The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian

How much would you sacrifice for your hope? What is your hope? Would you leave your only best friend behind? How about the place that you grew up with all your life? Or be looked at as a betrayer to everyone that you know? 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

“But it also reminded me of the people who were not going to be okay. It made me think of Rowdy. I missed him so much. I wanted to find him and hug him and beg him to forgive me for leaving” (pg 174). This shows that Junior misses his best friend, he left the reservation school to find more opportunities but while doing that he had to affect his relationship with his only best friend from his whole life, Rowdy. This also shows that Junior and Rowdy are different, Junior went to find an opportunity while Rowdy stayed and gave up on looking for a better life, if Junior was to stay because Rowdy did not want him to go, Junior would have not found the hope that Reardan gave him. Apart from Rowdy, everyone else on the reservation also saw him as a traitor and white lover. “‘You'll be the first one to ever leave the rez this way,’ Mom said. ‘The Indians around here are going to be angry with you.’ Shoot, I figure that my fellow tribal members are going to torture me” (pg 38). This shows that the people on the reservation who he has lived with most of his life see him as a betrayer for going to Reardan, he is going to be the first person to leave to find hope and because of that people will dislike him. This also shows that if Junior was to follow the people of the reservation, he would not have found what Reardan has, he would not

“I wasn't expected to be good so I wasn't. But in Reardan, my coach and the other players wanted me to be good. They needed me to be good. They expected me to be good. And so I became good” (pg 143). This shows how the different expectations that people have for Junior on the reservation compared to Rearden, one expected him to fail and the other expected him to succeed. This also shows the different mindsets of the people in both places, in the reservation people already gave up just like what Mr.P said but in Reardan they had more hope which is what changed Junior to be from mediocre to a better player, it was the confidence and that people believed in him. In Reardan, the basketball team has more motivation/hope than in the reservation, it was also the words and not only the expectations that helped him be better. “‘I can do it,’ I said to Coach, to my teammates, to the world. ‘You can do it,’ Coach said. ‘I can do it.’ ‘You can do it.’ ‘I can do it.’ Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It's one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they're the four hugest words in the world when they're put together. You can do it. I can do it” (pg 151). This shows how these simple words affect and motivate Junior a lot, in