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The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian By Sherman Alexie

994 Words4 Pages

Ava Sassin
Mr. Rodriguez
Academic Literacy
21 April 2023
ATD Analysis Essay Hitting until blood is drawn is what seems to be the foundation of protecting yourself and inflicting pain on those who have threatened you. This is a way a lot of Spokane Indians deal with conflict, including Junior. The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie is a realistic fiction novel that takes place on a poor and hopeless reservation. Arnold Junior is the protagonist in the story who struggles to accept the truth that lies beneath his reservation. The underlying problems that occur are still ongoing for generations. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, he showcases the normalized behavior …show more content…

Junior feels immense guilt for having pent-up anger on behalf of the reservation's actions for him leaving Wellpinit High School and going to Rearden. Once Junior finally was able to redeem himself for the first game that caused him to get a concussion, he felt a rage overcome him and acted upon it. He tried the entire game to beat Rowdy and the people that let him down. However, once Junior beat the Wellpinit school, he understood that every chance the others had, he took that away. As for the repercussions of his actions, he knew that Rowdy, in particular, his father would not be understanding of the loss at hand, Junior says, “And I knew that Rowdy's father was probably going beat the crap out of him for losing this game,” (Alexie, 196). As well, the kids attending Wellpinit didn’t have half of the opportunities as the kids at Rearden. The wealthy kids were backed by money, chances, and opportunity to mess up. They had families, while not entirely present, but had people to support them and back them up while the Wellpinit children, their fathers, and their mothers were rarely present. “I knew that seven or eight of those Indians lived with drunken mothers and fathers. I knew that one of those Indians had a father who dealt crack and meth. I knew two of those Indians had fathers in prison,” (Alexie, 195). Junior realizes that his actions will have severe consequences, taking away any ounce of hope that one had is now diminished, making the containment on the reservation more

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Analytical Reader Response In the book “The Absolute True Dairy of a Part Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie the reader can see Junior’s Grandmother Spirit representing the past and the old Indian Traditions. On the other hand, the author Alexie allows us to connect Junior’s character to the title of why Junior calls himself a part-time Indian. Most importantly when Junior leaves Wellprinit to go to Reardan to become better his reservation see him as a “traitor”. Ironically while Junior thinks he is becoming a part-time Indian the reality is that he learning in becoming the old kind of a traditional Indian.

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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.

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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.

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Mr. p was one of the biggest inspirations to juniors actions. If it weren't for him Junior would be stuck at the rez forever and most likely become like all the other adults, drunk and angry. When junior began his journey to achieve his goals at Reardan it was very difficult. He was the only “different” kid there. Different meaning he was the only Indian in a school of white kids.

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In the late 1800 's into the 1900 's and beyond Native American Indians, fought in pursuit of protecting their land. However, years passed and Native Americans were stripped away from their homes and forced to be in reservation camps where many face problems related to health, poverty and alcoholism. The reservations served as a way to segregate Native Americans and today, there are approximately 560 federally recognized Native American Tribes in the United States. (Rose,”The history of Native American Indians”) The Absolute True Diary of A Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, tells the story of Arnold, a Native American teenage boy who struggles with life and takes it day by day.

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Throughout the novel the reader can see that Junior and Rowdy’s friendship slowly grows apart, which is what causes tensions between the two during the game. When the coach tells Junior he is guarding Rowdy that night, he says, “ I don’t think I can do this,”(188) which shows Junior’s lack of self-confidence. He starts the game and as Rowdy steals the ball, Junior chases after him. Junior says to the reader his calculations of what he needs to do in order to stop Rowdy. “I couldn’t foul him.

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Introduction The true diary of a part time Indian is a novel for young adults written by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Ellen Forney, it was published in 2007 and has won several literature awards. The book tells a story of Arnold who is a hydrocephalic, a physical impairment that makes him to be picked on and bullied and which makes him vulnerable to seizures. One of the main struggles that Arnold faces in this novel is between his part-time Indian WellPoint self (Junior) and his half-white Reardan self (Arnold). On the reservation he is intimidated and picked on, while at Reardan he receives respect and chooses to be somebody.

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Though his book mainly focuses on the struggles of Junior and the Spokane Reservation, this book can be used as an example for life in most reservations across the United States, including the Navajo Reservation. Sadly, poverty, poor education, and substance abuse issues are a staple characteristic of reservations these days.

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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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Alexie uses this setting to show how one’s environment and community can affect their behavior. Another source that backs up these claims is The Science of Adolescence Risk-Taking; according to the chapter the influence of Environment a person’s living condition has an effect on their attitude. The text states that people who are poverty stricken tend to have “negative attitudes such as: despondency, depression, anger, or aggression” (Institute of Medicine (US) and National Research Council (US) Committee on the Science of Adolescence). According to both Tama Leventhal and Deborah Gorman-Smith, livings in a more “affluent neighborhood” children are given more advantages which are associated with academic success. Leventhal states that “living in a poor neighborhood places adolescents in terms of a host of behavioral, social, and sexual risk behaviors.

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634 Words | 3 Pages

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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396 Words | 2 Pages

Anna Theune Instructor: Young English 102 9 June 2023 The Unspoken Truth In “Indian Education,” Sherman Alexie provides many elements with underlying meanings that play a major role in the daily life of the narrator. One of these underlying elements is the lack of stability and marginalized existence. The narrator says, “I was always falling down” (Alexie).

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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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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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