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

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An Indian whose life has changed after switching to a different school and has found amazing friends that care for who he is no matter his difference. The story “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie created a made-up character that represented himself and his life as an Indian throughout the book. He also wasn’t just making a book about himself but having two different worlds, both of how he was on the Reservation and Reardan. The character I am introducing is Junior and he is a fourteen-year-old boy, who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation, he was born with hydrocephalus which is brain grease or too much water in the brain. He has a huge skull, big feet, and hands, but is very skinny, he wears thick black …show more content…

For instance, Junior has always seen that throughout the comics that he’s drawn, Rowdy has always admired them and even says that it makes him get out of reality. “He [Rowdy] likes to [imagine] he lives inside the comic books. So I draw cartoons to make him happy, to give him other worlds to live inside.” Junior has known that Rowdy has had a difficult life and understood his struggles since everyone knows him only for his “revenge and fighting.” Junior has always liked Rowdy when he was more open towards Junior because he felt the safest than anyone. His actions were not only to reflect on Rowdy but himself as well because he hasn’t had a good life, was getting bullied by many kids, and had to relieve all the headaches he's had in the past. His artistic skills did not only care for others but make decisions to improve better life choices such as having creativity, problem-solving abilities, and making more connections with …show more content…

Junior never gave up on hope no matter how many people he had to lose. The importance of this character is not that he is the main character but the way he showed all the problems that not only he had to go through but Indians and all colored people even if he never truly said it, you can understand the stress. Sherman Alexie was sharing all his thoughts through a character he made up that represented him as a 14-year-old boy, which makes us understand more about the book since we are all at the age to realize the meaning behind every chapter. Junior’s character is the most relatable because we all have gone through some much as youngsters but we also can overcome fear, stress, anxiety, and more after just accepting who we are and loving ourselves without hiding ourselves from

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This also reveals that he realizes how cruel he was to Doodle and Doodle and the narrator had to suffer the consequences. All in all, having a character like the narrator who is important to the story since he realizes what is right and what is

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Junior being born on the Reservation has always been poor and put down by others. He has had a horrible life with pain coming from a new direction each day but has coped with it that is why he is still alive today to write this book. Although he may or may not admit it, the ways he coped with his life were not great after all. When faced with a

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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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And to the tribe of basketball players. And to the tribe of bookworms” (Alexie 217). Although Junior is a Spokane Indian, he realizes that he cannot allow himself and others to label himself as one specific thing; he, like everyone else, is unique and special. If he convinces himself that he is simply Indian and nothing else, then he condemns himself to a life of monotony and a lack of idealism. However, his experience at Reardan has changed that.

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749 Words | 3 Pages

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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When Junior goes to this school people treat him differently he acts differently he even goes by a different name. He doesn’t want to forget about his heritage and the people he left behind but he feels like this school will get him on a better path for life. He also feels a little bit guilty about leaving his friends and family from the reservation behind and moving on in life. You can see this in a quote from the book "My name is Junior," I said. "And my name is Arnold.

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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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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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551 Words | 3 Pages

He lives on a reservation, his father is a drunk and his mother is a recovering drunk. He was born with a disability, he had to much water in his brain so he is very sensitive to hits to his head. He Only has one friend on the Reservation, his name is Rowdy, they’ve been friends since they were born. But, he is being bullied at school and on the reservation, he talks to one of his teachers which tries and convince him

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802 Words | 4 Pages

The diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a novel about a disabled Indian boy's life on a reservation in Spokane, Washington. Alexie describes the complications and struggles that Junior endures throughout the process of changing schools. Arnold Spirit Jr is fourteen years old and is forced to act like an adult for him to be able to choose the life he desires. Throughout the book we see Junior change the way he sees himself and how he sees himself through the eyes of others. He begins to find his own value that had been hidden behind a curtain of self doubt.

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664 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie the main character Junior faces many harsh challenges before he chooses to leave the rez. Some of the challenges he faces are poverty, having a disability, and bullying. He must face all of these challenges in order to be the person he is today. In the beginning of the story after we find out that Junior had hydrocephalus we also learn that he and his family are very poor.

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949 Words | 4 Pages

pg 52. In this scene from the book you see Junior who cares so much about his past and his best friend. His identity is rooted in his past. At the same time, Junior is trying to tell Rowdy that he, Junior, needs more opportunity than what he can accomplish on the rez.

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735 Words | 3 Pages

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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702 Words | 3 Pages

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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