Writer Sherman Alexie has a knack of intertwining his own problematic biographical experience with his unique stories and no more than “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” demonstrates that. Alexie laced a story about an Indian man living in Spokane who reflects back on his struggles in life from a previous relationship, alcoholism, racism and even the isolation he’s dealt with by living off the reservation. Alexie has the ability to use symbolism throughout his tale by associating the title’s infamy of two different ethnic characters and interlinking it with the narrator experience between trying to fit into a more society apart from his own cultural background. However, within the words themselves, Alexie has created themes that surround despair around his character however he illuminates on resilience and alcoholism throughout this tale.
Junior was constantly bullied while going to school on the reservation. One time, the Andrus brothers were picking on him and Junior said,”All three of them shoved me to and fro. They were playing catch with me” (Alexie 21). This was a common occurrence on the reservation for Junior, and it got to the point where he could not take it anymore. As a result, he convinced Rowdy to go with him to shave off the Andrus brothers hair which they have been growing their whole life. If it were not for Junior constantly facing the adversity of being bullied he would not have made the decision to shave the Andrusses hair. This conflict influenced Junior to make actions that are risky but could end up benefiting him in the future. Junior was not the only Indian on the reservation facing adversity. In fact most of the Indians were, and a specific person noticed this and finally came out and said something. Mr. P,
Have you ever lost someone you loved or was important in your life? Well Junior has, he has lost many people in his life. He has gone to a total of 42 funerals in his lifetime and he is only 14. You will find out more about Junior in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Most of the people Junior has lost were due to alcohol. Alcohol is an epidemic within the Indian reservation as well as all over the world. There are many themes present in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. One particular theme that is present throughout the story is that alcoholism kills and ruins lives.
Many people beleive this book should be banned. The Absolutly True Diary of a Part Time Indian, writen by Sherman Alexie, main plot is on a small resivation and a small white school. As the story goes on many of the topic go away but there is still a presence of them. People are trying to get this book banned due to the innapropiate topic used in this book. Most people dont read this book and just make up thing that this book should be banned for. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian should be banned becase of the use of race, sex, and alcahol.
Mr. P tells Junior that the reservation is responsible for the destruction of its resident’s hopes and dreams. He explains to Junior that “If you stay on this rez… they’re going to kill you. I’m going to kill you. We’re going to kill you. You can’t fight us forever” (Alexie 43). Mr. P believes that Junior has not given up on his dreams; that he is constantly fighting for them. When Junior throws his textbook, which his mom also used, at Mr. P, he is acting out because “that old, old, old, decrepit geometry book hit my heart with the force of a nuclear bomb. My hopes and dreams floated up in a mushroom cloud” (Alexie 31). He realizes that poverty is acting as an anchor, keeping him grounded from reaching new heights and succeeding in life. Junior is being persuaded to leave the reservation; to pursue his dreams, the only problem is that he does not know where to go. Mr. P explains to Junior “Son… You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation” (Alexie 43). Junior is told that he can have a different future from his parent’s or anyone else’s on the reservation. The fact
A small town Indian boy named Junior Loved his friend Rowdy as does Rowdy.But love can’t vanish can it,or is it the fact that love never existed with those.After all some say love is just a figment of your imagination,right? In the book”The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”
The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is not simply written. The author Sherman Alexie, uses several words like articulate, hormonal, and decrepit which displays that the novel could be read by people of all ages. This novel is wonderfully written so that people of every socioeconomic status can relate to real-world problems like poverty, racism, death and substance abuse. Alexie uses simple language to convey the thoughts that are actually inside people’s minds. For instance, in the first chapter of the book, the author introduces Arnold to the world (Alexie, 2007). In the very first sentence the author states that Arnold was born with water inside his brain. Furthermore, the author discusses that “cerebral spinal fluid
Banned Books Week is an annual event starting on September 23 and ending on September 29 celebrating the freedom to read books freely no matter what topics are present throughout the book. The purpose of Banned Books Week is to bring the community together and express and seek ideas in books even if they are considered unorthodox. Throughout this celebratory week publishers, librarians, booksellers, journalists, teachers and more all celebrate the freedom to read and access information that they desire to explore. The outstanding novels by the names of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie are both banned books in many middle school and high
Overcoming a challenge, not giving up, and not being afraid of change are a few themes demonstrated in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Perhaps the most prominent theme derived from the novel is defying the odds, or in other words rising above the expectations of others. Junior Spirit exemplifies this theme throughout the entirety of the book. As Junior is an Indian, he almost expects that he will never leave the reservation, become an alcoholic, and live in poverty like the other Indians on the reservation—only if he sits around and does not endeavor to change his fate. When Junior shares the backstory of his parents, he says that his mother and father came from “poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (11). He knows that if his parents were not born into poverty, his mother would have gone to college, and his father would have become a musician. Additionally, on page eleven Junior says that his parents “dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams.” Junior believes that he is trapped in this “circle” of poverty, and his dreams will be ignored just as his parents’ dreams had been. However, after Junior launches an old geometry book across a classroom, and it hits his teacher, Mr. P, in the face, Mr. P realizes something substantial about Junior: He has fought since his birth, beginning with the
Indians have been living in misery for centuries now, in reservations drowned in problems like alcoholism, drugs, and illiteracy. The white government has made inumerous attempts to try to assimilate them into the US mainstream population. The effects felt by the Indian reservations due to the negative consequences of white actions are unimaginably devastating. Native Americans have to rely on the government in order to survive, and sometimes that 's still not enough. Their lives have been shaped by the government so much that the effects of the past actions made by the whites have become substantially irreversible, forcing the Native American population to suffer and make sacrificing choices in order to live in the present world. Moreover,
For many people, the childhood house they grew up in has countless memories, both good and bad. However, the concept of home is not confined to a single house or location-- instead, home is mostly made by the people in it. Although this can sometimes be forgotten, the home matters far more than the house. The experiences someone goes through in their home serve as lessons that over time begin to shape their view of the world and themselves. In Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, the children of a lazy mother and a lying alcoholic are forced to fend for themselves and ultimately use their ambition and determination to succeed in New York City on their own. Similarly, in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a Native
In life you have many choices. One of which is deciding whether or not you are going to succeed or fail in life. In other words, choosing to stay hopeful or not. In the “Absolute True Diary of a Part- Time Indian” Junior goes through many situations where hope is needed. The author Sherman Alexie puts Junior as well as other characters in situations to make those hard decisions. This story has many themes and one of the main themes is that life choice of choosing to be hopeful or not.
When people think of a movie with Indians in it, they portray the as the stereotypes hollywood make them to be or a dancing disney princess in the woods. In the movie Smoke signals, it breaks past the stereotypes. The movie was written by Indians and featured indian actors. The movie follows Victor and Thomas as they go on a journey from their reserve to phoenix to pick up the remains of Victor’s father. The movie gives us an insight into the life of Victor through flashbacks while Thomas narrates the story. Smoke Signals guides us through the two boys coming of age and Victors arduous task to forgive his father.
Since the beginning of the world, everyone has their own point of view on the battle between good and evil. Since these two are opposite behaviors, good and evil must have nothing in common, right? I believe that evil is only evil by the way someone perceives it to be. For example, let 's say a man robbed a woman 's purse ; to that guy who stole the purse, it 's probably the only way to get enough money to stay, but to the woman she just lost the money she had earned. Now to the woman, the man was bad, but to the man, he is just trying to survive. The self consciousness, humanity, and kindness reveal that humans are essentially good but evil things are start from it.
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. The decision to attend a white school is a tough one and Junior understands that for him to survive and to ensure that his background does not stop him from attaining his dreams; he must battle the stereotypes regardless of the consequences. In this light, race and stereotypes only makes junior stronger in the end as evident on how he struggles to override the race and stereotypical expectations from his time at the reservation to his time at Rearden.