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The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Analysis

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie discusses the harsh reality that can be growing up on an Indian reservation. Junior is someone who knows what's it like based on those around him and his own personal experiences. Through alcoholism, poverty, and racial/cultural differences we learn about the pain Junior has experienced while living on an Indian reservation. Seeing the people not have a future is why he left. His dream is to be remembered for something he did in life. That leads to the main problems Junior deals with. To start, alcoholism is the worst problem Junior has to deal with, but he is not the one with the issue it's those around him. Many Indians in this book have some sort of addiction to alcohol. Junior’s father has an addiction, Junior’s dad good friend Eugene was killed by someone to drunk to even realize he did it. Junior’s grandmother was killed by a drunk driver and his older sister burned to death because she was too drunk to wake up during a fire. It is stated that Junior had …show more content…

Rowdy gets very angry with Junior for leaving the reservation. The Indians have a great sense of pride so when Junior went to school at Reardan it was seen as him betraying those close to him like Rowdy. His family didn’t feel this way but it is shown in two pictures. (pg 53 and 182 ) During the basketball rematch of Reardan and Wellpinit, he feels bad after they beat them because he knows how bad it is growing up on the Indian reservation Vs the white community by Reardan. There is a picture that shows differences between White and Indian based on their outfit. (pg 57) Junior shows the differences between them. Leaving the Indian reservation and going to school in a white community was so that he would be able to follow dreams instead of being stuck on the reservation forever. He wanted to end up better than his parents. (pictures that support this pg 12 and

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In the beginning of the book, Junior says that living on the reservation has generations of Indians losing hope. They accept their lives as their ancestors did.. His parents couldn't follow their dreams because they didn't have a support system. Junior is the example of how one can break the path of the traditional life on the reservation if one has the motivation and a good support system. Junior  had the love and emotional support of his parents and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a prestigious  Prep school based on the suggestion of Mr. P, a teacher at the rez school.

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759 Words | 4 Pages

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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703 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Junior Adams’s expansion of his own reality has made him aware of other things and has allowed him to find joy in unlikely experiences from those he’s known. From the title onwards, Junior makes it very clear that he himself is a Native American. He indicates how he has spent his entire life on the reservation. He lives on in northwestern Washington, and he mentions how he has never been far from it; he has only been to Spokane. When reminiscing about where he could be, he mentions how “I wish I were magical, but I am really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation” (Alexie 7).

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The Part- Time Indian The book, The Part- Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, is a book that school should keep encouraging students to read this because students should learn about American-Indians, the student can relate to it, and it shows how to help people to work together. Sometimes students are not aware of what American-Indians have gone through in American history. Indians were exposed to horrible fighting and were kicked out of their reservations because new settlers wanted to take over. Many were killed and taken from their settlements. An example from the book is when Junior punched Roger in the face.

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Thesis: Junior’s story is a powerful one with trials and tribulations that many of us can relate to; the author Sherman Alexie is able to capture these dynamics of teenage life by using raw and relatable dialogue. In this review, I will summarize the story, review the issues Junior faces, go over the strengths and weaknesses of the writing, and lastly share my opinion of the book. Writer Sherman Alexie starts the book by introducing us to Junior, a Native American teen living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. When Junior was born, he had too much cerebrospinal fluid, giving him many physical problems, along with brain damage.

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482 Words | 2 Pages

Junior is a young boy that lives on a indian reservation in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. As a result of living on the reservation, Junior is forced to deal with all the horrible consequences such as poverty, drunks, and bullies on the reservation. First off Junior lives on the reservation and has to deal with how poor his family is and he has to help them deal with the poverty. In the beginning of the story Junior tells us about the struggles of being poor by explaining “empty refrigerator + empty stomach= poverty”(8). Sometimes Junior and his family have to go without eating a meal because they can not afford the food.

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In the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; a poor Indian boy known as Junior is growing up in the Spokane Indian reservation. There is practically no hope for Junior, as his entire family is poor, he suffers from a horrid condition, and he has all but one friend. Determined to make it big in life, Junior sets off to Reardan; a neighboring ‘rich white school’ where he hopes to get the education and lifestyle he has always wanted. Despite being called a ‘traitor, even by his own best friend Rowdy, and facing many tribulations, Junior strives to achieve the best life he can through humor and gallantry. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good laugh, yet is ready and mature enough to face the dark and sensible

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Junior knew that Rowdy was violent, and he knew that it was because Rowdy got beat up by his father constantly. Yet, Junior could never imagine that one day, Rowdy would beat him up. Rowdy even used to protect Junior from bullies, but now, Rowdy is the bully. This obviously was traumatic for Junior, his trust was broken, he felt betrayed, and Rowdy had been Junior’s only friend at the time, which he had just now lost. This isn’t the only trauma that Junior faces.

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Two Different Worlds “Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.” (Alexie 132). Junior is the protagonist in the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie. Through his time living on the reservation, he has experienced many hardships. Junior has just made the biggest decision in his life by choosing to move schools.

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Rowdy is oppressed and that is what makes him so unhappy all the time. Rowdy’s father beats him. Alexie writes early on in the book that “His father is drinking hard and is throwing

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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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1297 Words | 6 Pages

In society, people judge each other with stereotypes based on their looks, religion, and their way of life. People who show compassion to others help them understand that being different is something special and nothing to hide from. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Native Americans are stereotyped as not successful and poor, but Junior determines that he is special and worth knowing, unlike other Native Americans. Without the courage from Mr.P, Junior would end up like his sister, Mary, doing nothing in life but staying in the basement all day. Junior’s parents support his decision with transferring schools, but Rowdy, his best friend, believes he is making the wrong choice by leaving the rez, so he turns

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551 Words | 3 Pages

When Junior leaves the rez, his friend Rowdy betrays him and does not like him anymore. Rowdy betrays Junior and does not like him as much anymore because he sees leaving the rez as an act of betrayal. Junior gets picked on at his new white school outside of the rez. Junior had to fight his way out of bullying and punch the “alpha”. People underestimated him and his abilities.

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799 Words | 4 Pages

Like Collective Continuance, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian taps into communal and cultural reconciliation, but also looks into the personal side of reconciliation. Junior was faced with many hardships, growing up on a Spokane Indian reservation, hydrocephalus, and poverty to name a few. Poverty had a significant impact on Junior and his desire to leave the reservation and go to an all-white high school. Going to an all-white high school would give him a lot more opportunities than staying on the reservation, as "Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor. "

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1051 Words | 5 Pages

Identity is an instrument that is crucial to mental development, which can be used to determine someone’s true character and further pave the path of one’s life to culminate at a point of happiness. Opposingly, unknown identity paired with maturation has a likely outcome of sorrow. In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, the main character, Junior, is incapable of finding his true identity, because of the fact that Junior resides on an Indian reservation, but attends a school that is primarily white people, which results in Junior’s maturity and mental ability being tested. These setbacks in the novel drive the fascination of the audience, and leave the reader questioning the importance of their true identity.

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