Aryzza Ducut
Mr. Rodriguez
Academic Literacy 112
21 April 2023
The Impact of Poverty “I had five bucks in my pocket. What could I buy with that? Maybe one plate of pancakes. Maybe.” The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman is a YA novel that is in Spokane, Washington. The main character, Junior struggles with numerous problems, and finding hope outside his reservation is his escape. One of Junior’s biggest problems he often encounters is poverty. Too far deep in hardship that he possibly can’t afford one plate of pancakes. Poverty damages how a person defines themselves and the lack of hope the person has left. “The impact of poverty can drive you to demoralize yourself.” This theme wants the reader to realize that
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He reflects on himself as an ugly and unintelligent Indian because of his lack of money and the mindset that he will always be poor. No matter what, he is fated to be poor with no hope of escaping it. In the novel, Sherman Alexie indicates this, “It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it,” (Alexie 19). In addition, Junior remarks that it’s not just him that is poor, but his tribe in the reservation too. It shows how much poverty is affecting him and the people on the reservation. According to Sherman Alexie, he mentions in the novel, “My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from. That is absolutely the saddest thing in the world,” (Alexie …show more content…
His mother and father’s dreams were just fantasies played in the hands of poverty. If his mother and father couldn’t achieve their dreams, Junior himself can’t reach success if destitution is dragging him down. To illustrate this point, “And it's not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It's not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people,” (Alexie 11). In addition to that, another quote from the novel that Sherman Alexie affirms is, “But we reservation Indians don't get to realize our dreams. We don't get those chances. Or choices. We're just poor. That's all we are,” (Alexie 13). It’s engraved in Junior’s mind that he’s trapped for the rest of his life, and won’t amount to anything because they don’t have options or a
In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” internal and external expectations shaped Junior’s life by giving him the strength to grow and give him a reason to live. Growing up in a discriminated Indian reservation, external expectations told Junior to never leave the reservation for something better. “Reservations were supposed to move onto reservations and die. We were supposed to disappear” (216). Everyone around Junior created this picture that Indians were expected to never stray from the reservation.
Junior is a young American Indian who had grown up on a reservation in the western United States. As he grew older, he realized that living on the reservation would lead him nowhere. His only chance of hope at a better life is to leave “the Rez”. Sherman Alexie perfectly captures the culture of an American Indian in his novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, by introducing white culture by sending Junior to Reardan High School. Junior’s experience in Reardan allows him to draw conclusions about his own culture and Alexie has surely done research on American Indian culture.
The continuous loss of relatives is too harsh for a boy, so Alexie uses a kind of “slight sorrow” to let Junior realize the weakness of life in the face of death. In addition, while cleaning the cemetery later, Junior says, “Reservations were meant to be prisons, you know? Indians were supposed to move onto reservations and die. We were supposed to disappear. But somehow or another, Indians have forgotten that reservations were meant to be death camps.”
Poverty is a very serious topic that millions of people all over the world are forced to deal with. However The Absolute Diary of a Part-Time Indian Junior makes the subject as a whole feel more light-hearted and not as serious. For example, he says, "Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” (13) Sherman Alexie uses deadpan/ understatement humor to make a light-hearted joke about growing up in poverty.
In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie the main character Junior faces many harsh challenges before he chooses to leave the rez. Some of the challenges he faces are poverty, having a disability, and bullying. He must face all of these challenges in order to be the person he is today. In the beginning of the story after we find out that Junior had hydrocephalus we also learn that he and his family are very poor.
The community living conditions have created an attitude where it is acceptable not to amount to anything in life. This is not just an effect in this community, but most poverty stricken communities which agrees with both Leventhal and Gorman-Smith statements. Most people living in poverty stricken communities grasp a mindset where there is no escaping poverty. In the book Alexie shows us through, the main character sister Mary, that a negative viewpoint of life can spread. She had dreams to leave the reservation, but they slowly faded away.
Junior’s father’s drinking problems and the lack of funds to afford decent living conditions on the reservation are prevalent issues throughout the book that provide an insight into this theme. This proves that the author has written this novel to exhibit the hardships of those in poverty are detrimental to a child’s future. First, the novel shows the hardships of poverty by showing the discrimination made against Junior. On page 86, Junior states he “remembered when I [he] used to be a human being,” (Alexie 86).
He offers examples of this with the narrator Junior, people on the Spokane reservation and how their lives differ from wealthier characters like Penelope. These examples include, alcoholism addictions being apparent in poorer communities as represented by the deaths of Eugene and Mary. In addition, poorer individuals do not have access to quality education or sufficient food as seen with Junior’s schools lack of new textbooks and his inability to afford an adequate meal. Lastly, Penelope did not have to worry about money but instead tried to gather money for the “needy”, when Junior actually had the experience of being seen as the “needy.” This shows how Sherman Alexie interprets the impact poverty has on people and how it is a lifelong
In Arnold 's case, poverty is a significant situation, which has impacted his life into many negative aspects. Poverty among Native Americans affects them more physically than academically or socially because they possess limited services and transportation. In the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Arnold has an onerous time getting to school because he lives on the reservation and his school is 22 miles away. In one situation, Arnold said "My dad was supposed to pick me up. But he wasn 't sure if he 'd have enough gas money...
The presence of reservation was a total separation of culture and race. By introducing Thomas and Junior’s family background, Sherman Alexie showned the sad lives and fragmented identity that the Natives endured. However, the protagonist
It is uncommon to try to branch out and achieve high goals. Junior mentions this commonality at the beginning of his journey, “Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty teaches you how to be poor” (Alexie 13). Junior fights this by moving to a predominantly white school, his goal is to get out of the reservation. Impressively, his sister also fights this when she spontaneously decides to get married and move far away from her family.
After realizing it’s not his parents fault for being poor he says, “Seriously I know my mother and father had their dreams when they were kids. They dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams” (11). His parents had a conflict with the world, they had aspirations, but since they were living on the reservation they weren’t given chances. This conflict reveals that Junior is understanding because he knows people on the reservation aren’t given any real chances to accomplish anything the only way for him to get a chance was by leaving. While talking to Mr. P about his sister, he realizes, “Had she been hanging on to her dream of being a writer, but only barely hanging on, and something made her let go” (39).
I Took the ball right out of [Rowdy’s] hands.” (192) This shows how Junior’s perseverance helps him overcome the obstacle of beating Rowdy. Furthermore, Junior perseverance also allows him to overcome poverty. After being in poverty for his whole life, Junior realizes that, “It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor,” and as he realizes this, he transfers schools to Reardan.
For example, Junior's family is very poor and,"It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it."
1984 Synthesis Essay Poverty negatively influences how the minds of people work in the world. The fact that poverty exists itself, obstructs people from changing their circumstances in what is known as “the cycle of poverty.” The lower class is incredibly disadvantaged in that it lacks the necessary social and economic resources needed to increase chances of social mobility. In return, the absence of these resources may increase poverty. Therefore, the lower class is unable to change its situation because the majority believes that any efforts to climb the social ladder is highly inefficient.