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

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is written by Sherman Alexie, in the book Junior is a Native American kid who lives on a reservation. He is regularly bullied and faces many hardships as he decides if his reservation or new school is a place to call home. The main theme is that If you learn to accept and fight through your struggles, they will be resolved easily. This can also be shown in the book as he struggles with his race and his family being in poverty. At the beginning of the story, Junior is perceived as more of a nerdy kid. He has thick glasses and a massive head shape. Junior also sadly only has 1 friend. The main conflict is Junior's struggle to find acceptance in two very different communities, the Spokane reservation, and Reardan High. A quote that represents this is: “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 a part-time job. And it didn't pay well at all.” This shows how lost he feels between his new school and his family and friends. …show more content…

But later on, as he joins the school basketball game, he is determined to get revenge on his ex-best friend by destroying him. Another bonus is showing the people at the reservation who hate him what he is made of and proving them wrong. In the end, he ends up winning the big game, in the book, this is a big deal. He and his best friend end up making up at the end and they play a game of basketball. This quote I feel best represents Junior's connection between the conflicts and basketball. ¨We had defeated the enemy! We had defeated the champions! We were David who'd thrown a stone into the brain of

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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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With the younger children, it is not always possible for them to study in a different education surrounding and insist on their goal. Sherman Alexie’s “The absolutely time of a part-time Indian” describes an Indian boy Arnold Junior left his homeland and pursued his goal in Reardan where has many white people. In Reardan, he learns something new and makes some new friends like Penelope and Gordy. Finally, he satisfies with the new life and even fix the friendship with Rowdy. The passage compares the description of Junior’s life both in Rez and Reardan, and those differences have great impacts on him.

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It may have been difficult at first, but Junior has finally seen something different, which proves to him that not everything is the same; there is something that is unique in everyone, no matter who they may be. As a result, Junior is more comfortable in his own skin and with others; he treats them with much more respect and is more gracious. At the beginning of the novel, he may have been throwing a geometry book at a teacher, but by the end, he is voicing his own opinions and sharing his thoughts. Even though Junior has made some startling advancements, he has not changed in some regards; he can still hold a grudge like no other, and has not truly forgiven some characters in the novel. He still considers many of his white classmates to have personally brought his problems on him.

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And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it,” (Alexie 19). In addition, Junior remarks that it’s not just him that is poor, but his tribe in the reservation too. It shows how much poverty is affecting him and the people on the reservation. According to Sherman Alexie, he mentions in the novel, “My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from.

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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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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.

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Junior’s life as a Native American on a reservation is different from a non-native American's 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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From this point on we see the novel narrated through Junior and we see how he doesn’t have much success or really any opportunity to be successful as he is cramped in a small Native reservation. The accessibility of success as we see in the reservation is scarce for all and especially Junior, he was a shy and small kid that didn’t have much confidence or belief in himself. From their background, many people are hindered at birth because of their upbringing and what kind of upbringing. Junior is raised in a poverty-stricken household with a heavily addicted to alcohol father and both parents depressed that don’t strive to do much in their lives. This is the same for many on the reservation, it is really a trap that hinders everyone and their offspring for generations to come.

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Evan Fonseca Mr. Rodriguez Academic LiteraturePeriod 7 21 April 2023 ARD-Final Essay “But somehow or another, Indians have forgotten that reservations were meant to be death camps. I wept because I was the only one who was brave and crazy enough to leave the rez. I was the only one with enough arrogance,” (Sherman 218). In the fiction novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, the author wrote about the difficulties the protagonist young Indian teenager, Junior, felt as a native american who lived within a Spokane reservation in Washington state and was attending an all white school. It shows his struggles, and how he matured and developed through the losses and setbacks he faced in life.

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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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A main reason schools read this novel is to have Native American representation in the curriculum. It is really important to include this culture in the curriculum, but the Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian is not a great choice. Even though it talks a lot about the issues facing reservations, it ignores the cultural aspect of Junior's life. A great example of Native American cultures and traditions not being elaborated on in the book is Junior talking about Rowdy punishing the brothers that jumped Junior, “Then Rowdy snuck in, shaved off their eyebrows, and cut off their braids” (Alexie, revenge is my middle name).

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