...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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...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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...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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...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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...In the book The Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the main character Junior faces many hardships. However, Junior’s personality allows him to fight through these hardships. Junior lives on a Native American Reservation where he encounters poor education and intimidation from the other children because of his disabilities. Nevertheless, Junior grasps the chance to pursue a life beyond the reservation when he throws a book at his geometry teacher, resulting in Junior to move to Reardan High School. Furthermore, Junior is the only Indian at Reardan High School. This cultural conflict between his Indian side and white society results in a rift. However, this rift is reduced by traits common between his life on the Reservation...
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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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...of Hydrocephalus? . I'm going to be reviewing a book by Sherman Alexie called “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”. The sidesplitting narrator of The Absolutely True Diary is a fourteen-year-old Native kid named Arnold Spirit, Jr., and Arnold is funny, sensitive, and a budding artist. Arnold, though, is not only a teenage Indian going through the entire usual coming of age stuff. Arnold is also a hydrocephalic with a stutter and a lisp that is picked on ruthlessly. He's the reservation outcast, and he's been beaten to a flesh more times than is probably healthy. Arnold makes a choice to leave the reservation and attend the prosperous white school twenty-two miles away in Reardan. Branded a traitor, Arnold then gets caught between two worlds: his home on the reservation and the white kids' high school he attends. Feeling as though he fits in no where, Arnold is forced to create a new kind of identity for himself... as if being fourteen years old wasn't hard enough. We see how the reservation is a place of great beauty, but also a...
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...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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...At the beginning of the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Junior goes to a poor school in Wellpinit. In Wellpinit, he is bullied, and has only one real friend, and he doesn’t want to lose that friend, but deciding that he needs a better education, he chooses to go to a nicer school in a nearby town called Reardan. In his time at Reardan, Junior changes in many ways, because of his fight with Roger, his basketball game against Reardon, and when he admits to his friends at Reardan that he is poor. One example of how Junior changes is when he punches Roger in the nose because Roger is teasing him. He Roger gets upset with Junior, but doesn’t punch him back, which confuses, Junior, because that is what he is used to. So I punched Roger in the face. He wasn’t laughing when he landed on his ass. And he wasn’t laughing when his nose bled like red fireworks... “You punched me,” Roger said, blood thick in his voice, I can’t believe you punched me.” He sounded insulted. He sounded like his poor little feelings had been hurt. I couldn’t believe it. He acted like he was the one who’d been wronged. “You’re an animal,” he said. (Alexie 65) In this part of the book, Junior has only been going to his new school for a little while, and he is being teased by his peers, when one of the kids takes it to far, and he breaks, and...
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...man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor [sic].” e novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (2010) page 49-51 written by Sherman Alexie, the narrator Arnold Spirit also known as Junior claims that Indians were worst of times because they have forgotten how to dream and hope while the whites are best of times because they have full of hope which is what makes things happen. The Indians never care to dream because they are surrounded by hopelessness, they have forgotten how to dream and hope. But the Reardan kids who represent the whites, they dared to dream because they were surrounded by beauty, they were smart, magnificent and ambitious. Although sometimes Arnold also lies and plays some tricks, he works hard to prove himself, to gain respect and to make friends. It’s a big challenge, but well worth the effort. On the other hand, the internal conflict is the difficulties of creating Arnold’s own autonomy while being faithful to his tribe. Arnold refuses to give up but at the cost of losing his best friend and being considered to betray his tribe. I don’t think this conflict can be resolved only through Arnold’s hard work; it also relies on others’ understanding. I’ll never forget what Rowdy says to Arnold, “You’re an old-time nomad.” It seems Rowdy finally forgives Arnold but I think Rowdy has never really get mad at Arnold. They’re truly best friends. unior transforms from a socially...
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...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. For example in the chapter...
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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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...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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...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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...According to the 2010 U.S. census, about 22% of our country’s 5.2 million Native Americans live on tribal lands along with reservations. The main character in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is about a Native American who lives on a reservation and learns to follow his own path. The topics in this essay are Indian reservations, Indian schools and, Indians today. Some Indians on reservations are very poor, for example, “I picked up the other boot and dug in side. Man, that thing smelled like booze and fear and failure. I found a wrinkled and damp five dollar bill. “Merry Christmas,” the dad said.” This quote is on page 153. This quote made a point because, junior’s dad is an acholic and because the dad saved...
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