The diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a novel about a disabled Indian boy's life on a reservation in Spokane, Washington. Alexie describes the complications and struggles that Junior endures throughout the process of changing schools. Arnold Spirit Jr is fourteen years old and is forced to act like an adult for him to be able to choose the life he desires. Throughout the book we see Junior change the way he sees himself and how he sees himself through the eyes of others. He begins to find his own value that had been hidden behind a curtain of self doubt. As the novel progresses Junior is keen on going to the school that is separated from his reservation called Reardon High. Even though Junior wants to go to this school so he can achieve a better education, much backlash came from Juniors tribe as it seemed as if he was abandoning his culture. Juniors started at Rearden very worried about what everyone would think of him, and on his first day he punched a white kid in the face for telling an insensitive joke to him. Junior went home feeling confident in what he did but later started to realize that him trying to prove himself to everyone was unnecessary. He said “I felt like somebody shoved me into a rocketship and blasted me to a new planet. I was a freaky alien and there was no way to get home”(66), …show more content…
The bus loaded with Reardan High School's varsity basketball team entered the reservation, and was struck by vandals with any object they could find. The whistle blew and Juniors fell almost instantly. Rowdy had knocked Junior out. This was the biggest game of his entire life, and he was hurt. Junior proved he was determined to win when he told the coach “I would walk out of this hospital and walk all the way to Wellpinit to play them right now”(148). This is important because it shows how Junior has learned to
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie is a novel that follows the journey of a young Native American boy named Junior, as he transfers to a new school and encounters unknown situations. At the beginning of the book, he struggles with an abundant amount of physical insecurity and sense of inferiority about his basketball skills. Nevertheless, after he transfers to Reardan High School, he forms new friendships and joins the school’s varsity basketball team. Due to these positive influences in his life, Junior gains more confidence in his looks while also becoming more determined and prideful in his basketball gameplay.
When Junior goes to this school people treat him differently he acts differently he even goes by a different name. He doesn’t want to forget about his heritage and the people he left behind but he feels like this school will get him on a better path for life. He also feels a little bit guilty about leaving his friends and family from the reservation behind and moving on in life. You can see this in a quote from the book "My name is Junior," I said. "And my name is Arnold.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian should be taught at DHS. It teaches a person about reality and about the struggles of the world, yes it uses profanity and sexual, but it shows what can happen to a teenager and showing them what could happen to them. The absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a wonderful and fantastic book. Reardan, the all white school Junior transfers to, is about 23 miles off the reservation. This means he either has to hitchhike or walk because his family can’t afford the money for gas, that could be someone in a teen in Douglas community.
In the beginning of the book Junior decides to leave his school on the reservation for a better education at an all-white high school in Reardan “whose mascot was an Indian, thereby making me the only other indian in town” (Alexie 56). Junior’s poverty makes him nervous about attending this school because he has so little money in a school where people are rich. This is the main difference between the two. “My parents gave me just enough money so that I could pretend to have more money than I did.” (Alexie 199).
Junior takes into account that the people who beat him up didn’t do it to hurt him physically but hurt him to convey a message that not only is he a traitor but they will prevent him from getting what he wants in life. This quote shows how the environment around someone can hold them back from becoming
Kaya Murray Mr. Rodriguez Academic Literacy April 21 2023 The Impact of Poverty Poverty is cultivated into the next generations, which can cause many to be negatively impacted. This is seen in the young adult contemporary novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie. This story is based in Washington in both a Spokane reservation and the Reardan school from the point of view of 14 year old Arnold Spirit Junior. The narrator Junior offers many examples of how he and other Spokane tribe members are at a disadvantage compared to their white peers.
Junior loses a lot of friends and family at the young age of fourteen. He gets bullied because he was born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull, but he has his best friend Rowdy there to help him. Junior realizes that he needs to leave the reservation to get a better life for himself. He goes to a new school off the
In the article American Indian Movement It explains how the government promised many things including good jobs, housing, and vocational training for those who would move. The author then says “As a result, thousands of Native Americans migrated to the cities. But many of them never received the promised funding and benefits”(“American”). The book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is about a boy named Junior who is an Indian that lives on a reservation. The book goes through the struggles Junior has on the reservation with his best friend Rowdy when Junior moves schools and the struggles Junior has with his family.
In Sherman Alexie’s, “The Absolutely Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, Alexie shares the story of a teenage Native American boy named Junior who lives on the rez and desires to have a better education. But for this, he must attend a white school 22 miles from the rez. Despite having various forms of oppression both living on the rez and going to Reardan High School, Alexie shows Junior’s budding future through the use of literary devices and Junior’s
A Journey of Identity and Resilience: The True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Introduction: Throughout the novel, Junior struggles to define his sense of identity; as he searches for belonging, he eventually comes to realize and accept that his identity is composed of many different tribes. Identity assimilation and culture The tension between cultural assimilation and the preservation of one's individuality is demonstrated by Arnold's choice to leave the reserve and enrol in a school with a majority-white student body.
It goes back to when Junior’s old teacher, mr. P has this to say “when i first started teaching here, that’s what we did to the rowdy ones, you know? We beat them. That’s how we were taught to teach you. We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child.” This foreshadows how Junior has a big rip within himself and begins to drift away from Indian culture and adopts white culture.
Different Representations of Mourning and the Stages of Grief Although mourning will end, death’s grasp on one’s life will never falter. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a realistic fiction novel that occurs on a Spokane reservation and a neighboring high school, Reardan. The protagonist, Arnold Spirit Junior, and his family experience significant loss after the deaths of Junior’s sister, Mary Spirit, and his grandmother, as well as a close family friend, Eugene.
Emily Mejia Mr. Rodriguez Academic Literacy 21 April 2023 Individual vs. Community Something that a lot of people don’t realize is that their communities have a big impact on the decisions they make, especially when it comes to their future. When making important life decisions, the question of how their community would react always comes to mind. The fictional novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a perfect example of an individual having to choose between their own success or their community. This novel takes place on a Native American reservation, and in this novel we see the protagonist, Junior, face the problem of having to choose between his individuality and his community.
In his book the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie portrays a teenage boy, Arnold Spirit (junior) living in white man’s world, and he must struggle to overcome racism and stereotypes if he must achieve his dreams. In the book, Junior faces a myriad of misfortunes at his former school in ‘the rez’ (reservation), which occurs as he struggles to escape from racial and stereotypical expectations about Indians. For Junior he must weigh between accepting what is expected of him as an Indian or fight against those forces and proof his peers and teachers wrong. Therefore, from the time Junior is in school at reservation up to the time he decides to attend a neighboring school in Rearden, we see a teenager who is facing tough consequences for attempting to go against the racial stereotypes.
In his double life in Reardan and on the reservation, he feels “like a magician slicing himself in half, with Junior living on the north side of the river and Arnold living on the south,” (p. 60-61) “I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other. It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only part-time.” (p.118) Just as his absolutely true identity includes both Junior and Arnold, the divided extremes he describes often turn out to be hazy. Roger, the Reardan student who greets Junior in the schoolyard with a cruel racist joke, becomes a sympathetic friend and role model; Rowdy is both Junior’s greatest friend and his worst enemy, and hates him because he loves him so abundantly. Things like the basketball game Reardan wins against Wellpinit becomes both a glorious victory and a shameful moral loss for Junior.