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The novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie is about our main character, 14-year-old Arnold Spirit Jr. or he also goes by “Junior.” He lives in a Spokane Indian reservation and was born with water in his head or “hydrocephalus” which gives him side effects like stutters, seizures, and a number of physical differences like a large head that make him a frequent target for bullies on the reservation. Because of this, Junior spends a lot of his time alone reading or drawing cartoons thinking it’s his best chance of getting off the reservation and out of the poverty that’s held his family and tribe back for generations.
Junior also loves spending time with his best friend Rowdy, who also has a violent temper and makes the other people scared of him, but always protects Junior.
Junior’s first day at Wellpinit high school, which is the school in his reservation, he was particularly excited for geometry class, but when the teacher Mr.
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P passed out the textbooks, Junior realized that the books are at least thirty years old since his mother signature was on it. Furious that the reservation school is so poorly funded using old and outdated books, Junior threw the textbook across the room and accidentally hit Mr. P in the face which broke his nose. As a result of this, Junior was suspended from the school. Mr. P later comes to visit Junior and tells him that he forgives him but advises that he must leave the reservation otherwise depression and alcoholism will force him to give up his dreams, just like his older sister Mary who Mr.
P reveals wanted to be a romance writer.
Because of Mr. P’s advice, Junior decided to transfer to the high school in Reardan, a wealthy white farm town twenty-two miles away. Junior’s parents did support his decision but warned him that most of the tribe will see him as a traitor. When Junior tells Rowdy he’s changing schools and asks him to come along, Rowdy gets angry and feels betrayed, then punches Junior in the face saying he hates him, and Junior becomes heartbroken that his best friend has now become his worst enemy.
At the Reardan school, Junior is the only Indian student and feels deeply alienated from the white students who either ignore him or call him names. Junior also feels like his identity is divided between Reardan and the reservation since the white teachers call him by his given name “Arnold” instead of “Junior.” Eventually Junior does make friends with some of his new classmates like Gordy, who is a really smart kid who teaches him how to thoroughly read books. Junior also meets Penelope, a beautiful and popular blonde girl who becomes Junior’s somewhat girlfriend after he discovers her eating disorder and comforts her.
Junior decides to try out for the basketball team and finds out he’s really talented and makes the team. Junior impressed the basketball coach with his shooting ability and his commitment in the team going into the first game of the season against Wellpinit, his former high school. In the game Rowdy out of frustration gives Junior a concussion, sparking a desire for revenge that drives Junior to humiliate him, but only to later realize after a crushing Reardan win that perhaps he shouldn’t be so proud given Reardan’s advantages.
Junior’s first year at Reardan is also filled with many unfortunate deaths on the reservation with all of them being related to alcohol. Junior’s beloved grandmother was killed by a drunk driver, his father’s best friend Eugene is shot during a drunken argument, and Mary dies when her trailer home burns down after a wild party. Junior becomes devastated by these events and blames himself for Mary’s death since she moved to Montana right after Junior decided to leave the reservation, thinking if he never left this wouldn’t have happened. But the sympathy from his classmates at Reardan makes Junior realize that he does matter to them now, just as they matter to him.
Later, when Junior and his parents go to the cemetery to care for Mary, Eugene, and the Grandmother’s graves, he realizes that he’ll be able to leave the reservation and won’t be completely alone. After the last day of school, Rowdy comes to see Junior and invites him to play basketball. Rowdy doesn’t actually apologize for everything he said and did, but he does tell Junior that he always knew he would leave the reservation and that he still looks forward to Junior’s travels and is happy for him. Junior hopes and prays that someday Rowdy and the rest of his tribe will forgive him for leaving and that he’ll someday be able to forgive himself. The story ends with both Junior and Rowdy playing a one-on-one game of basketball into the night.
This story connects to the issue of Identity because at the beginning of the story, Junior's problem of hydrocephalus and his angry best friend Rowdy is brought up, which puts awareness on how people’s characteristics since being born can outline their characteristics, inferring that Junior originally contains a minor but negative tale of identity that doesn’t alter noticeably through the story. The dilemma of Junior's choice to travel away from his home that he began from, which a number of locals on the reservation saw as a first step to become white and expose Junior’s identity into reconsideration and leaves him with two alternative names: on the Spokane reservation he’s Junior, but in Reardan, he’s referred to as Arnold. Another reference was discovering Junior's own name or who Junior is, his goals, and the type of person he’ll become, is the purpose of Junior’s choice to attending Reardan high school. Toward the back half of the novel, Junior understands his identity is compiled of associations to a number of tribes “the basketball team, the cartoonists, and his friends who really missed him.' They strengthen his identity, and at the same time Junior hopes that by asserting himself in the right ways, he can bring good things back to the communities that supported him.
This story connects to the issue of Power and Privilege because one of the main differences between life on the Spokane reservation and at Reardan high school is that most of the families on the reservation, including Junior’s, are poor. Embarrassed by his poverty, Junior does everything he can to keep his Reardan classmates from understanding the true state of affairs. Junior and others on the reservation, associated whiteness with privilege, hope, and opportunity. They also believed that privilege was unfairly given, and not actually earned. The white students at Reardan were showed to be financially better off, but Junior is surprised to learn that the privilege that accompanies wealth and the color of their skin, doesn’t always protect his friends from pain and problems like his friends Gordy and Penelope.
This story connects to the issue of Oppression because Junior’s first day of high school at Wellpinit, he was excited for geometry class, but when the teacher Mr. P passed out the textbooks, Junior realized that the books are at least thirty years old since his mother signature was on it showing the lack of funding his local high school had. When Junior is often thoughtless in his description of the discrimination he encounters at school, it’s clear that this plays a major role in his life. The stereotypes about Native Americans also have become so ingrained in their society, that Junior almost believes in them himself whole-heartily.
This story connects to the issue of Fairness because Junior choose to live a future both filled with success and prosperity. Junior wanted to alter his path, and he was given a second chance to succeed. Arnold set himself up to graduate from a more prestigious high school despite the setback of getting expelled and met people from different walks of life along the way. This is a personal growth that will continue to benefit him for as long as he lives. Junior found out that the Spokane reservation isn’t the place where dreams always come true, and even talks about the dreams his parents and sister had, and who they would be if they weren't Indians living on a reservation if they had better opportunities.
This story reflects institutional forces that challenge inequalities when it's brought up that it’s all right to be who Junior is as a 'part-time Indian' split between a largely white world of wealth, privilege, and hope, and a reservation world of poverty, racism, and despair. Junior also has to battle not only external, but internal pressures when white high school classmates inflict racist insults on him or generally cast him as a loser, while his peers on the reservation see him as a traitor. Eventually, Junior does figure out that he’s truly embracing elements of his heritage, and it’s good to embrace your own tradition. It’s also acceptable to embrace the hope represented by the white school and to leave the reservation.
This story is important for children to read because the novel advises us that there is a lot of euphoria to be had and have the option to identify with characters in at any rate or couple of various ways. This tale is additionally about expectation, or all the more explicitly who has it, who doesn’t, and about how hard life can be the point at which somebody like Junior doesn’t have either expectation or bliss regardless. In any case, the other side of life can change when both expectation and satisfaction reappears. Junior for example doesn’t begin with trust, however retaliates and searches for others who would like to assist him with changing his life. Junior chooses that things can change for him and has the solidarity to battle on, like he does in the end. However, in light of the fact that junior has trust, doesn’t mean his life isn’t now hard. In spite of all mishaps like destitution, persecution, and even disasters, Junior decides to carry on with an existence of flourishing and overachieving. Junior needs things to adjust to improve things and anecdotes about expectation and euphoria are significant in light of the fact that they show us not to yield to sadness. In any event when there are apparently unconquerable powers neutralizing us, and despite everything, we should accept things can change regardless of the chances.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Essay. (2024, Feb 28). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-essay-essay
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