Part Time Indian Conflicts

One summer, there was a kid named Dean Gullberry and Dean liked to play the game of basketball. Dean would always go out to the river court and do what he does best. Dean had three best friends that he had always spent time with 24/7 playing basketball and just hanging out. His friends Ben Dover who lived across the street from Dean, Dixie Normous who Dean met at the river court but didn’t go to his school, and Jack Koffing who Dean met playing travel ball back at Compton. Dean Gullberry had always wanted to play in his city’s basketball league but people kept on saying that he wasn’t good enough, strong enough or big enough to be in the league. That's until Ray Lewis came and spoke one of his motivational speeches to Dean.

Junior being born on the Reservation has always been poor and put down by others. He has had a horrible life with pain coming from a new direction each day but has coped with it that is why he is still alive today to write this book. Although he may or may not admit it, the ways he coped with his life were not great after all. When faced with a

In the text, “Superman and Me,”One main quote that explains everything you need to know about this article is when Sherman Alexie says, “I wasrefused to fail. I was smart. I was lucky.” Many people that have read this choose to believe that this quote is just an irritating repetition of how he felt about himself, however, closer examination shows that it actually develops his main claim and central idea, refines his claims, and shows the purpose of this text all in one quote. Alexie was a young, Indian boy who just wanted to know how to read in write in the aspiration of becoming emotionally closer to his father because he loved him so. He was lucky enough to have the first step taken for him getting the books.

Despite the constant stereotypes placed on Arnold by his fellow Indians, and by his peers at Rearden, Junior rebounds stronger than ever. When Arnold, (dubbed Junior), arrives for his first day at his new school Rearden, he is surrounded by all the white teenagers and their expectations for him to be poor, stupid, and wild. They only consider him “Indian”, as if it is an occupation. When Junior is surrounded by a group of these racist people, they are all calling him names and making fun of him. However, none of them are brave enough to fight him, because they think that because he is an Indian, he must be a crazy fighter. “None of those guys punched me or got violent. After all, I was a reservation Indian, and no matter how geeky and weak I appeared to be, I was still a potential killer.” (63) This segment not only shows the racism of the people he is now surrounded with, but the way Junior uses the first person exemplifies that even he thinks he is a potential killer.

Despite these issues that the protagonist faces, he remains courageous and he continues life. At school, he proves to be a very good leader, and he does well in all his classes. At home, he deals with the absences of his parents very well. As a sixth grader, he is steadily maturing, and he draws from his own Indian traditions to stand up for what he believes is

When Junior is in Reardan (the little white town),he is “half Indian,”and when he is in Wellpinit (his home reservation),he is “half white.” “It was like being Indian was my job,” he says, “but it was only a part time job.And it didn’t pay well at all.” At Reardan High,why does Junior pretend to have money than he does,even though he knows that “lies have short shelf lives”?

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

Courage is exemplified in the novel by, “They wanted a better life for my sister and me. My sister is running away to get lost, but I am running away because I want to find something.” (page:46) “You’ll be the first one to ever leave the reservation this way,” Mom said. (page:47) Junior attending Reardan an all-white school even though, he know want he would be known as traitor on the reservation. “I felt brave all of a sudden. Yeah, maybe it was just a stupid fight. Or maybe it was the most important moment of my life. Maybe I was telling the world that I was no longer a human target.” (page:65) Stand up to his bully, Roger, for telling a racist joke and not becoming a human punching anymore. “I wanted to tell him that I thought I was being

Gene seeks authority’s formal acknowledgements and has a competitive nature. Although not as righteous and honorable as Finny, Gene’s mentality is more oriented for success; because in life, one cannot succeed if he or she is never recognized. Gene’s competitiveness eventually enters his relationship with Finny. Gene starts to envy Finny and he begins “keeping score.” In Gene’s mind, Finny is now his enemy. Gene then adopts the idea that Finny is trying to make Gene fail at school by taking him away from his studies so that he will be on the same level as Gene with school. Upon “discovering” this, Gene says to himself, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies.” Gene has no problem accusing Finny of this hostile act. Gene, unlike Finny, is aware of the evil in people and, although incorrect, comes to this assumption and although his assumption is incorrect, it is a realistic possibility. In life, people will try to harm you if it means benefiting themselves and Gene’s defensive and competitive nature make him well-prepared for the world. Gene sees Finny as his enemy, and instinctively believes he and Finny are competitors. As he himself is corrupt, he is able to see the wickedness of the

Junior is scared of going to Reardan because he thinks that he is going to get bullied for being the only Indian aside from the school mascot at a white school. Junior also came from the reservation and he gets bullied at the reservation too. For example, “ Man, I was scared of those Reardan kids, and maybe I was scared of hope, too, but Rowdy absolutely hated all of it. “ (Alexie 51) This tells the reader how Junior is feeling in this type of situation where Junior has to deal with going to Reardan alone and scared. Junior says he is scared of hope too, and this is because Junior is hoping for the best at Reardan, but if nobody likes him, it will be exactly like how it was at the reservation but without Rowdy. In addition, Rowdy is his best friend who always protects him from bullies, but now Rowdy is mad at Junior for moving to Reardan and Junior will have no one to protect him from bullies. “He coughed and turned away from me. I touched his shoulder. Why did I touch his shoulder? I don’t know. I was stupid. Rowdy spun around and shoved me. “Don’t touch me you retarded fag!” he yelled. My heart broke into fourteen pieces, one for each year that Rowdy and I had been best friends.” (Alexie 52) This quotation shows how much Rowdy hates Junior for leaving him and going to Reardan. Junior is scared that he is going to get bullied because Rowdy is not

Life knocks people down all the time. But it is said that it doesn't matter how many times a person gets knocked down, it is how many times that person gets back up. This is called perseverance, which can be used to help those succeed and overcome the hardships in their life. In “The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Alexie uses the protagonist Junior, to show how perseverance can be an effective trait, as it helps him conquer the obstacles in his life, and also expand his limits. 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

From what I understand of the word tribe it is a grouping of people in a shared community with the same religious beliefs; usually associated with Native peoples. Connotations I make with the word when it comes to my thought process is loyalty, family, and selflessness.

P’s advice and Junior’s experiences to to convey the theme that perseverance and hope can lead to great things. For example when Mr. P’s gives Junior advice regarding how to succeed in life, he says, “you kept your hope. And now, you have to go somewhere where other people have hope...away from this sad, sad, sad reservation”(Alexie 43). This evidence implies that, Mr. P’s advises Junior to keep up the hope but he know’s that Junior will give up and lose hope, being in the reservation. As a whole, he exclaim that Junior must go away from this reservation; to somewhere that has hope. Mr. P advises Junior to have perseverance so, he should never give up on his hope of becoming better. Mr. P believes hope leads to greater things, a better future. Therefore, he wants Junior to have hope and leave the reservation for the greater thing, a better future. Another example is Junior's experience at Reardan. For instance, while Roger is making inappropriate comments, Junior decides to defend Indians, black people, and buffalo, so “he punched Roger in the face”(Alexie 65). Then, he later realized that he “ had challenged the alpha dog and was now being rewarded for it.” This evidence implies that Junior’s experience of being bullied by Roger triggered him to stand up for himself. His hope and perseverance while standing up for himself and others, led to a greater outcome. Now, Junior was being respected as a result of him having hope and standing up himself; he was

Faced with many obstacles from poverty to racial stereotypes, Junior must override them if he is to make his life better than that of fellow Indians. Interestingly, rather than letting the obstacles hold him back Junior understands that his destiny is in his own hands and he must celebrate who he is even if it means fighting. In the end, we see a boy who have managed to overcome all hardships to get to the top, even if it means making tough choices such as changing schools, therefore is could be seen that race and stereotypes only made Junior