Theme Of The Absolute True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian

Another external expectation was the reservation expecting Junior to be horrible at basketball which affected Junior’s confidence. “I mean, I’d always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole -- I wasn’t expected to be good so I wasn’t” (180). Since not many

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.

“Jack MacFarland couldn’t have come into my life at a better time. My father was dead and I had logged up too many years of scholastic indifference. ”(Rose,page 5)Not everyone has the opportunity to receive an equal education but can strive to become greater .Children from poor families are at a much lower advantage but does not mean that they can’t succeed in what they plan to do they just need someone to believe in them. People do not choose to be poor and instead of getting equal or similar help they are limited by the opportunities allowed or denied them by a social and economic

Other figures speak about all the things being poor taught them but Junior states how being poor just teaches you what it feels like to be poor. By joking about this it takes a heavy, dark subject and makes it feel more “friendly and open”. Not only did Junior make jokes about growing up in poverty but so did other characters throughout the novel. Mr. Dodge, Juniors geology teacher, once said "'Okay Arnold,' Dodge said. ' Where did you learn this fact?

In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie the main character Junior faces many harsh challenges before he chooses to leave the rez. Some of the challenges he faces are poverty, having a disability, and bullying. He must face all of these challenges in order to be the person he is today. In the beginning of the story after we find out that Junior had hydrocephalus we also learn that he and his family are very poor.

Alongside this, Junior’s poverty only seems to get worse in his mind when his dad dropped him off at

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

Junior use to play basketball at Wellpinit but he was hesitant to try out for Reardan, because he thought he would get embarrassed at tryouts and get cut. Then he realized that in order for him to make friends he needs to try his hardest to make the team, because he knew if he made it then people would like and respect him more. Junior did end up making the school basketball team and even played varsity as a freshman. After Junior made the team and people discovered he is playing varsity he started to friends on the basketball and received respect from the other kids in the school.

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.

Junior initially shows this quality when he averts his lack of money at the breakfast after the dance. Sick with worry, Junior confesses his lack of money to Roger, who responds with care by lending him money. Though Junior lies about the location of his wallet out of shame, he bravely asks for help from Roger. Thus, he approaches his dilemma with courage which indicates his capability to acclimate. Also, Junior reacts to the heartbreak of his grandmother’s death by finding an outlet to his struggles.

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

Amazingly, he gets all A grades and becomes the star on his basketball team. Though everyone else sees how strong Junior is, he still needs to prove that he is stronger than he thinks to himself. This is what he says to a reporter before his big basketball game, Reardan vs. Wellpinit, with Rowdy, his former best friend, as the all-star of the Wellpinit

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).

Junior played basketball at both schools, but he didn't think he was good enough to make varsity at Reardan. “I suppose it had something to do with confidence. I mean I’d always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole - I wasn’t expected to be good so I won’t.

Junior’s power is shown through Alexie’s use of figurative language. When Junior’s basketball team were doing very well he uses a hyperbole to express how he feels about it. “We just killed people, winning by double figures every time” (181). “Killing people” in this sense means that Junior’s team were winning many games and were much better than opposing teams. By using this hyperbolic statement, it expresses how confident and proud Junior is of being a winner.