Nancy Yunganaula Mr.Rodriguez Academic Literacy 21 April 2023 Opportunities and Success Do opportunities come to you or do you have to search for them in order to be successful? The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, takes place in the Spokane Indian reservation near Wellpinit, Washington, and the genre is young adult fiction. During the novel, we perceive how there are opportunities that can affect how successful someone is. More specifically, we see how a few characters take the risk to leave their reservation and find a better life for themselves. In order for you to be successful, you have to work for opportunities that will help you since they won’t come to you so easily if you are doing nothing …show more content…
This is unusual for both the reservation and Junior since this can be seen by many people as him being a traitor. But, this doesn’t stop him from missing the opportunity to get a better education in a white town. Junior wishes to have a better education, "I want to go to Reardan, I said" (Alexie, 45). The quote shows that he's learned that he can't get the best education while staying on the reservation. He wants to be different from everyone else but in a positive way. He's aware of his choices, "The Indians around here are going to be angry with you" (Alexie,47). This quote reveals how Junior knows that his action will have consequences, but he still follows through with his decision to leave the reservation and attend school in Reardan because he wants to be successful in his …show more content…
One example is how Junior left the reservation to go to attend school in Rearden to get a better education, even if the people on his reservation weren’t going to approve. However, he still did it because he knew that leaving would bring him opportunities to be successful. His decisions inspire Mary Spirt, who also leaves the reservation with a guy she suddenly marries and goes to Montana with to pursue her dream of becoming a romance writer. However, with Rowdy we see how he didn’t choose to take the opportunity to go to school in Rearden with Junior because he was
Mr. p was one of the biggest inspirations to juniors actions. If it weren't for him Junior would be stuck at the rez forever and most likely become like all the other adults, drunk and angry. When junior began his journey to achieve his goals at Reardan it was very difficult. He was the only “different” kid there. Different meaning he was the only Indian in a school of white kids.
When Junior goes to this school people treat him differently he acts differently he even goes by a different name. He doesn’t want to forget about his heritage and the people he left behind but he feels like this school will get him on a better path for life. He also feels a little bit guilty about leaving his friends and family from the reservation behind and moving on in life. You can see this in a quote from the book "My name is Junior," I said. "And my name is Arnold.
This quote shows how Juniors goes through stuggles with money because nobody wants to hire a “Resevation Indian boy”. This helps present how hard it is for a avrage kid on the reservation get a job so they would struggle with money because of this
So why isn’t everyone successful? Some believe that success is only a matter of will and only a person can decide if they want to become successful or not. This is not true; a person’s background ultimately
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).
Mr. P tells Junior that “You 're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.” (Alexie 63). Junior’s teacher knows that in order for Junior to find hope, he must isolate himself from his miserable reservation. He knows that Junior deserves better, and has fought too hard to lose hope, therefore he must take his hope and go somewhere where other people have hope. In order to do that, Junior must separate himself from all the horrors of the sad reservation by leaving.
Kaya Murray Mr. Rodriguez Academic Literacy April 21 2023 The Impact of Poverty Poverty is cultivated into the next generations, which can cause many to be negatively impacted. This is seen in the young adult contemporary novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie. This story is based in Washington in both a Spokane reservation and the Reardan school from the point of view of 14 year old Arnold Spirit Junior. The narrator Junior offers many examples of how he and other Spokane tribe members are at a disadvantage compared to their white peers.
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
In the Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior lives a double life in Reardan and the Spokane Reservation. Junior goes to school in Wellpinit and lives in Spokane Reserve. Living on the Reservation brings cyclical depression, despair, and substance abuse. The role alcohol plays in Junior life on the reservation is that it causes people he cares about to be harmed, Junior feeling neglected, and loss of loved ones. Although Junior does not drink alcohol himself, the majority of the people on the reservation are alcoholics.
It took a decent amount of time for Junior to become comfortable at Reardan. The first couple weeks he went there it was a time of adversity for him because he was like no one else there, and no one really appreciated that. Junior struggled most at Reardan his first day or two there, and the reader knows this when he says, “All of those pretty… white girls ignored me…. Most of the white boys ignored me, too” (Alexie 63). The reader is able to learn that Junior was heavily ignored at Reardan when he first started going there, and it ended up impacting his later decisions.
His sister had a conflict with the world also, she had dreams of being a writer but nobody cared. This conflict reveals to Junior that people on the reservation aren’t given chances in life so he has to
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
And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it,” (Alexie 19). In addition, Junior remarks that it’s not just him that is poor, but his tribe in the reservation too. It shows how much poverty is affecting him and the people on the reservation. According to Sherman Alexie, he mentions in the novel, “My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from.
Junior, a Native American child living on a reservation full of poverty has had many occurrences where the identity of the character has been trialed by a conflict in the story. Junior has been struggling throughout the novel trying to figure out his identity and where he belongs. At first, Junior tried fitting in the reservation with all the other Indians. Then he wanted to change and tried to fit in with the kids at Reardan. And lastly, he tried to figure out how to fit in with both the Natives on the reservation and kids at Reardan.
Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" presents a novel centered around Arnold Spirit Jr., a young Native American boy who must grapple with his dual identities as a member of the Spokane Indian Reservation and as a student at a predominantly white high school. Arnold refers to himself as a "part-time Indian," which serves as a critical commentary on the current condition of Indigenous peoples of the US, particularly those living on a reservation. This term emphasizes the way in which Indigenous peoples are often forced to straddle two worlds, leading to a sense of displacement and alienation. As I continue my essay, I will explore the idea of why Alexie believes he is a part-time Indian, and what this shows about