The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Essay

In life you have many choices. One of which is deciding whether or not you are going to succeed or fail in life. In other words, choosing to stay hopeful or not. In the “Absolute True Diary of a Part- Time Indian” Junior goes through many situations where hope is needed. The author Sherman Alexie puts Junior as well as other characters in situations to make those hard decisions.

In the late 1800 's into the 1900 's and beyond Native American Indians, fought in pursuit of protecting their land. However, years passed and Native Americans were stripped away from their homes and forced to be in reservation camps where many face problems related to health, poverty and alcoholism. The reservations served as a way to segregate Native Americans and today, there are approximately 560 federally recognized Native American Tribes in the United States. (Rose,”The history of Native American Indians”) The Absolute True Diary of A Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, tells the story of Arnold, a Native American teenage boy who struggles with life and takes it day by day.

Imagine living a simple lifestyle where growing up everyone close to you was content and knew exactly who they were in life. Unfortunately for you, everything began to change as you grew up and the life you knew so well was becoming more modern. This then caused you to start forming different identities for yourself with all of these changes. That was the personal battle that Andrew Blackbird, author of History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, faced during his lifetime. In his short book he describes the events of his life and past events of his tribe and others in the area.

"I was Indian. I was Native. I was Indigenous. I was all of those things, and I was beginning to realize that it was a strength, not a weakness. It was something to be proud of, something that gave me strength and resilience in the face of all the terrible things that had happened to me."

Jackson Jackson is a homeless Spokane Indian that happened upon his Grandmothers Indian dance regalia at a pawn shop. Jackson continuously throughout the story displays internal struggles and conflicts (the struggle that shapes the plot in the story) between battling alcoholism and making poor behavior choices that work against his quest to earn money to retrieve the regalia to reclaim a part of his family heritage. Jackson has an internal desire to want to do right, but his poor choices that he exhibits contribute to his persona to solidify his choice to embrace social alienation. The poor choice’s Jackson makes alienate him from society but also drives his desire to belong to a group. Indians are often displaced, which is a common theme that is shared among Indians is their loss of land, heritage, culture and independence. Examining Jackson’s antics, his associations

“In the middle of a crazy drunk life, you have to hang on the good and sober moments tightly.” (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie page 216) This is a quote from the book that shows how Junior learns how to appreciate the good moments in life. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie the character Junior faces problems caused by drinking. The book starts off with his family living on the Indian reservation suffering from poverty and death.

With every new generation of teenagers or young adults, there always seems to be this negative look towards the youth culture. What really strikes me is that it happens with every new generation. It seems like once a person hits their teenage years they suddenly become “rebels” of society, and for what reason? How do most adults see the younger generation? They are young people who have bad manners, no respect for the elderly, they are real tyrants, they do not stand up when elders walk in, they do not listen to their parents or teachers, they talk in the presence of adults, and they eat gluttonously (Socrates).

In his book the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie portrays a teenage boy, Arnold Spirit (junior) living in white man’s world, and he must struggle to overcome racism and stereotypes if he must achieve his dreams. In the book, Junior faces a myriad of misfortunes at his former school in ‘the rez’ (reservation), which occurs as he struggles to escape from racial and stereotypical expectations about Indians. For Junior he must weigh between accepting what is expected of him as an Indian or fight against those forces and proof his peers and teachers wrong. Therefore, from the time Junior is in school at reservation up to the time he decides to attend a neighboring school in Rearden, we see a teenager who is facing tough consequences for attempting to go against the racial stereotypes.

Oral culture as a method for retaining Aboriginal identity and rejecting assimilation through Thomas King’s “Green Grass Running Water”. Colonialism had a great effect on this history of Canada’s First Nation people. For Canada’s first known settlers, this relationship has push Aboriginals away and created a power struggle that has made their lives much more difficult. There is a low opportunity for education, many economic problems, high incarceration and removal of land. Through Christianity and political power, Canada’s aboriginals have shifted from being the First Nation citizen’s to becoming the marginalized ethnic group.

Argument for Banning “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Book in Middle Schools Published in 2007, “The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie says about the moving story of a Native American teenager named Arnold Spirit who made the bold decision to attend an all-white high school from Spokane reservation to find hope for the future in the Reardan. This volume won the National Book Award in 2007 and won several other awards. Even though this novel can be power of education, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” paperback should be banned because this is not appropriate for middle schools.

Did you hear about the inspiring teenager, Mary Henry, who raised enough money to send 66 girls to school in an underdeveloped country? No? I thought that might be the case. Did you hear about the teenager, Corey Worthington, who hosted an alcohol fueled party that attracted 100s of teens? Of course you did!

Overcoming a challenge, not giving up, and not being afraid of change are a few themes demonstrated in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Perhaps the most prominent theme derived from the novel is defying the odds, or in other words rising above the expectations of others. Junior Spirit exemplifies this theme throughout the entirety of the book. As Junior is an Indian, he almost expects that he will never leave the reservation, become an alcoholic, and live in poverty like the other Indians on the reservation—only if he sits around and does not endeavor to change his fate. When Junior shares the backstory of his parents, he says that his mother and father came from “poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (11).

There are main themes in every novel some may be obvious while some require research and analysis to find. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, there are many themes such as bullying, racism, drug abuse and alcoholism. Though only a few of those apply directly to Junior, the protagonist, there is one that he is affected by more than any other. This one is isolation.

It is an honour to stand before you and have the chance to speak. Today, I want to talk about being a teenager. Being a teenager isn’t really easy. It is hard, harder than you can imagine. It can be confusing and frustrating.

They talks back and not obeying their parents. They shout at them not realizing the things their family have done to them and not minding their feeelings. They take their family for granted. For me,I’m not that kind of teenager,I always do the things that my family have taught me. I always obey my family because that’s the way I thank them.