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The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian

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Evan Fonseca
Mr. Rodriguez
Academic LiteraturePeriod 7
21 April 2023
ARD-Final Essay
“But somehow or another, Indians have forgotten that reservations were meant to be death camps. I wept because I was the only one who was brave and crazy enough to leave the rez. I was the only one with enough arrogance,” (Sherman 218). In the fiction novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, the author wrote about the difficulties the protagonist young Indian teenager, Junior, felt as a native american who lived within a Spokane reservation in Washington state and was attending an all white school. It shows his struggles, and how he matured and developed through the losses and setbacks he faced in life. The theme that Alexie …show more content…

At his first school, despite living there his whole life he was bullied more heavily in comparison to his new school, which he was cared about and liked by many. The text states, “They were worried for me. They wanted to help me with my pain. I was important to them. I mattered. Wow. All of these white kids and teachers, who were so suspicious of me when I first arrived, had learned to care about me. Maybe some of them even loved me. And I'd been so suspicious of them. And now I care about a lot of them. And loved a few of them.” (Alexie 212). This text proves to the reader that despite trying something new and being at risk, Junior gained more friends than he had before, and had a much better experience in high school than he did in his reservation. Another quote talks about how Ms. Jermey, a teacher who disrespected Junior after the loss of his sister caused the whole class to walk out in protest of Junior, and to support him, despite him being different from the other students. The text states, “ He was protecting me like Rowdy used to protect me. Of course, Rowdy would have thrown the book at the teacher and then punched her. Gordy showed a lot of courage in standing up to a teacher like that. His courage inspired the others. Penelope stood and dropped her textbook. And then Roger stood and dropped his textbook. Whomp! [...] Then all of my classmates walked out of the room. A spontaneous demonstration. [...] And that thought just cracked me up. It was like my friends had walked over the backs of baby seals in order to get to the beach where they could protest against the slaughter of baby seals. Okay, so maybe it wasn't that bad,” (Alexie 175). This text proves to the reader that the change in school led to friendships being formed, and the exploration of new opportunities which can help Junior grow as a person, instead of never

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