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A Part-Time Indian Setting

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The Rez is a setting the author uses to show us the theme “chasing hope can change a person’s life.” An example from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie were the theme “chasing hope can change a person’s life.” Is when Junior was suspended from school and he was at home sitting on the front porch of his house. Mr. P walks up to Junior. Mr. P talks to Junior about his sister and how she had hope before she lived in the basement. He told Junior how she wanted to be a famous writer who wrote romance novels. Mr. P told Junior how she was really smart even smarter than Junior. Junior learned from Mr. P that “Mary was a bright shining star. And then she faded year by year until you could barely see her anymore.”(pg 40) …show more content…

Junior then gets an idea to go to Reardan high school so he can be with people with hope. Giving him a better future for him by a better education so he can have a good job and life when he is older. Going to Reardan will change Junior because he has a better chance he won’t turn out like his the other indians on the rez. Who had hope but got brought down because they thought they were to poor. The rez is also a setting that Sherman Alexie uses to help show us Junior’s development as a character. Junior on the rez shows us how much perseverance and courage he has when deciding to go to a white school. When no other indian has gone or left the rez to another school. Junior’s character of perseverance is seen when he tells his best friend Rowdy about transferring schools. When Rowdy hears what he says he tells junior he is a white lover and a trader to their tribe.This takes a lot of perseverance and courage for a person to still go to Reardan. Especially a indian who is apart of a tribe and is the first to leave the rez for another school. These characteristics that are seen in the setting help us see how junior is a very hardworking and determined …show more content…

The only difference is that Junior is different from the other indians on the rez. He’s not as strong as most of them and gets beat up more because of it. Because most of the indians on the rez just don’t like Junior for no good reason, maybe because he’s smarter, or may look different. He’s also smart but goes to Wellpinit school with school books older than his mother. Holding him back from his full potential. Making life and school tough on the rez just like the day he was born. Fighting for his life since the day he was put on this earth because of the amount of “cerebral spinal fluid inside (his) skull.”(pg 1) Making him different from the other Spokane indians because of his seizures, teeth, glasses, looks. Making him an easy target for bullying ever since he was young. Being a Spokane indian for Junior also makes school tough, because of the poor education system they have at the Wellpinit school. Sense most of the reservation can’t afford a better education program. Making life tough for a Spokane indian like Junior. A second example of the word choice is brain grease; this word choice helps shows us Junior’s development. Junior was ”born with too much grease inside (his) skull.”(pg 1) This specific word brain grease or grease shows how Junior likes to simplify thing. He

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In the beginning of the book, Junior says that living on the reservation has generations of Indians losing hope. They accept their lives as their ancestors did.. His parents couldn't follow their dreams because they didn't have a support system. Junior is the example of how one can break the path of the traditional life on the reservation if one has the motivation and a good support system. Junior  had the love and emotional support of his parents and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a prestigious  Prep school based on the suggestion of Mr. P, a teacher at the rez school.

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They also discuss how things are difficult on the rez now that Junior is going to school in Reardan. Junior discusses things of importance all the time so he is not conforming to rule three of the Code of Conduct.

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Another external expectation was the reservation expecting Junior to be horrible at basketball which affected Junior’s confidence. “I mean, I’d always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole -- I wasn’t expected to be good so I wasn’t” (180). Since not many

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Bravery junior has shown the readers that he is has become courageous. Junior has learned to become brave throughout the story. Junior became brave because he didn’t have anyone to protect him anymore and him first his bravery when roger makes a racist joke and junior punches him in the face and Roger was a football player who was strong and fast. “This giant boy is the alpha male of the school” (juniors grandmother says this line on page 68) and could have effortlessly pulverized Junior. Another example would be when he decided to go to school at Rearden with the white people.

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Several institutions could be put in place to promote the positive youth development of Junior and other adolescents and young adults on the reservation. Junior is a well-rounded student, he is book smart and he also has talents in drawing and writing and sports. Junior also has positive adult role models who to believe in him, his talents, and his dreams and have high expectations for him. However, not all adolescents on the rez are fortunate enough to have these role models, and lack of structure and resources makes success and positive development difficult, even with several protective factors in place. A huge change that could benefit Junior and many students in situations like his, would be more resources in the rez schools, including

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When he went on the first day he handled it better than I thought he would. In the time that it was set people didn’t like indians or colored people. Junior is the bravest person in this story by far. Knowing that it’s an all white school and you’re the darkest there but still wants to go to get the education you need shows courage.

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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.

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He realizes that his team has numerous economic and social advantages. Junior’s ability to address topics like poverty, racism and bullying with humor is a significant characteristic of his voice. For Junior, as well as his friends Rowdy and Penelope, part of growing up is recognizing that the world is more complicated than a strict division of opposites, it’s possible to be more than one thing—part of countless different “tribes”—is what enables him to unify his split identity and, as someone destined to travel beyond the reservation, navigate the world both figuratively and

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Faced with many obstacles from poverty to racial stereotypes, Junior must override them if he is to make his life better than that of fellow Indians. Interestingly, rather than letting the obstacles hold him back Junior understands that his destiny is in his own hands and he must celebrate who he is even if it means fighting. In the end, we see a boy who have managed to overcome all hardships to get to the top, even if it means making tough choices such as changing schools, therefore is could be seen that race and stereotypes only made Junior

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After everyone compliments his suit, he realizes it is okay to be different. Another example of this lesson is when Junior goes to Reardon, knowing he is going to be the only Indian there. Junior knows he will be the only non-white student at reardon, yet he goes anyway. Even though he has to deal with being picked on, and standing out, he learns to cope with it. In conclusion, Junior is not afraid to be different, since he has had a lot of experience as always being different in his life.

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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

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Then, he later realized that he “ had challenged the alpha dog and was now being rewarded for it.” This evidence implies that Junior’s experience of being bullied by Roger triggered him to stand up for himself. His hope and perseverance while standing up for himself and others, led to a greater outcome. Now, Junior was being respected as a result of him having hope and standing up himself; he was

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He understands he is different than the others on the reservation and he knows that he needs to be in a motivational environment where he will continue to be hopeful of his aspirations. However, Junior does express discomfort as a basketball all-star at Reardan when he mentions he will never be remembered as one of the greats since he is an Indian outsider. Once again Junior indicates to be hopeful and continues to stay in the white school. In fact, he even attempts to justify the racism he experiences at Reardan while his resistance to assimilate to the conditions of either Wellpinit nor Reardan make him an outsider anywhere he

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He does this by not telling anyone he poor and about his struggles to get to and from school. Even though Junior begins being isolated from everyone when he starts Reardan he eventually is accepted and loved by his

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