ipl-logo

How Is Arnold Spirit's The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian

1073 Words5 Pages

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Arnold Spirit makes the tough decision to stop attending Wellpinit High School. Arnold was raised around reservation kids all his life and isn’t familiar with the norms of any other group of people. This move brings struggles to both him and his parents. In the novel, Arnold realizes Reardan values the education of their students more than Wellpinit and decides he is better off attending Reardan. On Arnold’s first day of school, he received his mother’s old geometry textbook that was assigned to her when she was in high school. He realized the textbook was 30 years old and the school wasn’t giving him the best education. This news was devastating for him, “My school and …show more content…

P with the book, Mr. P went to visit Arnold at his home to talk to him about aiming to search for the hope he has inside of him. Arnold had thrown the book because he had a sense of lost hope. Mr. P knew Arnold had hope because of the anger he had about the old textbooks. The students in my high school all had high hopes for themselves. Even though we came from a small town, we all hoped to be successful and make the residents of Gonzales proud. Mr. P wants to give Arnold the opportunity to have the same hope the students in my school had to succeed. He wanted to find hope away from the reservation, “‘You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation’” (43). The reservation kids weren’t being taught any good, “‘The only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up”’ (42). The difference between me and Arnold in this situation is we weren’t taught to give up, instead we were motivated to pursue our …show more content…

His parents did not oppose to the idea because they believed white people were the only ones who had hope and were able to achieve their dreams. Arnold was fascinated by Reardan, “The kids in Reardan are the smartest and the most athletic kids anywhere. They are the best” (46). Unlike Arnold, I didn’t decide to leave my high school for another. He had the courage and commitment to leave Wellpinit despite what the people on the reservation would think of him. Arnold knew it would be a completely different ambience, “Reardan was the opposite of the rez” (56). I felt this way when I first decided I would be attending CSU Los Angeles because Los Angeles is a whole other city with thousands of students. I knew the education I would be receiving would be better than in high school because of the amount of resources the school

Show More
Related

  • Indian Horse Summary

    1259 Words  | 6 Pages

    The book “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese features an Indigenous man named Saul. The book begins as Saul, now 30 years old, recounts the difficulties he had to endure growing up as an Indigenous boy. Saul’s family is in constant fear that he will be abducted by European Canadians, as two of his siblings were. One of his siblings, Benjamin, escapes and finds his way back to Saul’s family. In efforts to escape his captors, Saul’s whole family travel to a place called God’s lake where they harvest rice until Benjamin’s health becomes very poor and he dies.

    Read More

  • How The Impact Of The Navajo Rosetta Stone And Its Impact On Society

    1422 Words  | 6 Pages

    They were stripped away from their traditional and ordinary lives and introduced to the “oppressors’” way of life. If they stepped out of line and attempted to retain their previous lifestyle, they were physically abused through a system that wanted to spend as less money as possible to “kill the Indian, save the man.” It was this trauma that they went through as children that they reflect on their own children as they grew accustomed to it. It was this that many Navajo families of the reservation have a sense of fear to teach the younger generation the culture and language they were forced to grow apart from. The result and impact of the boarding school system can still be seen

    Read More

  • Summary Of Indiana Education By Sherman Alexie

    520 Words  | 3 Pages

    The short story, “Indiana Education” by Sherman Alexie, a Native American writer and filmmaker, is told in the first person, revisiting the experiences of Victor, and his schooling from first to the twelfth grades both on and off. Each academic year was a snapshot of an experience, on the differences of what it means to be a non-white student in an area that still struggled under the effects of colonization. Even though it’s been hundreds of years since European explorers came to North America, settlers, and the government pushed for western expansion into Indian territories, Native Americans slowly saw their land and culture diminish as they were relocated to reservations. Feelings of oppression become obvious for victor.

    Read More

  • The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Summary

    1113 Words  | 5 Pages

    In 3rd grade Arnold had a foot size of 11 not normal for a 3rd grader he also had a bigger skull than all the other kids, all of this deformations or imperfections made a childhood full of bullying and just a tough experience as he grew up in the reservation. Arnold was a victim and an easy pray for the oppressing Indians. As a kid he was a victim of at least one attack per month from any indian who just seemed to be in the mood of taking out his anger that day. Terrified from being bullied and harassed from anyone Arnold grew most of his childhood in school and inside his house. Arnold’s best friend is Rowdy, an Indian kid from his same reservation, unlike Arnold Rowdy is a bully and a very aggressive individual all of Arnold’s child hood in the reservation was accompanied by Rowdy who protects him from any other bullies and anyone who dares to bother him.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Fremont High School By Jonathan Kozol

    646 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people think that most American schools are satisfactory. That is far from what is actually happening. The harsh reality is that schools that are unsatisfactory do exist. In Jonathan Kozol’s “Fremont High School”, he points out the flaws of a high school located somewhere in Los Angeles. This helps shine light on differences in the quality of education in various areas of the country.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian By Sherman Alexie

    1121 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Banned Book Research Paper

    859 Words  | 4 Pages

    The book focuses on a young boy named Arnold Spirit who shows persistence and bravery as he defies all odds and strides towards a happier more successful life than his parents and ancestors before him. Arnold is a bright, inspiring young boy who grows up with little fortune and is destined to continue down the path of a poor, misunderstood Indian. However, his fate changes for the better when a spark lights the fire inside of him to strive to pursue a better, more flourishing life as he makes an extraordinary decision to transfer to an all-white school for a worthier education. However, the drastic change of schools puts a burden on his family to get him to school as well as leads to extreme bullying from not just kids at his new school but also from his fellow Indians in his hometown. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I learned that it doesn 't matter what your situation is and what you are expected to accomplish in your lifetime or what standards have already been set for you because you can be whoever you want to be with hard work, ambition, and confidence.

    Read More

  • Indian Education Sherman Alexie Summary

    490 Words  | 2 Pages

    Expectations often impose an inescapable reality. In the short story “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie, Victor often struggles with Indian and American expectations during school. Alexie utilizes parallelism in the construction of each vignette, introducing a memoir of tension and concluding with a statement about Victor’s difficulties, to explore the conflict between cultures’ expectations and realities. Alexei initially uses parallelism to commence each vignette with cultural tension. In second grade, Victor undergoes a conflict with his missionary teacher, who coerced Victor into taking an advanced spelling test and cutting his braids.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

    1118 Words  | 5 Pages

    Imagine going to school to learn new things; now imagine going to school to get beaten and never to return home. Indian Horse, written by Richard Wagamese, is a very emotional book that enables people to see what true horror it was to take part in Residential Schools as Saul Indian Horse and the after effects his parents portrayed. Wagamese establishes a very strong story line to examine how life was in Residential Schools including pain, punishments, and suffering. Punishments included mouths being washed out with soap, children being beaten (sometimes to death), laborious chores, strict rules to be followed along with certain religions, and racism. Residential schools caused Saul Indian Horse to forget his Ojibway heritage, follow his hockey

    Read More

  • Zitkala Sa Indian Education Summary

    1115 Words  | 5 Pages

    As the wild west opened, so did new opportunities for American to strike it rich. But with the wild west opening up for the Americans, Indian lands were being encroached for railroads and homesteads. Indians were being pushed into reservations, their children sent to assimilation schools such a the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. In the horrors of American assimilation targeted at young Native American children, many children would face the struggle of losing their identity or face punishment of resisting assimilation. In the assimilation stories of Zitkala Sa’s Impressions of an Indian Childhood and Sherman Alexie’s Indian Education, tells the tale of their childhood experience being integrated into “American culture”.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Population In Cry The Beloved Country

    1056 Words  | 5 Pages

    He says, “They have been teaching these things for many years. Yet it is sad to look at the place where they are teaching it. There is neither grass nor water there”(265). The white people are teaching farming where Farming isn’t possible. Farming is a very important thing in the valley, for the blacks didn’t have any money to buy

    Read More

  • Passage In 'The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian'

    851 Words  | 4 Pages

    P explains to Junior how hard he has fought, how Junior fought off brain surgery, seizures, drunks and drug addicts, that Junior is stronger than he thinks. As Junior slowly comprohends the truth that his teacher was laying out, he began to question where is hope? Mr. P responds to his question saying, “‘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)

    Read More

  • Part-Time Indian Social Class

    495 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie relies heavily on its elaborate descriptions of social class as well as class issues to construct the story’s plot, portray the novel’s characters and illustrate various themes throughout the story. Firstly, social class plays an important role in constructing and developing the story’s plot. Arnold, the protagonist, initially admits that he and his family live in constant poverty; he occasionally misses a meal or two and often resorts to hitchhiking for transportation. Furthermore, Arnold mentions that nobody left the reservation, which leads Arnold to believe that he is doomed to spend the rest of his life on the reservation where poverty, death and alcohol are prominent. Similar to other families living on the Spokane reservation, Arnold’s unfortunate situation stimulates his desire to succeed in the outside world but also devastates him with countless booze-related family deaths.

    Read More

  • Sherman Alexie What You Pawn I Will Redeem Analysis

    748 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alexie, S. (2003). What You Pawn I Will Redeem. The New Yorker. The article by Sherman Alexie talks about a homeless Indian man trying to recover his late grandmother’s powwow regalia. The story takes us through the character’s ordeals as he tries to raise money to pay the pawnbroker.

    Read More

  • Reflective Essay On Renner Middle School

    695 Words  | 3 Pages

    With its linoleum-tiled hallways, florescent lights, and carpet older than the teachers there, Renner Middle School was the kind of stereotypical school setting that only Hollywood would come up with. A place devoid of even the slightest of amusement. The overachieving students combated each other to gain the highest GPA while the delinquent kids were sent out of class for bigoted remarks. October seeped slowly into my sixth grade school year. In one particularly uneventful lesson in mathematics, Mrs. Haag droned on about some math subject my sixth grade self couldn’t be bothered to learn.

    Read More

More about How Is Arnold Spirit's The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian

Open Document