The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Essay

The differences didn't stop junior he continued to fight on despite the glares and judgments he received from others. Junior kept his head held high and kept fighting on and following his dreams. Although not everything was fixed, he also went through an emotional crisis. A few of his family members passed away and this brought him down, he was so depressed he was contemplating to give away everything he had earned. But a voice in the back of his head insisted that he didn't.

In the novel,Absolutely True Diary Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Axle,Arnold spirit, the protagonist, is a nerdy kid with health problems. Arnold has big hands and a big head that many people make fun of him for. Also, he is so smart that he has to act dumb so that Indians won’t know how smart he is. ‘’like he said in the book that I have to look dumb near them so that they will now that i don 't belong’’. Arnold has health problems because he said that it happens to him in the beginning of the book.

The continuous loss of relatives is too harsh for a boy, so Alexie uses a kind of “slight sorrow” to let Junior realize the weakness of life in the face of death. In addition, while cleaning the cemetery later, Junior says, “Reservations were meant to be prisons, you know? Indians were supposed to move onto reservations and die. We were supposed to disappear. But somehow or another, Indians have forgotten that reservations were meant to be death camps.”

One afternoon, while Junior is sitting on his porch, a local teacher from Junior’s school visits him. He gives Junior hope and begins warning him to move somewhere where he can’t give up because everyone around him has already broken down. “...you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope.” (43) This lights the fire in Junior where he realizes he needs to change everything for his survival or he will crumble.

Junior’s father’s drinking problems and the lack of funds to afford decent living conditions on the reservation are prevalent issues throughout the book that provide an insight into this theme. This proves that the author has written this novel to exhibit the hardships of those in poverty are detrimental to a child’s future. First, the novel shows the hardships of poverty by showing the discrimination made against Junior. On page 86, Junior states he “remembered when I [he] used to be a human being,” (Alexie 86).

Junior tries to keep his poverty hidden from everyone at

In the beginning of the story he seems to put almost no thought into his life, and mainly stays at home drawing. After a talk with Mr. P, his math teacher, his motivation to get off the reserve suddenly piqued. From that point, he showed great perseverance for little tasks in his life. This is shown when Junior tries with great effort to collect as much money as he can during the donation effort even though he was attacked. “Although at the end all I was able to scratch up was one nickel, it was still worth it.”

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

Antonio Huie-Pasigan Mr. Rodriguez Academic Literature 21, April 2023 The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Essay Imagine being poor with barely enough money for basic necessities like food, gas, and clothing. This is the daily life of Arnold “Junior” Spirit, a native american who goes to a white school, and is the protagonist of The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Coming from a Native American reservation in Spokane Washington, his social status conflicts with his school, but that doesn’t stop him.

Junior feels as if he’s lost everything, like all Indians lose everything. Junior says “We lost our native land, we lost our languages, we lost our songs and dances. We lost each other. We only know how to lose and be lost. ”(Alexie 173)

Sherman Alexi points out the fact that growing up in poverty can affect morale,resources,and relationships. And all of these issues can lead to low self esteem and mental health issues which Junior will try to balance constantly. Junior struggles with morale because of the poverty he grew up in. Junior is a teen who grew up on the rez in a poor household, this caused Junior to feel hopeless as he believed that poverty was a cycle and that he couldn't get out of. “Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance.

Faced with many obstacles from poverty to racial stereotypes, Junior must override them if he is to make his life better than that of fellow Indians. Interestingly, rather than letting the obstacles hold him back Junior understands that his destiny is in his own hands and he must celebrate who he is even if it means fighting. In the end, we see a boy who have managed to overcome all hardships to get to the top, even if it means making tough choices such as changing schools, therefore is could be seen that race and stereotypes only made Junior

As Junior matures he realizes that he has many obstacles within his life, like the fact that he lives in poverty, a lot of people show racism towards him and his people, and the death of family members and

The book focuses on a young boy named Arnold Spirit who shows persistence and bravery as he defies all odds and strides towards a happier more successful life than his parents and ancestors before him. Arnold is a bright, inspiring young boy who grows up with little fortune and is destined to continue down the path of a poor, misunderstood Indian. However, his fate changes for the better when a spark lights the fire inside of him to strive to pursue a better, more flourishing life as he makes an extraordinary decision to transfer to an all-white school for a worthier education. However, the drastic change of schools puts a burden on his family to get him to school as well as leads to extreme bullying from not just kids at his new school but also from his fellow Indians in his hometown. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I learned that it doesn 't matter what your situation is and what you are expected to accomplish in your lifetime or what standards have already been set for you because you can be whoever you want to be with hard work, ambition, and confidence.

His mother and father’s dreams were just fantasies played in the hands of poverty. If his mother and father couldn’t achieve their dreams, Junior himself can’t reach success if destitution is dragging him down. To illustrate this point, “And it's not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It's not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people,” (Alexie 11).