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

744 Words3 Pages

Two Different Worlds “Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.” (Alexie 132). Junior is the protagonist in the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie. Through his time living on the reservation, he has experienced many hardships. Junior has just made the biggest decision in his life by choosing to move schools. Throughout the book, Junior faces many challenges with his identity. Junior navigates his way through the challenges between living on the reservation and going to school in Reardan by playing basketball and drawing cartoons. Making a change like Junior did takes a lot of courage. Junior started out the year going to his school on the reservation, he soon …show more content…

Ever since Junior’s sister Mary had run away from the reservation with her new boyfriend, Junior’s family had been struggling. Nobody expected her to do that. When Rowdy found out that she fled, he blamed it all on Junior for putting too much pressure on her ever since he decided to move schools to try and better his life. But this was the time for Junior to make everything better. Being an Indian and the weakling who always gets picked on, this was his time to shine. He was on the varsity basketball team and this was the game that mattered the most, playing Wellpinit, but most importantly playing Rowdy. The whole game was a time of ups and downs, but Junior played the best game of his life that night. He proved to his family and old friends just how good he was. This really shows how changing one thing in your life can lead to many amazing opportunities. In conclusion, Junior used basketball and drawing as his escape from the challenges that he faced from the reservation and switching to a new school. It takes a lot of bravery for someone to make a decision like Junior did. But if you don’t make the changes that you need to, then you won’t get the results that you

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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.

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Junior is a young American Indian who had grown up on a reservation in the western United States. As he grew older, he realized that living on the reservation would lead him nowhere. His only chance of hope at a better life is to leave “the Rez”. Sherman Alexie perfectly captures the culture of an American Indian in his novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, by introducing white culture by sending Junior to Reardan High School. Junior’s experience in Reardan allows him to draw conclusions about his own culture and Alexie has surely done research on American Indian culture.

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As Junior matures he realizes that he has many obstacles within his life, like the fact that he lives in poverty, a lot of people show racism towards him and his people, and the death of family members and

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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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Thesis: Junior’s story is a powerful one with trials and tribulations that many of us can relate to; the author Sherman Alexie is able to capture these dynamics of teenage life by using raw and relatable dialogue. In this review, I will summarize the story, review the issues Junior faces, go over the strengths and weaknesses of the writing, and lastly share my opinion of the book. Writer Sherman Alexie starts the book by introducing us to Junior, a Native American teen living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. When Junior was born, he had too much cerebrospinal fluid, giving him many physical problems, along with brain damage.

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Junior is a young boy that lives on a indian reservation in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. As a result of living on the reservation, Junior is forced to deal with all the horrible consequences such as poverty, drunks, and bullies on the reservation. First off Junior lives on the reservation and has to deal with how poor his family is and he has to help them deal with the poverty. In the beginning of the story Junior tells us about the struggles of being poor by explaining “empty refrigerator + empty stomach= poverty”(8). Sometimes Junior and his family have to go without eating a meal because they can not afford the food.

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It’s a school that consists of mostly white kids. He was a hard time fitting in at Reardan because he’s an Indian. The main theme is about Junior trying to fit in on the Indian Reservation, and at Reardan. Junior’s only friends at Reardan are Gordy, and Penelope. He mentions that “he felt like two different people inside one body.”

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Mr. P tells Junior that “You 're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.” (Alexie 63). Junior’s teacher knows that in order for Junior to find hope, he must isolate himself from his miserable reservation. He knows that Junior deserves better, and has fought too hard to lose hope, therefore he must take his hope and go somewhere where other people have hope. In order to do that, Junior must separate himself from all the horrors of the sad reservation by leaving.

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Junior's resilience helps him to create new friendships at Reardan High. Being the only native kid at school made Junior stand out and very lonely, yet despite that Junior kept going to school until he eventually gained the guts to make

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This tells us that junior had to live life to the fullest by not fearing his fears. Another good example would be when junior ask’s his grandma advice about school after he punched the bully in the face, just before she passed away, that shows to never be afraid to ask for advice or keep in touch with your

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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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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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Junior is a teenage boy who is different from everyone else on the reservation. He has big goals, but he is an outcast so nobody pays attention to him. When he moves and plays his first game against his old school, everyone thinks he is a traitor and “boos” him. He feels more accepted at Reardan than his home school.

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Throughout the novel, Junior highlights the importance of his identity, but is still unable to choose a “tribe” to remain with. Junior’s alternating identity is vital throughout the story, which establishes his maturity, and ultimately makes Junior a stronger person. Junior was born an Indian, but now must choose between sticking with tradition, or making a better life for himself, but his true identity is challenged by none other than the people he cares about most, causing Junior to eventually succeed . Throughout the story, Junior is consistently set back and dismissed by all aspects of life, whether it be death, making friends, or school. The conflict is that Junior is loved at his new school by many, but loved even more at home where he has a lesser chance of succeeding; this being demonstrated by Junior stating, “I feel like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job.

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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).

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