“To live without hope is to cease to live” – Fyodor Dostoevsky. For the natives that live on the Spokane reservation, life seems meaningless, for they lack hope because they are surrounded by poverty, violence, and alcohol. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie tells of the journey that a young native boy goes through on his journey to a better life. Arnald Spirit Jr. is a 14-yr old boy entering high school when he decides to transfer to an all-white school off the rez. Alexie incorporates many themes into the story, with the biggest ones being resilience, expectations, and cultural identity. Junior's resilience helps him to create new friendships at Reardan High. Being the only native kid at school made Junior stand out and very lonely, yet despite that Junior kept going to school until he eventually gained the guts to make …show more content…
When Junior is talking to Randy about basketball, he holds himself to low standards, saying “I’m Junior varsity all the way” (Alexie 126), and then goes on to play varsity ball as a first-year student. Junior thought that he was not good enough to play varsity basketball, but he ended up defying his own expectations and going on to become a great basketball player, learning that he can defy the expectations that hold him back. Another example of how Junior defie’s other expectations is during the rematch between WellPint and Reardan, where Junior starts the game and Rowdy say’s “You guys must be desperate if you’re starting.” (Alexie 191) Junior then goes on to destroy Rowdy. Rowdy believed that Junior was a bad player and held his expectations low, but then Junior showed Rowdy up, and destroyed Rowdy’s expectations. Junior learning that he can defy expectations helps him to grow exponentially, but his greatest challenge and final goal still lies ahead, cultural