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The Absolute True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Essay

676 Words3 Pages

Junior, a misunderstood boy not only has to live as an outcast in a school filled with white people but, also has to live as an outcast among his own people. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Sherman Alexie explores the terrible losses that occur on the reservation and how for that very reason Junior is becoming more alone than how he was before. He loses his sister, grandmother, the man who he says is like an uncle to him, and also himself in such a short amount of time.
Junior’s sister was secretly into writing romance novels so she turned her life into one. She ran away from home and got married. She was living in a small trailer home and searching for a job. Her novel didn’t end with a happy ending. Her trailer caught …show more content…

Junior feels as if he’s lost everything, like all Indians lose everything. Junior says “We lost our native land, we lost our languages, we lost our songs and dances. We lost each other. We only know how to lose and be lost.”(Alexie 173) I think these are the reasons for why he goes to school in Reardan, he’s tired of losing people, especially because of alcohol, he was tired of being and feeling alone.
Junior didn’t die, at least not like the rest. Some may say he lost his identity and some may say he got stronger. I think both. As he was around white people more he started doing more to be like them. As he says in one of his comics “White people have a bright future and hope.” (Alexie 57) He thought surrounding himself with hope would give him hope and hope was probably what he needed most. Hope keeps everyone going, even at the toughest times.
The loss of his sister, grandmother, uncle, and himself made him more alone than he has ever been. He lost so much during such a short amount of time. Even though he got new friends at Reardan, new people that cared about him, it would never replace the people he lost. They represent who he is and who he is

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This goes to show that by exploring his options and opening up his mind to things helped pull him out of this dark place he was in and start thinking of how he was affected by his environment and many other things. He realized that his environment, genetics, or just bad luck affected him more than he thought it did when he was younger. He shows how thankful he is when he states, “People who taught me that no accident of birth-not being black or relatively poor, being from baltimore or the Bronx or fatherless-would ever define or limit me”(5) and when he states, “What changes was that I found ii was surrounded by people-starting with my mom, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, and leading to a straight of wonderful role models and mentors-who kept pushing me to see more than what was directly in front of me, to see the boundless possibilities of the wider world and the unexplored possibilities within myself”(5). These quotes demonstrate how thankful he was for the people that helped take care of him and change him for the better even if he didnt treat them lively for a while. This shows that if you surround yourself with kind, loving, and caring people, you can

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