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Part-Time Indian Satire

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Racism, is there anything less funny or more controversial? The Absolute Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a book by Sherman Alexie that tackles the everyday life of a child forced to deal with racism. This novel focuses on the life of Junior “Arnold '' Spirit, a poverty-stricken young Indian boy who was born with water on the brain. Junior was born on an Indian reservation (rez) in Wellpoint, Washington, USA. with his parents who are alcoholics and often violent, which was very common on the rez ss alcohol and drugs were used to forget the pain they faced every day. Because of all the hardships he faced on the rez, Junior decided to break the chain of alcohol and drug abuse and start a new life at Reardan High School. Reardan High School was …show more content…

Poverty is a very serious topic that millions of people all over the world are forced to deal with. However The Absolute Diary of a Part-Time Indian Junior makes the subject as a whole feel more light-hearted and not as serious. For example, he says, "Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” (13) Sherman Alexie uses deadpan/ understatement humor to make a light-hearted joke about growing up in poverty. Other figures speak about all the things being poor taught them but Junior states how being poor just teaches you what it feels like to be poor. By joking about this it takes a heavy, dark subject and makes it feel more “friendly and open”. Not only did Junior make jokes about growing up in poverty but so did other characters throughout the novel. Mr. Dodge, Juniors geology teacher, once said "'Okay Arnold,' Dodge said. 'Where did you learn this fact? On the reservation? Yes, we all know there is so much amazing science on the reservation.”(85), this quote was ironic because what Mr. Dodge's teacher was actually wrong and what Junior had learned was actually right. But because Junior grew up in poverty on the reservation their school did not have a lot of funding and therefore did not have the best teachers. Junior took this sarcastic insult and just laughed about it because he knew he was right. This quote also has a dramatic irony component because as the readers, it's known that Junior was actually right but once again because of where he came from he was looked down

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Pimpare’s article, talks about how Hollywood movies promote that poverty is a “state of mind, rather than a condition we create through our politics and public policy” (Pimpare 2). This show how our society has stereotyped people who are living in poverty, as people who just don’t care. This is clearly rebutted in “Daddy Tucked a Blanket Around Mama’s Shoulders. Tears Were Dropping Off His Cheeks” by Randall Williams. He talks about how hard his dad worked to try to improve their status, “No matter how much money Daddy made we never made much progress up the social ladder”

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519 Words | 3 Pages

This is an important observation as the main point of the short story goes beyond the use of vernacular and cultural representation. The story's moral is to show children what poverty can look like and to value their

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Generational Poverty Poverty has been around for numerous years. Poverty can be a generational problem if people let it. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and David Joy’s “Digging in the trash” both show that families in poverty do not have it easy, the children will live in poverty unless something is done, and people either find a way of escape or stand up against it. In the short story, “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin shows how the lack of monetary resources affects many generations.

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771 Words | 4 Pages

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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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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725 Words | 3 Pages

One example of this is when Gary takes off the coat, because he would rather be cold than look poor and be made fun of. “Even though it was cold, I took off the jacket during lunch and played kickball in a thin shirt, my arms feeling like braille from goose bumps,” (Soto 5). The fact that Gary preferred to freeze shows just how strong his resentment towards his own poverty really is. Things do not improve for Gary as time goes on. His classmates start to avoid him, rather than be associated with his poverty.

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605 Words | 3 Pages

Another harmful reality for Native Americans is prejudice that has resulted from stereotypes. Prejudice is an opinion you have that isn’t supported by logic or any reasoning(Oxford). In chapter 12, “Slouching Toward Thanksgiving” Junior's teacher didn’t believe what Junior was saying and said that his reservation school didn’t have good academics/science. He sarcastically said that there is good science on the

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1121 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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634 Words | 3 Pages

Lyric Sinan Sinanian Mr. Rodriguez Academic Literacy 21 April 2023 The Issue of Poverty The damaging consequences of poverty are a big issue in America, and have raised in severity over the years. In the realistic fiction novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the life of a poor Native American exhibits the terrors of poverty and how it can affect families within the poor communities in the country. The economically unfortunate have seen the worse come over them and their family.

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478 Words | 2 Pages

Junior played basketball at both schools, but he didn't think he was good enough to make varsity at Reardan. “I suppose it had something to do with confidence. I mean I’d always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole - I wasn’t expected to be good so I won’t.

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702 Words | 3 Pages

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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920 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the novel, Junior faces many cases of isolation. From the beginning of the novel, it is revealed that he was born with many different problems. These problems include Hydrocephalus, a disease that causes Junior to have water on the brain which resulted in him having seizures, a stutter, a lisp, and eye problems. Junior not only had head problems but he states that his head and feet were too big for his body making him look like some bad clown. Due to the fact, the Junior had so many problems starting from the moment he was born he never really fit in and was bullied constantly making him feel isolated and alone.

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1171 Words | 5 Pages

She begins by talking about her college experience of how her own professors and fellow students believed and “always portrayed the poor as shiftless, mindless, lazy, dishonest, and unworthy” (Paragraph 5). This experience shocked her because she never grew up materialistic. She brings up the fact that she is the person with the strong and good values that she has today because she grew up in a poor family. In culture, the poor are always being stereotyped.

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542 Words | 3 Pages

Amy Tellez Dependent Analysis In "The pearl" first published in 1947, a novella inspired by a Mexican Folk tale from La Paz, Baja California. The pearl represents both sides of human nature, the charachters in the book choose to see the positive aspects due to the value of the pearl, but within the pearl there are negative experiences that the charachters later on face. The pearl is viewed as desirable and worthy. Everyone in the town wants the pearl due to it's form of value and beauty, in perspective of the human mind and the way they now choose to view Kino.

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507 Words | 3 Pages

The author wants the reader to continously think about what poverty means to her, such as “Poverty is being tired” in paragraph 3, “Poverty is dirt” in paragraph 4, and “Poverty is looking into a black future.” in paragraph 10. This reminds the audience that not everyone suffers from poverty in the same way. For the author, poverty is having to take care of family when all the odds are against you, and this is what gives the reader a perfect understanding of it. As stated in the passage, “Listen to me.

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