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.
In The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian Mr.P makes arnold have hope in life but makes it clear to him that he must change something to have success in life. After Arnold throws a geometry
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.
Reardan High School is a much nicer school outside of the Spokane Reservation; Junior was amazed because it had a science lab and a gym. However, with great power comes great responsibility, as Junior was mercilessly bullied for a duration of time. He made friends, though, and realized an important fact: “...sure, I was a Spokane Indian. I belonged to that tribe. But I also belonged to the tribe of American immigrants.
Within Chapter 5 of Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian the main focus is on Juniour realizing he has to leave to find more hope. Firstly, Juniour gets suspended for hitting Mr.P with a book unintentionally. Secondly, a week into the suspension, Mr. P comes for a visit and although what junior did wasn't very pleasant, he forgave juniour anyway. After listening to Mr. P speak about him and his sister, Juniour begins to think about his sister Mary hiding in the basement and his dad sitting alone in his room watching tv.
As a starting point, Arnold’s family, friends, and figures of authority in the reservation are clear evidence and reflection that the government 's attempt to assimilate the Indian population to the US society led to the destruction of the Indian culture. One of the most infamous attempts at assimilation made by the white society were the residential schools. Residential schools were places where Indians were taught to forget who they were and had a main motto that stated, “Kill the Indian, but save the person.” (Assimilation of Native Americans). In the novel, after Arnold threw a book on Mr. P’s face, they have a talk about the incident in Arnold’s porch.
His parents did not oppose to the idea because they believed white people were the only ones who had hope and were able to achieve their dreams. Arnold was fascinated by Reardan, “The kids in Reardan are the smartest and the most athletic kids anywhere. They are the best” (46). Unlike Arnold, I didn’t decide to leave my high school for another. He had the courage and commitment to leave Wellpinit despite what the people on the reservation would think of him.
He is a good friend to Rowdy. Arnold is a strong person since he is good at standing up against the bullies at his school. Although he is not physically too strong and tall he still stand up for himself. Arnold has the talent of drawing cartoons. Arnold is trying to be different because he does not want to have the same future as the people on the reservation.
He worked hard to make his dreams reality despite of all the things that tried to hold him back. The Spokane Indian Reservation presented our protagonist with
The book focuses on a young boy named Arnold Spirit who shows persistence and bravery as he defies all odds and strides towards a happier more successful life than his parents and ancestors before him. Arnold is a bright, inspiring young boy who grows up with little fortune and is destined to continue down the path of a poor, misunderstood Indian. However, his fate changes for the better when a spark lights the fire inside of him to strive to pursue a better, more flourishing life as he makes an extraordinary decision to transfer to an all-white school for a worthier education. However, the drastic change of schools puts a burden on his family to get him to school as well as leads to extreme bullying from not just kids at his new school but also from his fellow Indians in his hometown. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I learned that it doesn 't matter what your situation is and what you are expected to accomplish in your lifetime or what standards have already been set for you because you can be whoever you want to be with hard work, ambition, and confidence.
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.
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.
Leaving a place that has been home for a long time is tough, but sometimes it is the right choice. In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the narrator, Arnold, went to school at Wellpinit, which was in the Indian Reservation where he grew up. Unfortunately, this was an area of great despair and in order to try and make something of himself, he needed to go to school outside of the reservation. He started school at Rearden, which was an all-white school, making it difficult for him to fit in since he was the only Indian. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman, Alexie Arnold has the right to leave the reservation to seek better opportunities and have a better education that can help him
Theodore Robert Bundy known as “Ted Bundy” was born on November 24,1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Ted Bundy was convicted of murdering 30-40 women in five years. Including several teenagers at the age of 12 years old. He’s known as sexual antisocial psychopath (sexual sadist behavior). Most of the women are all attractive females come from upper and middle class families.
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).
