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

998 Words4 Pages

“I’m fourteen years old and I’ve been to forty-two funerals.” This is a quote by Junior on page 199 of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie. In this book, Junior is an Indian that lives on a reservation but a teacher convinces him to go to school in Rearden so he can actually go somewhere. Rearden is a white people town, and that causes trouble for Junior with how different it is. He also ends up having trouble leaving the reservation school with his old friends. There are many differences between these two places and Junior finds a home in both of them. Wellpinit is a reservation that is basically a huge family while Rearden is a small town where everyone has their own small group or family. They couldn’t be …show more content…

He is a poor Indian going to a middle-class white kid school, but there is more to that. At the reservation there are these unspoken rules, if someone talks badly or insults you, you have to fight them, that is the first one on that list. Getting into fights is normal at Wellpinit but at Rearden, everyone is all talk. In the book, a kid named Roger and his friends were making fun of Junior so he punches Roger. Roger is taken aback because no one at Rearden actually gets into fistfights. There is also the fact that no one truly stands up to someone that is bullying them. Roger and his friends call Junior an animal for punching him, that is how bizarre it is for something like that to happen in …show more content…

In Wellpinit everyone goes to the funeral, and everyone comforts each other, they would celebrate together. Junior says, “All my white friends can count their deaths on one hand. I can count my fingers, my toes, my arms…, and still not get close to my deaths,” he says on page 200. He has experienced so many deaths because he knows everyone on the reservation, he has been connected to all of them since he was born. The kids at Rearden have only experienced death in their family or close friend’s family, and that was of a grandparent that died of old age. Most of the deaths that Junior has experienced were caused by alcohol. When Junior returns after his sister died everyone is all over him because they don’t feel the same way he does when someone dies, he’s not used to it, no one gets used to losing someone but in another way he kind of

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Leaving a place that has been home for a long time is tough, but sometimes it is the right choice. In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the narrator, Arnold, went to school at Wellpinit, which was in the Indian Reservation where he grew up. Unfortunately, this was an area of great despair and in order to try and make something of himself, he needed to go to school outside of the reservation. He started school at Rearden, which was an all-white school, making it difficult for him to fit in since he was the only Indian. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman, Alexie Arnold has the right to leave the reservation to seek better opportunities and have a better education that can help him

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In the book, the main character named Junior makes a sacrifice of leaving his reservation to adapt to a new environment. He lives on a reservation where the majority of the people are depressed and are facing extreme poverty; there is no opportunity for success if Junior continues to live his life on his reservation. Hence, he leaves his high school and joins Reardan High School. He faces many problems because of his race; there is no one who is Indian except the mascot. He is bullied, teased, and harassed because he is different than everyone else.

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P's suggestion, but as he thinks about it more, he realizes that attending a school in Reardan could offer him better opportunities to escape the cycle of poverty and alcoholism that has plagued his community. However, Junior's decision to leave the reservation school is not without consequences, and he must carefully weigh the pros and cons of his decision. When Junior shares Mr. P's proposal with his parents later in the evening, his father initially reacts with anger, accusing Junior of being a traitor to his tribe. However, after some thought, Junior's parents ultimately support his decision, recognizing the importance of education in his future. Although his parents are concerned about the challenges he will face being the only Native American student at a primarily white school, they ultimately put their trust in Junior to make the right decision.

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And their grandparents gave up and their grandparents before them. And me and every other teacher here. We're all defeated,’”(Alexie 42). At that moment, Junior realized that the “unavoidable” chain of failure in his reservation needed to be broken for the first time in all generations for him to achieve success in his life. Leaving his reservation and moving to Reardan where he’ll have the opportunity to strive for success was the first step in achieving the milestone of success he desperately wants to obtain.

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He does this by not telling anyone he poor and about his struggles to get to and from school. Even though Junior begins being isolated from everyone when he starts Reardan he eventually is accepted and loved by his

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