I hope you had an excellent summer and that this letter finds you in good health. I would like to take this opportunity to ask your assistance in making sure your child completes his/her summer reading assignment by the first day of school. You will find a copy of this assignment enclosed with this letter. If you have any questions regarding the assignment, please do not hesitate to email me at the email address below.
Along with the summer reading I would like to bring to your attention the award wining novel written by Sherman Alexie, The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian” We will be reading this novel as a class in September. You will find a New York Times article about this book also enclosed with this letter.
Although this novel is an excellent read with some very important themes addressing many of the topics we cover over the year, it is written through the eyes of a 14-year-old boy and does possess some light profanity. I want to make you aware of this and give you the opportunity to read the book, ask any questions or address any concerns you may have with your child reading this novel. I would also like to share my rationale for using this book.
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As you may already know students study Civics in the 8th grade and I design my units so that Reading, Writing & Civics are interwoven. Under this umbrella, students will consider issues of race, class, culture, and gender, how they are tied to the construction and perception of identity, and how these factors impact life choices. Students will also discuss the expectations imposed by ones community, friends and family, and how, oftentimes, these can be the hardest ties to break. My hope is that students will learn that they are not without power; choices can be made and it is possible to resist negative
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.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a book that depicts cultural differences; the issues of alcohol; and friendships in a harsh, yet humorous way. Junior, the main character of the book, stands out in many ways, both to the reader, and in the book itself. He is courageous, yet also emotional and smart.
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.
In a Bill Moyer’s interview “Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Borders”, Moyer’s interviews Native American author and poet Sherman Alexie. In the Moyer’s and Company interview, Alexie shares his story about the struggles that he endured during his time on a Native American reservation located at Wellpinit, Washington. During the interview, Alexie goes in-depth about his conflicts that plagued the reservation. In an award-winning book by Sherman Alexie called “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, Alexie writes semi-autobiography that reveals his harsh life on the reservation through a fictional character named Arnold Spirit Junior. In Alexie’s semi-autobiography, Alexie shares his struggles of a poor and alcoholic family, the
The characters of the novel are fit to the theme of man’s intuitive evilness, as the boys are under the age of 14. When they continue to enjoy torturing others, they reveal their enjoyment of being savages. They do not desire any order or law of directing force in their state of savagery.
In Sherman Alexies novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, the protagonist, Junior, overcomes many obstacles such as stereotypes, poverty and hopelessness.
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.
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, written by Sherman Alexie, is a novel describing a 14 year old’s journey throughout high school. In the story, Junior, the main character, is faced with multiple obstacles in his life: Hydrocephalus, poverty, and the target of bullying. Despite the world being against him, Junior’s multiple traits helps him greatly when it comes to the adversity that accompanies his migration from the Wellpinit Reservation to Rearden.
In the essay “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie credits learning to read a Superman comic book with saving his life. As an Indian boy growing up on a reservation in Spokane, Washington, where being uneducated was not the exception but the rule, Alexie was given few opportunities to succeed. The Superman comic book was the book he taught himself to read with, which in turn saved him from going down a path that lead to a the life of inferiority and failure. Learning to read gave him the confidence to break down a door that had previously prevented Indians from succeeding as well as the driving force that allowed him to persevere against the adversity he faced. The significance of Superman is carried on
The article “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie is an informative article about the author growing up on an Indian reservation, attending reservation school and where he is today. The author's underlying message in the article is cultural differences when not accepted can cause issues not only socially but also in education. The author does a great job in persuading his readers of the issues on education in reservation schools and possibly how to fix these issues.
Author Sherman Alexie, in his pieces of literature “Indian Education” and “Superman and Me”, he recounts his endeavors, he faced as a child living on the Spokane and Coeur D’ Alene Indian Reservation. In each story he uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to convey to the reader the importance of these experiences. He discusses how difficult it was to be considered an “average Indian”, but at the same time trying to receive the best education as possible. Alexie’s purpose was to transmit the idea that, an Indian boy could strive and succeed at getting an education. He adopts a sentimental and in tone in order to appeal to similar struggles and experiences in his young adult readers face as they go through school.
Before reading this book, I honestly knew little about Native American. I knew that many lived on reservations, but I knew nothing about those reservations. By being brutally honest, Sherman Alexie provided incite to how the everyday life of a teenage Native American is like. This book opened my eyes to the problems that Native American’s face, that I was in the dark about before.
Adolescents experience a developmental journey as they transition from child to adult, and in doing so are faced with many developmental milestones. Physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes are occurring during this tumultuous stage of life, and making sense of one’s self and identity becomes a priority. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian addresses the challenges of adolescence in an engaging tale, but deals with minority communities and cultures as well.
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
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……