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.
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.
When I was reading Sherman Alexie’s books, Blasphemy and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I found that Alexie likes to adjust his way of writing dramatically based on his audience and the story(s) that he is trying to tell. For example, when he wrote Blasphemy he was writing to an audience that consisted more of adults that would’ve been in their early 20’s or older, based on the complexity of how this book is set up. Alexie made it so that this book was many stories of Indians, not just him or family, but a lot of people. There are some that don’t make any sense and you really have to pick it apart to understand his subtle references. His approach to writing The Absolutely True… is more for young adults, maybe 12-19 year olds,
Sherman Alexie’s “Indian Education” describes his personal experience as a Native American in the American school system while growing up in the 1970s. In this historical period, many white Americans discriminated against those of different races and ethnicities. In this short story, Alexie attempts to open the eyes of white Americans who do not realize what Native Americans and other groups go through to inform them of the hardships he encountered all his life by utilizing stereotyping and the organization of his writing. The intended audience of "Indian Education" is white Americans who either did not realize or were negligent of the troubles Native Americans were enduring.
Despite the negative stereotype of American Indians, the objections and disapproval of fellow Natives, and the criticism of others, Sherman Alexie went on to become a successful writer that has inspired many. Alexie overcame many obstacles that would have deterred him from his goal, but he was able to remain steadfast and continue on in his pursuit of writing. As a result, he has published many literary works that include several short stories, poems, and a variety of novels. He allows his culture to seep into his writing, and continues to inspire young American Indians who also desire the path of knowledge.
Alexie is an Indian boy, who grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation, but he was a very smart child. Alexie admires his father, so he starts to like the books like him. At an early age, Alexie could not read, but he tries to recall the story from the pictures of the book. He starts with superman comic book. Also, Alexie is picking up his father books.
The novel Reservation Blues, written by Sherman Alexie reveals different struggles encountered by the Native Americans on the Spokane Indian Reservation through the use of history, traditions, and values. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, a pureblood Indian, forms a band with his childhood acquaintances Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin called Coyote Springs. Alexie uses a variety of scenes and personal encounters between characters and their dialogue to portray the meaning of tribal identity throughout the novel. A cultures goal is to prove their identity and be superior to one another; The American culture has achieved dominance through white hegemony while the Spokane American Indian tribe is in a battle of oppression struggling to preserve their tribal identity. Spokane Native Americans are very passionate about their tribal identities yet are envious of the power that the white hegemony holds against them, leading them to their depression.
The Merriam-Webster defines the word culture as, “…the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time.” This definition can be used to explain the reason in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, why Junior will never escape reservation life. Those who live in his Reservation will also never succeed in escaping reservation life because there is nothing to escape from. Juniors perceived success at leaving the reservation at the end of the novel isn’t there to make it seem like he wants to escape, it’s there to show that he has come to terms with his life, and no longer uses the reservation as an excuse for why his life isn’t what he wishes it was. It is this internal acceptance of who he is, where he comes from, and everything that
A person’s experience in life and the way they are raised as a child can have many influence on who they become as an adult. However, that doesn’t mean we should be that stereotype that everyone else believes we should be. In the book, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie. Alexie is a Spokane Indian born and raised in the Spokane Indian Reservation. This story is about a Spokane Indian Boy who should deal with medical problems and his journey to be successful.
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.
In today’s world, equality (or lack thereof) is evident everywhere. From the poor peasants, all the way to the billionaires, equality affects everyone. As everyone is different, it is safe to assume that people will have different definitions of equality. One of those people is Sherman Alexie. As the author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, his definition of equality is portrayed and can be easily identified throughout the book.
In Sherman Alexie’s short stories (and poems), there usually three central themes that the story rotates. In this paper, I will be exploring how he (Alexie) explores the themes losing culture, a cycle of regret, and using drugs (mainly alcohol) to escape. In Indian Education, the short story, Alexie seems to show that whenever young Victor tries to express himself through his culture, he is punished. Take the section “First Grade” for example. In first grade, Junior (the main character and narrator) says that “The little warrior in me roared to life that day..” and makes comparisons to traditional Native American warriors, such as describing the brusies on the other boy’s face as “war paint” or how Junior chants “it’s a good day to die”, which is phrase typically associated with Crazy Horse, who was a Native American chief.
Throughout society, violence has been expressed in several different ways. Violence is a behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. Indian Killer is a novel written by Sherman Alexie that connects society and everyday life situations. There are different forms of violence in Indian Killer such as physical, psychological, and emotional violence, which leads to anger, revenge, killing, and hate. One of the more interesting subjects that Alexie points out, that every individual or family may face in society is racial violence.
Sherman Alexie uses a wide variety of writing techniques to emphasize the points he tries to get across in his book, A True Diary of a Part Time Indian, about the world and his culture. Those techniques are hyperbole, parallelism, dark humor, imagery, analogies, repetition, dialogue, and improper use of language. These techniques contribute to the creative ways Alexie portrays his culture and life. In my pastiche I used repetition, analogies, and dialogue to portray my situation as if Alexie himself wrote it.
“An image is a representation in words of a sensory experience or of a person, place, or object that can be known by one or more of the senses (Nordquist, 2017).” The first central image in the poem, “Evolution” written by Sherman Alexie is the pawn shop that Buffalo Bill opened up. The way that Sherman Alexie portrayed the pawn shop as greedy white settlers is very talented. Pawn shops are seen in the world for always accepting and waiting different material things.
