Perseverance Through Hardships The Spoken tribe, like many other Native American tribes, suffered considerably due to alcoholism, poverty, and racism. In order to combat the dire state that he is in, Spoken Indian Arnold “Junior” Spirit decides to leave the reservation and go to Reardan, a school full of whites. Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian paints a picture of life where racism, poverty, and alcoholism affects Arnold Spirit as he journeys through a completely different society. His decision endangers him not only in his reservation but also at Reardan where he is ostracized for being the only Indian boy in a school full of white people. Despite these dangers, Arnold is still willing to reject his family tradition and go to Reardan because he has hopes of finding a fulfilling and hopeful life. Due to his willingness to go through with his action of going to Reardan despite the hardships, Arnold is able to march inexorably towards finding a fulfilling and hopeful life. Through his perseverance of physical and emotional hardships, and his willingness to leave his family legacy behind and go to Reardan, it is revealed the extent that man is willing to go to in order to achieve his goals. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold is an seen as different from other tribe members. He constantly has to endure hardships that physically and mentally affect him. When Rowdy asks Arnold to go to the powwow with him,
In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, a character named Arnold, otherwise known as Junior shows persistence and resilience throughout the book. Junior demonstrates persistence and resilience by finding a way to go to school even if it is hard to, playing a basketball game even with an injury, and he is born in a poor environment and he still manages to pull through.
Mentors are people who provide support, strength, and inspiration. Many people have a mentor in their life that they aspire to be like, and seek out for guidance. Mentors play a big role in many lives, including Junior's from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Some of the biggest mentors for Junior are his parents, his Wellpinit teacher Mr. P and his Rearden basketball coach. If it weren't for these mentors inspiration and support, Junior wouldn't have taken some of the risks he does.
The poem, “The Theft Outright” by Heid E. Erdrich, a Native American poet, refutes claims made in another poem, “The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost, that America was empty before the colonists. In his poem, Frost claims that America was “unstoried, artless, [and] unenhanced,”(Frost 15) demonstrating blatant racism by erasing the entire Native American culture and race from American history. Erdrich counters his beliefs by citing the colorful, full lives of Indians in the past and now, directly juxtaposing his work by saying that the Americas are “still storied, art-filled, [and] fully enhanced”(Erdrich 30) from the Native Americans that lived there. Similarly, the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie deals with racism. It tells the story of Arnold Spirit Jr, a Native American boy who wants a better life, so he switches schools from his poverty stricken school to an all white school in a small town called Reardan. Junior frequently faces challenges of racism; he is seen as less than his white peers at his new school because he is Indian, and he is constantly being shown by others’ words and actions that he does not deserve a quality education because of his heritage. Despite the novel’s humorous style, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” provides accurate commentary on education and racism in recent times through Junior’s experiences at Reardan, with his developing friendship with Gordy, his views on the pedestals that white
Resiliency is the Key to Success: The Role of Resiliency in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Resiliency is like whack-a-mole. If a mole gets hit down, it will always come back up. In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior shows resiliency throughout the story. In fact, the novel proves that only the most resilient will rise above the rest because Junior earns the respect of Reardan students, Junior accomplishes a lot in basketball, despite the obstacles, and Junior stays resilient when many unfortunate events occur. Junior earns the respect of Reardan students when he attends Reardan High School.
Do you think looking forward and trying to change a bad situation into a good one for having a better life is a wrong decision? The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is a novel written by Sherman Alexie. The novel is about Arnold Spirit; everyone calls him Junior. He is a teenage boy with a tough life who lives with his family in poverty on a Spokane Indian reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. He hates living in poverty and wants something better for himself. “I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important. An artist”(6) he claims. His living conditions are horrible; he studies in a school with a lack of resources. He considered the different aspects of moving to Reardan, he struggled about leaving
Sherman exposes the consequences of not belonging anywhere through Arnold’s experiences. He realises that there were “other” Native Americans who had “left in search” to belong. However it also made him think about the people who didn’t. They felt as if they were “destined to live”, in harsh environments, drowning in poverty. Alexie highlights the fact about poverty in belonging as it is one of their major problems and for that reason most of the Indians are always drunk.
It is natural for every person that he finds himself in a conflicting situation where he thinks that he has no identity. In such a situation of crisis, he asserts himself through different means though it may be a bitter truth or he himself gets insult in response. Arnold in The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian faces the same situation, but he does not leave the truth. Whatever he has encountered in rez or at Reardan, he has plainly told it in a very simple language that it seems touching obscenity and crossing the limits of decency. That is why the novel faced bans in different states after it was published. However, the struggle Arnold waged in order to make himself recognized is heroic one despite realization that he belongs to the underdogs and there is no hope. His struggle is rather a hope against hope, yet he knew that "life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community" (132) in which case he belonged to Indians, a Sokane Community in which he was raised. When the novel opens, he starts with his mental disabilities how he suffered from "cerebral spinal fluid" (2). Despite suffering these diseases, having developed several disabilities, acute consciousness of his own deformed body, unsupportive background, poverty, Indian legacy of stubborn and dullard nature, he not only becomes truthful but also
Friendships are very important. In our book titled: “The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian” Arnold makes a lot of friends like Rowdy, Penelope, and Roger all help him in different ways. Penelope makes him feel like someone cares about him, Roger makes him feel happy, and Rowdy hurts people who will hurt Arnold. All his friend have an effect on Arnold’s physical and mental state for better or for worse.
In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold is a teenager living on a reservation in Spokane Washington. There, Arnold grows up aware of his limitations as an Indian and understands the difficulties that his parents had to endure growing up. He keeps these in mind as he gets older and makes the decision to leave the reservation. Throughout his journey, Arnold acknowledges the people who helped him along the way and who encouraged him to surpass his fears and to overcome the obstacles that were ingrained in him. Despite the constant barriers that stand in his way, Arnold continues to view education as his ticket out of the reservation and diligently braves his way through high school in what he calls a “hick
The Spokane Indians were victims of adversity, whereas the students of Reardan high school were met with privilege. With this in mind, the reader is able to recognize the deviation in the aforementioned environments throughout the novel. To support this, a statement that exposes a confession of the direct oppression youth on the reservation face is one made by Arnold’s teacher, Mr. P. Mr. P is in the midst of lecturing Arnold about the reasons he should leave the reservation when he says, “We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child” (Sherman 35). Mr. P explains to Arnold that the teachers were instructed to strip Indians of their culture. Within the same conversation Mr. P continues on to say, “The only thing you kids are being
The community surrounding an individual impacts their opinion of selfhood, consequently moulding their identity and being part of a cultural group leads one to surrender their personal ideologies and beliefs, thus challenging the strength of individuality. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian chronicles Junior’s journey of self-discovery as he searches for his cultural identity among a tribe full of miserable and hopeless individuals and he finds himself spanning multiple identities as he tries to figure out where he belongs. With its setting on the Wellpinit reservation, the book explores the major differences between the white community of Reardan High School and the hopeless rez of the Native Americans. The text
Moved around year after year, from school-to-school, city-to-city, for 7 years straight. A different school, a different sense of feeling lost, and a different identity. Like Arnold from Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I’ve dealt with having to choose who I wanted to be at each school. This experience makes me most like the narrator of the novel.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a novel about a young boy named Arnold Spirit. He lives on an Indian reservation, but doesn’t fit in. He was born with cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull which made his head abnormally large and caused him to have a stutter. This made him a target on the rez. He was constantly being bullied and tormented by all of the other Indians. “Everybody on the rez called me a retard about twice a day. They call me a retard when they are pantsing me or stuffing my head in the toilet or just smacking me upside the head.” (Alexie 4) Arnold would face hatred and prejudice like this everyday. The people on the reservation are prejudice because they call Arnold a retard, a word sadly associated with stupid, without even knowing his actual mental intelligence. Everyone on the rez
After looking at the article “Some parents seek to ban 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'”, I strongly disagree with the idea of banning the Sherman Alexie novel. The novel revolves around an Indian outcast named Junior who moves to an all-white school in hopes of going somewhere with his life. The kids at this school end up accepting him for who he is, in spite of the fact that Junior is racially different. The book contains some mature language and sexual acts, which raise the concerns of some parents. While some parents believe that the novel is a bad influence on teens, John Whitehurst, chairman of the english department at Antioch High School, argues that “the book is filled with positive, life-affirming messages and has
Arnold is a young teenager who lives on an Indian reservation where he finds it difficult to find hope and feels as if he means nothing to anybody.Throughout the book he describes many of the issues faced in his tribe and why they occur so much in numerous ways.He has a difficult time keeping a high self esteem because of the harsh conditions that he has to live in day by day.The conditions can be described as a generational curse due to many things they go through and long it has been going on through time.Culture is the main focus of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian because it specifies in the book that Spokane Indians and many other tribes as well have issues with alcohol,difficult transitions, and poverty within their community.