Check Your Privilege: Rearden’s Insight on Confronting Socioeconomic Privilege Though Greenhill prides itself on acting as a “microcosm” of a diverse society, its role as an esteemed, albeit costly, private school lends itself to the erasure of socioeconomic status from discussions of diversity and inclusion. Through reading Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the reality of poverty takes center stage, through Arnold’s narrative perspective. Alexie’s nuanced description of life as an impoverished Native American student provided me innumerable insights into the life of poverty, from not being able to afford gas money, to drinking flavored water for breakfast, or not being able to keep a pet alive. While Arnold’s perspective provided me a depth of the impoverished perspective, I constantly found myself most impacted by socioeconomic status in scenes of confronted privilege by both the white students at Rearden high school, and Arnold himself. These scenes reinforced the power of confronting privilege as a means to help others, and as reflective tools to put high school experiences in a broader perspective. Penelope, Roger, Arnold, and the Rearden community’s confrontation of privilege and subsequent character development highlight the healing power of transcending socioeconomic barriers with empathy and support.
The most profound confrontation of privilege in the text is Arnold’s remarkable realization that despite winning the basketball game for
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “First you take a DRINK then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” Later Fitzgerald capitulated and died of a heart attack due to being an alcoholic the last 2 years of his life. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie talks about a 14 year old Indian boy changing his life. He goes to a white school, and changes into a different person throughout the story. The story talks about other real life dilemmas, like death and alcohol. There are multiple themes that are present throughout the story, but one theme that protrudes is that alcoholism kills.
The only way this novel should be used in curriculum is to teach about privilege and how it can have a positive impact on very few individuals, but an extremely negative impact on far more. Kerouac uses characterization, a specific style and tone, and structure to show how Sal lives his life as a privileged white male in the late 1940s. Each of these topics help to prove how his privilege becomes ignorance, and how he glorifies the unfair lives of the less fortunate and those of color. The story is very unique and helps to provide insight on these topics, but often does so in an unsuitable way. Overall, this novel portrays privilege in a way that exposes how it can cause the romanticization of the unfair and impoverished life of those who are oppressed or a
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.
Junior the protagonist of True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is currently struggling with an abundance of issues ranging all the way from a poverty driven home to medical issues he was born into. It seems to me, that all of juniors problems he was born into and unable to change for example he was born into poverty and he was born indian, setting him up for the racism he would soon enough face and he was born with too much cerebral fluid in his brain. That's not to say all of his problems came along with birth and he was just born to be plagued with, but majority of them stemmed from birth.
Arnold/Junior Spirit is a fourteen year old Spokane Indian who lives on a small reservation in Washington state. In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a part-Time Indian, Junior leaves his reservation for a primary white school called Reardan to find hope. He struggles with friendships, family, basketball, school work and identity through the year. His experiences on and off the reservation, are constantly changing his beliefs to become less racist and more positive. For example, Junior begins thinking that hope is barely reachable for him, but ends the book realizing that nothing stops him from having hope except how much he works for it.
The occasion was in the year 1996 in the gang-ridden streets of South Central, Los Angeles while California was on the ballot for affirmative action. Corwin, a newspaper reporter, was covering the shooting of a teenage boy. The victim turned out to be John Doe, a student from Crenshaw high school. In his pocket revealed an “A” paper on the French Revolution; he was a gifted student who had a bright future ahead of him. Before he knew it, Corwin realized that South Central isn’t just a place full of gang activity, but rather a place filled with hidden successes. This motivated the author to approach the high school the boy had attended to shine light on the students who shared a similar background story. Miles Corwin decided to set the location at a predominately black school such as Crenshaw because it would be an ideal place to set his book. Afterward, Corwin successfully explained how “affirmative action” put these gifted students at a disadvantage. Furthermore, he was able to describe the obstacles these students would have to deal with such as abuse, financial instability, and the poor education system. Thus, Corwin would set his tone as concerned and hopeless of the students who faced the impending, one-way trip they will be part of : graduation
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.
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.
As the novel explores how race operates between whites and Indians, it displays the way that race shapes Arnold’s life as a mixed Indian (half-white, half-Indian). Early in the novel, Arnold, describes his experience with the dentist
Do you think looking forward and trying to change a bad situation into a good one for having a better life is a wrong decision? The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is a novel written by Sherman Alexie. The novel is about Arnold Spirit; everyone calls him Junior. He is a teenage boy with a tough life who lives with his family in poverty on a Spokane Indian reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. He hates living in poverty and wants something better for himself. “I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important. An artist”(6) he claims. His living conditions are horrible; he studies in a school with a lack of resources. He considered the different aspects of moving to Reardan, he struggled about leaving
Junior Spirit, from the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, and Randy Pausch from the book “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch both face many challenges. In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, Junior Spirit faces many challenges, that include poverty, being bullied and not fitting in, and losing people who were important to him. In “The Last Lecture”, Randy Pausch faces challenges such as trying to write a last lecture that would mean something to his children, and trying to spend as much time with his family as possible. Junior learns to be confident in himself and Randy learns to not be so arrogant. Though they had different problems, and dealt with
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.
Adolescents experience a multitude of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social, and mental changes during a short span of years in their developmental journey to adulthood, and this transition period is full of many developmental changes and milestones. Some typical changes and milestones in an adolescent’s life include puberty, learning to drive, dating, developing new social relationships and social roles, cognitive changes, becoming sexually active, obtaining employment, and graduating high school. In addition to all of these changes in this tumultuous time of life, adolescents are identifying, developing, and coming to terms with their own sense of self, and learning about their identity becomes a priority. Teens and young adults must also address certain challenges that may arise in their lives such as bullying, drug and alcohol use, violence, sexual abuse, eating disorders, depression or other mood/mental health issues, and issues concerning sexuality, and gender identity. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is an engaging story that deals with many of the challenges that all adolescents face, and this novel also addresses challenges that are unique to those teens who may be grappling with issues that face minority cultures and communities as well.
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
In the story, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior was very adamant about being Rowdy’s friend, even after Rowdy was being horrible and unsupportive. This is an abusive relationship, but really I think it could just be their normal. To begin with the way Rowdy treats Junior is very aggressive, and exaggerated compared to how Junior treats Rowdy and his friends at Reardan High School. One exception to Junior not being aggressive is when Junior hit Roger, but that was because he felt that’s what had to be done.