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

What is identity? Is it something you are born with? Is it something you become? Can it change? In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, we watch Junior Spirit, the main character, take a journey in order to discover who he is. Junior is a boy living on the Spokane Reservation in Washington, who decides to attend a white high school, Reardan, in order to hold onto his dreams and create opportunities for himself. But, as the book progresses, Junior struggles between his two identities: an Indian on the reservation and a white student at Reardan. It takes many events, which seem to force Junior to choose a side, and several tragic deaths of Junior’s family, which drive him into grief and hopelessness, in order

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.

“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.

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.

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence”, as said by Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind but continued to live her life to the fullest. Life comes with its pains and sufferings, from deaths in the family to conflicts with close friends. But through hope comes the power to cope and persevere through stressful situations in life. In a positive light, hope can be the driving force to reaching one’s dreams. Sherman Alexie’s book, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, is a story that emphasizes the importance of hope, and how it influences one’s outlook on life and the actions that individuals take. Through the usage of literary elements such as _____ and _____, at its heart, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a story about hope: the hope of overcoming obstacles, the hope of having a better life, the hope of achieving life goals, the hope of pushing the limits, the hope of proving oneself, and the hope of meeting expectations.

People often go through life without knowing what it’s like to be in another person’s shoes. Many outsiders view the United States today, as an undemanding country- with its citizens being able to have jobs and money whenever they need it and living life to it’s fullest. This is the commonly depicted idea of America, though this is not the lifestyle for many living here. Specifically, the Native American community has it the hardest currently. Native Americans have been consistently struggling with life since the Removal Act of 1830- causing mass groups of Natives to be forced onto reservation, ‘till the modern world of today- the 21 century. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, articles “Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor? A Look At The Bottom 1%” by John Koppisch,“The Absence of Native American Power” and “Drinking Behavior and Sources of Alcohol: Differences Between Native American and White Youths” they explain what the average Native American has to go through. Today, being Native American means to constantly struggle with poverty, alcoholism and loss of to try and get by in life.

A young Aboriginal boy by the name of Arnold throws a textbook at a teachers face at his residential school… After that event his life changes he decides to transfer to Reardan High an all white school in a farm town outside his reservation. This courageous act from an “Indian boy” on Arnold’s reservation has never been seen or done before, Arnold is trying to break the mold. The book “The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie explores the life of Arnold an Aboriginal boy whose whole life has been lived in poverty on a reservation. Which is then thrown into the polar opposite environment, Reardan High in hopes of getting a higher education and escaping the alcoholism and unemployment that most adults that grew up

“And I kept trying to find the little pieces of joy in my life. That’s the only way I managed to make it through all of that death and change. I made a list of the people who had given me the most joy in my life.’” (Alexie 176).

Contrary to the belief,the American dream is not for everyone. Consider if an African American, a Hispanic, a Caucasian, an Asian, and a Native American was born. Who do you think as the best chance of achieving the American dream in their life? The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play The Star Spangled Banner At Woodstock by Sherman Alexie explore the central idea of how race affects the American Experience. The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian is a novel about a Native American named Junior living on the Spokane indian reservation who decides to go to a predominantly white school in order to get a better education.

The next idea that Sherman Alexie answers is what is like to be an Indian Man in the short story “An Indian Education” it seems as if to be an Indian man is to be caught between two worlds and sometimes picking one over the other. For example, the passage on page 176 states the following: “But on the day I leaned through the basement window of the HUD house and kissed the white girl, I felt the good-byes I was saying to my entire tribe” (176). For the narrator of that section he felt like had to give up the Indian part of him because of kissing the white. He felt he disappointed his people and they would never for give him for it. He felt as if his tribe would see him as ‘sell out’. There is also a question of did he view himself the same way. The narrator continues state “After that, no one spoke to me for another five hundred years” (177). Sherman Alexie allow the narrator to end that section with a Hyperbole for added meaning. While we know the narrator was not alive for five hundred years, but it could have felt that way for him. He could have thought that everyone hated him or saw him in a negative light. “Amusement” has great examples of how the main character thinks what is like to be an Indian Man.

Using symbolism, Susan Power shows how non-indian people have a biased view of American Indians and that Indians are displayed as museum exhibits. On the first page she explains how there is a statue depicting an indian about to kill a white woman and her children, her mom says that, “Children who see this will think this is what indians are all about”(1). Later, Power and her Mom are walking together in the egyptian exhibit. Her mom points out the mummies and says, “[the mummies] were a lot like us….and now just look at them”(2). The mummies represent people’s beliefs that indians are people of the past. Later in the story Power explains how they “stand before the [buckskin dress in the glass case] as we would before a grave”(2). This shows

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

Knowledge isn't bought, found, but learned. This universal truth is the same as “Mind over matter”, “Wisdom is power,” and “Pen is mightier than sword”. There many real-life examples that have occurred that have carved the world we live in now. Also in the books and movies: “The Keeping Room”, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, and “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, Cesar Chavez, and Glory.

Every person in the world belongs to a culture. Many times people categorize a person’s culture based on his or her ethnical orientation. Often these cultures clash and can end in violence, but the United States has often been called the “melting pot” of cultures and ethnic diversity. Although there is a high range of diversity, often time’s cultures tend to segregate themselves from others due to different values, societal rules, and beliefs. The novels The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie both show two very different cultures that are present in the United States. The individualistic values present in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and the collectivistic ideals present in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie show the difference in cultures and how each character challenges how their culture believes they should act as young adults.

Almost all teens experience some sort of an identity crisis. They struggle with finding a clearer sense of themselves. Arnold Spirit Jr., a 14-year-old reservation Indian, faces an identity crisis when he leaves his reservation to go to school in Reardan, a town inhibited by white people. To begin, Arnold moves between different settings, and when he does, there is a change in his identity. Moreover, there is a change in his character as he moves between cities. Finally, Arnold experiences an identity crisis as well as conflicts with his community. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the author uses literary elements to emphasize that one’s racial and ethnic identity changes depending on the social surrounding.