Thomas Melles K. Dirck Freshman Honor English, Period 6 2 September 2016 Dreams lead everywhere Dreams are what people live for yet, in life, dreams are almost never lived. In The Absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian written by Sherman Alexie the main character Junior tries to follow his dreams. Dreams are what people should strive for but yet many do not even try to follow them. Junior’s sister and Sherman Alexie both were following their dreams to “save their lives”. Junior has a sister in the book who is lived in their basement and was not following her dreams, while in “Superman and Me” Sherman Alexie writes about how he is trying to follow his dreams to save his life.
Perseverance: The Road to Success and Maturation Life knocks people down all the time. But it is said that it doesn't matter how many times a person gets knocked down, it is how many times that person gets back up. This is called perseverance, which can be used to help those succeed and overcome the hardships in their life. In “The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Alexie uses the protagonist Junior, to show how perseverance can be an effective trait, as it helps him conquer the obstacles in his life, and also expand his limits.
When I was reading Sherman Alexie’s books, Blasphemy and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I found that Alexie likes to adjust his way of writing dramatically based on his audience and the story(s) that he is trying to tell. For example, when he wrote Blasphemy he was writing to an audience that consisted more of adults that would’ve been in their early 20’s or older, based on the complexity of how this book is set up. Alexie made it so that this book was many stories of Indians, not just him or family, but a lot of people. There are some that don’t make any sense and you really have to pick it apart to understand his subtle references. His approach to writing The Absolutely True… is more for young adults, maybe 12-19 year olds,
Sometimes when you think someone has given up all hope, they might just surprise you and run; run towards their dreams and use the last glimmer of hope they had left. They surprise you with their sudden barrage of inspiration. Mary Spirit from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a prime example of sudden inspiration and spontaneity however, at first this side of Mary is certainly hidden. When I was first introduced to Mary I felt that she had an intimidating and frigid attitude. Arnold states “After high school, my sister just froze.
In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Junior Adams’s expansion of his own reality has made him aware of other things and has allowed him to find joy in unlikely experiences from those he’s known. From the title onwards, Junior makes it very clear that he himself is a Native American. He indicates how he has spent his entire life on the reservation. He lives on in northwestern Washington, and he mentions how he has never been far from it; he has only been to Spokane. When reminiscing about where he could be, he mentions how “I wish I were magical, but I am really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation” (Alexie 7).
Sherman Alexie’s novel title, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian illustrate that school at the Spokane reservation was responsible for the persecution of Indian cultures. Mr. P, the geometry teacher, revealed in his conversation with Junior, “We beat them. That’s how we were taught to teach you” (Alexie 35). Junior was informed of this when he came to visit Junior after he was suspended. Mr. P further exposed the school intention by saying, “We were trying to kill Indian culture” (Alexie 35).
In her essay ““Indians”: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History”, Jane Tompkins takes her readers behind the scenes of her academic research in attempts to discover the true history of Indians—Native Americans. She encounters several versions of history regarding her study and therefore was left questioning how to make sense of history when there are so many versions of it. Throughout the course of her research, she realized that the historical facts differed in perspective because the historian’s background, towards the study, differed as well. This goes well with Carr’s essay and how he mentions that the historian is tied to his facts. As mentioned earlier, Carr explains how the historian writes accounts based on his or her worldview;
Prejudice means on how people judge somebody because of race or religion, an example From the book itself "The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian," whites were prejudiced to Indians and even the Indians were prejudiced toward the main character, Arnold for switching to a white school. An example to provide that there was prejudice in the novel like when Roger and Penelope thought that people in Arnold 's reservation were rich because there were a lot of casinos in his area, but the truth was that everyone in Arnold 's reservation were alcoholics that lived in poverty. For example, like Arnold 's father, he was an alcoholic and so tired, they wouldn 't have any food to eat for dinner, and they would starve for nearly every night. And going on this, Arnold didn 't tell anybody that he was poor so he would say he was rich and it was released out when he was at the dance and he was asked if he was poor and he responded saying
In Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior, and Rowdy, are highlighted by the unique friendship between them. Through casual conversation, repeated emotions, and dialogue between the two. Showcasing their bond and depth of friendship. They use slurs and curse words with each other, showing informality and comfort in their communication. For example, in paragraphs 7-9 "I was reading a book," "Wow, you were reading a book?"
The Route Of Bullying Relatively everyone gets bullied or picked on at least once in their life, but for Arnold it’s a daily struggle that he must overcome. Arnold grows up as a small kid with lots of problems as a result of severe brain damage. He lives on an Indian reservation in poverty causing people to pick on him or bully him constantly because he is an easy target. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows us how people take advantage of each other’s weaknesses and use it to their own advantage to bully them, as shown when Arnold describes how groups of kids would spin him around and call him globe, when the Andruss brothers beat him up and when Roger told the most racist joke Arnold had ever heard.
He lives on a reservation, his father is a drunk and his mother is a recovering drunk. He was born with a disability, he had to much water in his brain so he is very sensitive to hits to his head. He Only has one friend on the Reservation, his name is Rowdy, they’ve been friends since they were born. But, he is being bullied at school and on the reservation, he talks to one of his teachers which tries and convince him
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 Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the main
Overcoming a challenge, not giving up, and not being afraid of change are a few themes demonstrated in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Perhaps the most prominent theme derived from the novel is defying the odds, or in other words rising above the expectations of others. Junior Spirit exemplifies this theme throughout the entirety of the book. As Junior is an Indian, he almost expects that he will never leave the reservation, become an alcoholic, and live in poverty like the other Indians on the reservation—only if he sits around and does not endeavor to change his fate. When Junior shares the backstory of his parents, he says that his mother and father came from “poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (11).
Mikaal Khalifa Ms. Sobiera NBE3U1-02 30 January 2023 How Indigenous People Have Been Oppressed and it Negatively Affected Them Picture This. People come into your house forcefully, take your thing, eat the food in your house, and then section off part of your house where you have to stay. This is what happened to Indigenous people when the Europeans came to their land. In the text “The Inconvenient Indian” by Thomas King, Thomas King talks about how Indigenous people have been oppressed throughout time by the Europeans or Colonizers. These events show how being oppressed can lead to a worsening quality of life for the Indigenous people.
