher of the dauntless approach towards life, and now most specially with the opportunities and challenges high school had been providing me… It’s not so hard to draw the picture of an active, outgoing upperclassman, just now starting to pursue a variety of his personal interests. The sense of independence grew within itself, as certain goods, and its responsibilities, were trusted to my more adult personhood. Such grant did not solely strike me but the whole of my peers, in too small of a timespan and with little, if any societal guidance. Despite the evident lack of success a large portion of the American youth was facing thanks to this premature swim in the big ocean, I was still surrounding myself with people who’s moral stances were not necessarily aligned with mine and therefore not so helpful in case of drowning. Fact which I was partially conscious, but mostly neglectful of, but I knew the tide would eventually rise.