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Diary Of A Part Time Indian Thesis

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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

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230 Words | 1 Pages

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.

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1048 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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695 Words | 3 Pages

When Junior refers to himself as “dangerous” this shows how fed up he is with everyone assuming things about him before they ever spoke a word to him. He was just trying to further his education as much as he could, but instead felt like an outcast for the color of his skin and where he had come

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801 Words | 4 Pages

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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671 Words | 3 Pages

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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515 Words | 3 Pages

McMurphy placing in the mental ward In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, a man by the name of Mr McMurphy is incorrectly inducted into a mental ward. A mental ward is a facility that houses people who have a psychological disorder. A psychological disorder is a mental disability characterized by patterns of thought, emotion, or behavior that are maladaptive, disruptive, or uncomfortable for the person or the people around them. The people who run the mental ward do not believe that McMurphy is insane, nor does McMurphy himself.

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1121 Words | 5 Pages

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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1536 Words | 7 Pages

This shows that even though he struggles with going to the school, he is insistent on going to Reardan instead of the school on the reservation. Alexie relates to some readers, who are forced to walk miles just to go to school from their houses because they cannot afford a car or a bus ride to the school. Junior appeals to pathos depicting that he doesn't have a reliable ride every day due to his parents not having enough gas money, the car breaking down, or his parents being hungover or can't because they are working which makes the reader pity him. Additionally, Junior begins to get hope because he wants to better his education outside of the reservation. After Junior speaks with Mr.P about hope, he says that he “wants to go to Reardan,” I said again.

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735 Words | 3 Pages

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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879 Words | 4 Pages

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

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1175 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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946 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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996 Words | 4 Pages

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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947 Words | 4 Pages

He constantly mentions the need to prove his capabilities to others. Junior is caught up in his own rage and ambition when he makes many of his choices. As mentioned, one of the most radical decisions Junior makes is when he decides to leave the reservation school to attend Reardan. It is important to note he is convinced to leave the reservation after his teacher tells him he should. Therefore in this particular example Junior demonstrates that his innocence and impressionability motivates him to go against his cultural norms in order to stay away from the pain and misery that he has seen people in Wellpinit drown under.

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