The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian By Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is about how Junior, an Indian boy, set himself up for a better future. His teacher tells him that he should leave the reservation, so Junior switches to a mostly white school called Reardan. There, he trys out for the basketball team which changes his life. The books is all about how Junior gets himself on a better path and follows his dreams. As Junior tells this story there are many maxims sprinkled in. A maxim is a principle, rule, or basic truth about life. This essay is about the three maxims that spoke to me the most and how I can relate to them.

"Double-consciousness this sense of always looking at one 's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one 's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity" (Dubois, 8). W.E.B. Du Bois had a perfect definition of double-consciousness. The action of viewing one 's self through the eyes of others and measuring one 's soul. Looking at all of the thoughts good or bad coming from others. This is present in the main character of the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. The Absolutely True Diary is about a boy named Junior that is fourteen years old and living on the Spokane Reservation. Junior was born with too

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.

Poverty hits children hardest in the world. When I was younger, the Armenians had faced the hard facts of poverty after they break up with the Soviet Union, war with Azerbaijan, and a devastating earthquake. My family moved into our motherland Armenia while our nation was going through these huge dramatic changes. Furthermore the poor economy and inflation destroyed numerous hopes and futures. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Arnold Spirit, describes his hardships involving poverty living on Spokane reservation. The people on the reservation are stuck in a prison of poverty. They are imprisoned there due to lack of resources and general contempt from the outside world, so they are left with little chance for success. Like Arnold, I also went through hardships regarding poverty and education.

The NRC says that 37% of American Indian children are living in poverty. The absolutely true diary of a part-time indian by Sherman Alexie is about a boy named Junior. Arnold Spirit Junior is a struggling indian boy who deals with poverty, abuse, and many hardships. Throughout time he gains the strength he needs to live on his indian reservation with more happiness and opportunities then he every thought was possible. Through all of his struggles, Junior creates a better education, friendship, and improves his self-confidence with his brave outlook on life, which shows taking risks and being brave can change hardships into bliss.

Institutional structures have the power to configure adolescent growth through repression and liberation. The capability that adolescents have to create their own destiny and choose their own social institution can be limited, but not impossible. In Trites article, “Do I dare disturb the universe?” the author argues that kids have personal power, whether they acknowledge it and use it to their own advantage or not. Michel Foucault declares that “Power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere” (Trites). Power is inevitable, there will never be no such thing as power in this world; it will never diminish or fade. Trites also conveyed that, “power not only acts on a subject but, in a transitive

In the world many people have, don’t have, or think they have hope. Hope is many different things. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, many people have hope and many people think they don’t have hope. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is about a boy named Junior and how he finds his way in the world and how he builds his own path to find hope. He ends up going to a school outside the Reservation where he tries to find a balance between his two identities. Many people in this book, like Junior, Mary and Grandma have many different beliefs about hope and they are all very interesting when you look at them below the surface. The different perceptions people have of

People often wonder "what are humans at their purest form? Are they purely good or purely evil?" In order to find the answer one must look at different kinds of evidence to find the conclusion. Taking the novels "The Absolute Diary of a Part Time Indian," by Sherman Alexie, "Lord of the Flies," by William Golding, and "Night," by Elie Wiesel, they each show how true human nature comes out. And though people think they are made to be perfect, evidence ceases to prove otherwise. Underneath all the signs of good in humans, when forced into to chaotic situations, the evil comes out that is hidden deep within all humans

According to 2010 US Census projections, 22% of our nation’s 5.2 million Native Americans live on reservations or tribal land. This may not seem to be an alarming statistic to most people. However, upon further examination of the living conditions, education, and life-altering effects that go along with living on an Indian reservation, this statistic may appear slightly more alarming. The effects of growing up on a reservation is a commonly overlooked topic that many don’t give a second glance. Unfortunately, there are issues that should be seen by the common person and with the knowledge of these issues, can possibly alter a person outlook on reservations in the US. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, the author sheds light on the darkness of growing up on a reservation by telling a semi-auto biographical story about a teen struggling with dissimilar aspirations.

In the United State bullying has become one of the major problem; bullying can affect everyone those who are being bullied, and those who witness bullying. “ The Black - Eye - of - the Month Club; and Mob Action: Elementary School to Higher Education talk a little about this topic.

In the world many people have, don’t have, or think they have hope. Hope is many different things. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, many people have hope and many people think they don’t have hope. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is about a boy named Junior and how he finds his way in the world and how he builds his own path to find hope. He ends up going to a school outside the Reservation where he tries to find a balance between his two identities. Many people in this book like Junior, Mary and Grandma have many different beliefs about hope and they are all very interesting when you look at them below the surface. The different perceptions people have on hope are very intriguing and

“Jeez, I felt like one of those Indian scouts who led the U.S. Cavalry against other Indians” (182), Arnold says when he is playing basketball against his old Indian school with his new all white school. This is in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This quotation in the book is important because it talks about Arnold’s struggle to feel like he fits in as white or Indian.

Katniss comes from a district where people are olive-skinned; that could be Latino or Native American. More likely mixed-blood Native Indian for a number of reasons. First, in her own statement about her district, Katniss states, “District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety.”(6) That statement sounds like a description of Indian reservations that exists today. District 12 is a presentation of the extreme poverty, hunger, and hopeless place. This is the place, where alcohol and death from starvation are in the air. In literature, mainly Native American writers describe their nation as starving and dying. For example, Louise Erdrich in her novel Tracks writes, “We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall … Starvation makes fool of us. In the past, some had sold their allotment land for one hundred pound weight of flour” (1-8 tracks). She describes the genocide of the Indians due to consequences of the Dawes Act abolishment. Another Native American author, Sherman Alexie, describes in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” his life in Indian reservation as the life full of hunger and poverty. He writes, “I am really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation … Poverty = empty refrigerator + empty stomach.”(Alexie, 7). As we can see, both authors use the similar characterization of Native American life. Katniss describes the life in the District 12 with

Lorrie Moore speaks about which types of books we should teach in high schools and which we should teach in colleges. She says that Huckleberry Finn is not a good book to teach in high school because it is not “welcoming” and because it doesn’t appropriately deliver the messages that teenagers should be learning. She says that a good example for a book to teach in high school is Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, because it speaks to teenagers in the right way, especially when they are part of a “demoralized” group. Lorrie Moore also brings in the fact that if we want teenagers to start reading more books, it shouldn’t be literature that is from such a racist era and that uses such offensive terms. Schools are still trying to get teenagers to read more books, and in Lorrie Moore’s opinion, it would continue being a problem if those introductory books are ones that they’re uncomfortable with. She says that “College, where the students have more experience with racial attitudes and literature, can do as it pleases.”

Literature about Native Americans before the mid-1970s is known to be filled with negative stereotypes (Norton, 2013, p. 70). Laura Herbst (1977) says that the most common stereotypes portray Native Americans as savage, depraved, and cruel, as well as noble, proud, silent, and close to nature, inferior, childlike, and helpless (as cited in Norton, 2013, p. 70). It is important that the literature about Native American people, and generally any culture, portrays that culture accurately instead of relying on stereotypes. Therefore, organizations like the American Indian Youth Literature Award were created to honor those writers that do an excellent job of writing about Native American culture. The American Indian Library Association says: