...In Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the protagonist in the story is a 14-year old boy named Arnold Spirit Jr., a.k.a Junior, which they call him throughout the story most of the time. The novel begins with Junior explaining how he is Native American and lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation with his mom, dad, sister, and grandmother (Alexie 1-6). He clarifies how he was born with water on his brain, and because of this, he gets treated poorly at school. Kids call him a retard, they pants him, and they shove his head into the toilet (3-4). On the reservation, Rowdy is Junior’s best friend and pretty much his only friend. Rowdy protects and stands up for Junior when he needs help (15-18). The main conflict in the novel is Junior struggling at Wellpinit, which is his school on the reservation and how he transfers to his new school, Reardan. When he transfers to Reardan, he meets Penelope who he has a big crush on and Roger who is the most popular guy in the school. At first, he does not really get along with them, but in the end, they become the best of friends. Junior discovers that no matter where he goes he gets bullied....
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...Some parents even go as far as to banning books for their controversial content. Books such as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie has been banned from many high schools. The story is about Arnold Spirit Jr. who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation and endures many challenges while searching for hope. Although The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian remains banned from some high school for its “unsuitable content,” it should actually be added to the curriculum instead. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian should not be banned for it’s positive messages. In the chapter “How To Fight Monsters,” Junior stands up to Roger who had been bullying him: “Did you know that Indians are living proof that n****** f*** buffalo?...that was the most racist thing I’d ever heard in my life...So I punched Roger in the face...I felt brave all of a sudden...I was telling the world I was no longer a human target.” (Alexie64-65). Teens should be able to read this book in school because it reveals an inspiring story of how a weak boy with health deficiencies overcomes a larger worldwide problem: Bullying. Maybe violence isn’t always the answer but what is there to make of the situation when another option of salvation isn’t given. Banning this book would deprive young readers from an encouraging and uprising novel. Many people argue that The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian should indeed be banned in high schools for its violent content...
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...How can somebody persevere through racism, poverty, and death? What if they're only fourteen years old? Is the struggle even worth it? In the semi-autobiographical novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the main character, Junior, learns that through perseverance, hope, and the gain of new knowledge, life can get better for anybody (white or otherwise). He overcomes a major school change, abandonment of friends, and the death of family members, but in the bittersweet end, things have started to look up for him. There is evidence of this occurring throughout the book, starting with Junior's (former) pet dog Oscar. On page 15, the quote "After Oscar died, I was so depressed that I thought about crawling into a hole and disappearing forever" tells us that Junior maybe doesn't deal with grief in the healthiest way. However, by page 215, Junior writes "We Indians know how to celebrate our with our dead. And I felt okay" showing that at this point, he's learned how to get through the struggle of the death of his grandmother. Through time, and with the new lessons he's learned, he gained the gift of acceptance....
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...Great decisions come with great thought and time. In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior had a dilemma that would ultimately affect his life. Although, the pressure was building up Junior made the right decision to leave the Rez and attend Reardan because of the environment and the opportunity to grow and prosper. There was a greater opportunity for growth in Reardan mostly because of their white middle-class population.According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 9.2% of Native Americans ages 12 and older were current heavy alcohol users, the highest rate of any ethnic group (Hanes 1) while at Reardan a typical middle-class neighborhood almost “more than half of the graduating class...
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...Racial Discrimination in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian In our world, many of us have either experienced or witnessed the harmful acts of racial discrimination. This includes the use of racial slurs, and slavery. Today, people are more accepting of all faiths and backgrounds. This is one theme that is explored in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The protagonist in this novel is a 14-year-old boy named Junior. He is a member of the Spokane Indian Tribe. Throughout the novel, Junior and the people around him, are being abused through racial slurs. Because of the false accusations that usually form racial discrimination, it has the ability to pose a changing impact, directly or indirectly to our society. In this novel, Junior decides to attend a school featuring students from a dominant white culture. The following quote is an example of how racial discrimination can have a direct impact on our society. “(W)hat was I doing at Reardan, whose mascot was an Indian, thereby making me the only other Indian in town” (56). This describes Junior’s reaction towards seeing...
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...Imagine having to make the biggest choice of your life, at the age of 14. Sherman Alexie’s book, The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, tells the story of a boy who betrays other Indians and chooses to go to an all white school, called Reardan, not knowing if his decision will kill him or make him stronger as a human being. In writing The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, Alexie wants to teach the readers that if you do not attempt, you will not attain. Junior deciding to fight the stereotypes and making a commitment to going to Reardan, show he is willing to succeed no matter what the consequences may be. Additionally, Junior took every small moment of his life seriously, he knew that something as small as making the school basketball team or climbing a frightening pine tree will make a huge impact on his future. Junior knew that if he stayed a coward and didn’t try to change anything for the rest of his life, the misconceptions about Native Americans would be true....
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...You can overcome anything with the support from those around you. “If you let people into your life they can be pretty...amazing”-Sherman Alexie. In the Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Junior faces many obstacles. Many things help him overcome his challenges, including his love for drawing, his family, and friends. Undoubtedly, Junior’s love for drawing cartoons helps him overcome many of the challenges he must face. For example, after his grandmother dies one of the ways he greves is through drawing cartoons. Through what he calls his “ceremony of grieving” he drew cartoons and made lists of what he liked. He slowly overcame his grandmother's death through this process, which drawing was a main part of. Furthermore, his family...
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...Arnold’s Determination Arnold is a boy born with many brain problems, despite his brain problems he turns out to be one of the most determined people in his community. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is a book by Serman Alexie about a boy named Arnold and his life. Arnold grows up with two undependable parents, and his dad was an alcoholic while his mother was an alcoholic. He grows up having a hard life because of his brain damage, so if he gets hit in the head he will suffer severe consequences. Also his parents do not have much money that would help get treatment for his condition. Arnold lives on a reservation with his best friend Rowdy, one day Arnold decides he wants a better life and decides to switch to an mostly all white school called Rearden, with this decision he lost many friends and community members but stays devoted to stay at Rearden. Arnold with his brain damage stays insistent to go to Rearden, make the basketball team at Rearden, and eventually beats his...
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...Should the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian be taught? The book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian should be taught at Douglas High School. It has a lot of good life lessons in it for people to learn. It has many themes that are relevant in today’s society such as, loss, addiction, alcoholism, hope, and many more. The book may have many inappropriate things in it, but it’s still worth taking a lesson from it. If taught at a high school, those inappropriate things might actually keep people reading and get a kick out of it. The book itself is pretty short, so it’s a short and sweet lesson teachers can do with their class if they can look past the inappropriate humor, harsh language, racism, talking about sexual things,...
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...Submit your text hIn the book, An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie it talks about a young boy named Junior who lives on the Spokane Reservation. On the reservation, the only thing Indians do is drink and try to forget about the dreams they never achieved. Junior believes that he shares the same fate as everyone else. But Junior decides that he wants to succeed in life, he wants to go beyond staying at the reservation in his parents' home to be left alone with only two things, alcohol and the regret of knowing he didn't do anything great in life. Instead, he tries to understand the world with cartoons and wishes to be the first to truly follow their dreams in life. Junior is the only survivor of leaving the reservation, he knows he doesn’t have to feel helpless...
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...Arnold is the misfit Native American teenager outcast that just wants to find his place in the world. In the novel, the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, Arnold discovers his true self by trekking his way through a series of challenging events. He breaks stereotypes by coming to realize the struggles of an alcoholic, addictive lifestyle and in the process, finds himself. There are three hundred and thirty six reservations in America. One of the biggest difficulties each reservation faces is addiction. Arnold, as well as many others on these reservations come across the reality of this, in their own homes. The stem of alcoholism among Native Americans can be one of many things, including hurt being passed down among generations and generations. Native Americans have lived in America for years and years, even so, they...
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...In “The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, Junior, an Indian struggles on and off the rez .In the beginning, it tells the reader about the main character Junior. Junior is an Indian both of his parents are alcohols. Junior also gets picked on a lot because he is not like the other Indians he does not fight and his head is disfromed. In addition, to all of that he has a sister that lives in the basement. Later, on in the story you learn about Juniors best friend Rowdy. They have been friends since day one. Rowdy is the type of guy that will do anything for Junior. Rowdy also has a very hard life his dad beats on him all the time. One day Rowdy comes over to Junior’s and Rowdy has a bandage around his ear because his dad tries making Rowdy ear bigger all because his dad said that Rowdy wasn’t listening to him. So of course when Junior saw the bandage he asked what happened, but Rowdy just ignored the question....
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...“The book is widely taught in high school across the country because of it’s appeal to reluctant readers. The Novel addresses vital issues such as the struggles of young adulthood, the search for personal identity,bullying and poverty. It is ultimately an uplifting story of triumph by a boy with few advantages.”Sherman Alexie young-adult book banned in Idaho schools”. The award winning novel “ The Absolutely True Story Of a Part Time Indian” written by Sherman Alexie is banned in Idaho schools. My input on the situation is that it is unnecessary and inarticulate of them to ban the book because of some foul language and actions made in the novel. The reason I think that it is not a good idea is because the actions and foul language does not ensure the purpose of the story.There are many ways at looking at the moral of the story, and paying attention to some of the bad things in the book is a very ignorant way to look at it. In the book the character suffers through depression, bullying, poverty and grief in which he overcomes to have a happy ending with getting his friend back, winning a basketball game and making a...
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...Hamad Yousef Professor: Joanne Martin English 113B 1 Apr 2015 Identity Crisis and Resolution in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time India 1. Arnold faces double conflict-- one that is in his head, which is man vs him self-conflict and the other with the outside world in which he has to set his identity and preserve his self-esteem. The inner conflict is how he could make a name and gets wealth that he recognizes are associated with wealth and popularity. However, this starts with the realization of his that he is "zero on the rez" (30) and would not come out of it. However, it is another thing that Mr. P at whose face he throws the book comes to help him to come out of it and reach Reardan. Therefore, Mr. Pa is responsible to bring him out of his inner conflict to start the external conflict with the world in order to win over it. However, he is always at war with himself over his poverty, over his Spokane background, over his lower status than that of the white people around him. The second inner conflicts starts when he joins Reardarn where he feels that "those white people aren't better" (56) that he realizes through Rowdy and Penelope. The third mental conflict he faces when he makes Reardan wins against Wellpinit from where hails....
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...The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian: a Journey of Hope “There is another world, but it is in this one” (W.B Yeats), this is how Sherman Alexie managed to begin the journey of his eye-opening novel, The Absolutely True Dairy of Part-time Indian. It is a magnificent story of overcoming the obstacles of being an Indian teenager while stepping outside of the reservation world and striving for better opportunities in the world. Junior, who carries the Native American blood in his roots, gives an insight into Native American culture, encompassing all of its sacred and astonishing details. Through Junior’s experience and between the storylines, various aspects of the Spokane Indians community are revealed, such as poverty, alcoholism, and kinship that make the novel stand as an unique Indian literature piece....
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