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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 Summative
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” – Winston Churchill. Hope is a crucial aspect of our lives. It is needed to get us through dark times and allows us to dream for the better. In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, he expresses that hope is an extremely important theme and without hope, Junior would’ve ended up still stuck on the reservation, and it would not have motivated him to work towards a better future. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Alexie’s purpose of the importance of having hope is recurring through Junior’s …show more content…

This shows that even though he struggles with going to the school, he is insistent on going to Reardan instead of the school on the reservation. Alexie relates to some readers, who are forced to walk miles just to go to school from their houses because they cannot afford a car or a bus ride to the school. Junior appeals to pathos depicting that he doesn't have a reliable ride every day due to his parents not having enough gas money, the car breaking down, or his parents being hungover or can't because they are working which makes the reader pity him. Additionally, Junior begins to get hope because he wants to better his education outside of the reservation. After Junior speaks with Mr.P about hope, he says that he “wants to go to Reardan,” I said again. I couldn't believe I was saying it. For me, it seemed as real as saying, “I want to fly to the moon… No if I don’t go now, I never will. I have to do it now.”(Alexie 46). Alexie uses imagery through Junior to compare him going to Reardan to going to the moon. Alexie appeals to pathos through Junior’s narration by explaining that even though he believes it's unrealistic he still …show more content…

Junior believes that it was pointless for Native Americans to dream because they would never accomplish them, but Alexie uses irony to show that junior breaks most of the stereotypes he lists. When Junior talks about his dreams he says “we Indians don't get to realize our dreams. We don't get those chances. Or choices. We're just poor. That's all we are.” (Alexie 13). Alexie uses irony to contradict what Junior says at the beginning of the book. Junior at the beginning of the story says that native Americans living on the reservation can dream and will always stay poor and live on the reservation. Still, then junior realizes that if you put your mind to anything it can be accomplished, an example is when he dreamed of dating Penelope, he started talking to her and started to date her, along with dreaming of going off the reservation, it came true because he goes to a school outside of the reservation. This shows that it is important to stay hopeful and junior manages to break multiple stereotypes that are associated with native Americans. Additionally, Rowdy aids Junior when breaking stereotypes of Native Americans being inferior people. When Reardan is first mentioned Junior says that “Reardan beat us 72-5 and 86-50, our only two losses of the season. “ (Alexie 50). Alexie shows that Junior and Rowdy both have a lack of confidence and believed that Native Americans were much

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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.

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Perseverance: The Road to Success and Maturation Life knocks people down all the time. But it is said that it doesn't matter how many times a person gets knocked down, it is how many times that person gets back up. This is called perseverance, which can be used to help those succeed and overcome the hardships in their life. In “The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Alexie uses the protagonist Junior, to show how perseverance can be an effective trait, as it helps him conquer the obstacles in his life, and also expand his limits.

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His passion for books, which was greatly inspired by his father, is the power force that permits Alexie to be removed from the barriers of Indian mentality and failure. With the same passion for reading, he also wishes to inspire future Indians by his example that one must refuse to accept and live out the role as an Indian that society has imposed on them. Toward the end of his short story, he shares how he visits the reservation schools to teach creative writing to Indian kids and notices how “[t]hey look at [him] with bright eyes and arrogant wonder. They are trying to save their lives” (18). The words, “they are trying to save their lives” convey such a powerful message; despite all of the doors one must break through just as Superman did in the comic book, hope remains.

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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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Mr. P tells Junior that “You 're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.” (Alexie 63). Junior’s teacher knows that in order for Junior to find hope, he must isolate himself from his miserable reservation. He knows that Junior deserves better, and has fought too hard to lose hope, therefore he must take his hope and go somewhere where other people have hope. In order to do that, Junior must separate himself from all the horrors of the sad reservation by leaving.

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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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The continuous loss of relatives is too harsh for a boy, so Alexie uses a kind of “slight sorrow” to let Junior realize the weakness of life in the face of death. In addition, while cleaning the cemetery later, Junior says, “Reservations were meant to be prisons, you know? Indians were supposed to move onto reservations and die. We were supposed to disappear. But somehow or another, Indians have forgotten that reservations were meant to be death camps.”

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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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Throughout the novel The Absolute True Story of a Part-Time Indian, Junior’s adventure helps him ultimately become a better person. He now realizes to value the things he owns in his life, and is more determined to make a change in his life. Although some of these changes were triggered through unfortunate events, all of them ultimately helped Junior become a better

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They are trying to save their lives.” Although Sherman Alexie’s success seems as if it has only opened up doors for himself it did not, it opened up doors for other Indian kids that are still on the reservation. When Sherman Alexie wrote his books and poems the kids on the reservation read them. They gave them hope, he gave them a reason to fight for their lives the way he did. Those kids too started to write their own short stories and found the same joy in learning that Sherman Alexie did.

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Junior’s father’s drinking problems and the lack of funds to afford decent living conditions on the reservation are prevalent issues throughout the book that provide an insight into this theme. This proves that the author has written this novel to exhibit the hardships of those in poverty are detrimental to a child’s future. First, the novel shows the hardships of poverty by showing the discrimination made against Junior. On page 86, Junior states he “remembered when I [he] used to be a human being,” (Alexie 86).

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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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Furthermore, Junior has slowly become a survivor by learning from all his mistakes and stories written down in his diary. For one thing, Junior has broken the Native American stereotypes cycle such as poor, uneducated, dumb, none successful, and continuing. On the other hand, Junior proved that he is the opposite of those things and is instead smart, talented, brave, successful, and continuing. Comparing Junior from the beginning of the novel to the ending, he has changed from this weak and scared boy to a strong and powerless person who never gave up on

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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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These are some things Junior had to deal with and do to find hope for himself in a world where he was expected to fail. The book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a story about Junior who is an American Indian living on the reservation but is trying to find a better life for himself. After his high school teacher confessed that the reservation was made to “kill the Indian and save the man”, Junior decides to go to Rearden high school which is out of the reservation and is an “all-white

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