...to make the biggest choice of your life, at the age of 14. Sherman Alexie’s book, The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, tells the story of a boy who betrays other Indians and chooses to go to an all white school, called Reardan, not knowing if his decision will kill him or make him stronger as a human being. In writing The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, Alexie wants to teach the readers that if you do not attempt, you will not attain. Junior deciding to fight the stereotypes and making a commitment to going to Reardan, show he is willing to succeed no matter what the consequences may be. Additionally, Junior took every small moment of his life seriously, he knew that something as small as making the school basketball team or climbing a frightening pine tree will make a huge impact on his future. Junior knew that if he stayed a coward and didn’t try to change anything for the rest of his life, the misconceptions about Native Americans would be true....
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...Though Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games are both certifiable staples of the canon of contemporary young adult literature, the two best-selling novels do not, at first glance, appear to have much else in common. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is, after all, as its title would have you believe, a “diary” of sorts: it is zany Arnold “Junior” Spirit Jr.’s account of what it means to live on an Indian reservation today – and, more importantly, what it means to be Native American in the United States today. The Hunger Games, in contrast, is a work of dystopian literature; set in the fictional nation of Panem, it sees its protagonist, the recalcitrant Katniss Everdeen, compete in a brutal televised death match known as the “Hunger Games.” Contending that these novels could – or, in fact, do – share thematic roots sounds absurd,...
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...Great decisions come with great thought and time. In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior had a dilemma that would ultimately affect his life. Although, the pressure was building up Junior made the right decision to leave the Rez and attend Reardan because of the environment and the opportunity to grow and prosper. There was a greater opportunity for growth in Reardan mostly because of their white middle-class population.According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 9.2% of Native Americans ages 12 and older were current heavy alcohol users, the highest rate of any ethnic group (Hanes 1) while at Reardan a typical middle-class neighborhood almost “more than half of the graduating class...
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...Sherman Alexie ENG 150 – Critical Analysis Assignment Fingerprints Recently, I was introduced to a man named Sherman Alexie. See, what I liked about Sherman from the beginning was the dissimilarity we shared. Too often, as a society we get so caught up in the bait of commonality that we forget it’s the differences that make us individuals. His family was not like mine. The significant values that shape a young man’s life, like Sherman’s and mine, were founded on different life experiences and were respected on unfamiliar levels. I came to see he loved differently and for different reasons. He esteemed for different reasons and his perception on life was remarkable yet understated. Sherman had a way of seeing things… the realness he bestowed was astonishing, but more importantly, he was able to help me see differently too. You’re asking, “Where did you meet this Sherman Alexie?” The answer to that question is difficult to state because I feel like I’ve known him my whole life, but I doubt he’d say the same of me. The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian is a novel by Sherman Alexie written for anyone willing to read it. It displays his inner deepest thoughts through the story of a young man named Junior. The great thing about being introduced to a man through his work is that he reveals himself to you through nothing but the deepest and best thoughts; and Sherman had many. Sherman Alexie was a Native American who grew up on a reservation in Spokane...
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...In Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the protagonist in the story is a 14-year old boy named Arnold Spirit Jr., a.k.a Junior, which they call him throughout the story most of the time. The novel begins with Junior explaining how he is Native American and lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation with his mom, dad, sister, and grandmother (Alexie 1-6). He clarifies how he was born with water on his brain, and because of this, he gets treated poorly at school. Kids call him a retard, they pants him, and they shove his head into the toilet (3-4). On the reservation, Rowdy is Junior’s best friend and pretty much his only friend. Rowdy protects and stands up for Junior when he needs help (15-18). The main conflict in the novel is Junior struggling at Wellpinit, which is his school on the reservation and how he transfers to his new school, Reardan. When he transfers to Reardan, he meets Penelope who he has a big crush on and Roger who is the most popular guy in the school. At first, he does not really get along with them, but in the end, they become the best of friends. Junior discovers that no matter where he goes he gets bullied....
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...How does the author of your chosen text heighten the entertainment value within it? Introduction: In Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, the author is capable of maintaining the audience’s attention by entertaining you through windows of an Indian cartoonist challenging his destined life by grabbing his future into his own hands. The author further supplies the audience with entertainment in the form of themes, language techniques and structural presentation. Alcoholism and violence are prompt and reoccurring themes throughout the novel that the author purposely plays with to amuse the audience. Additionally, the author, with the aid of language techniques such as colloquialism, is able to build a link...
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...On Junior’s reservation, there were very few jobs that were offered, but there were even less for a fourteen year old like Junior, because he was too young. To make money Junior even thought about cutting some lawns or getting a simple neighborhood job but, Junior stated that “...there were only about fifteen green grass lawns on the reservation, and the only newspaper route was owned by a tribal elder named Wally. And he had to deliver only fifty papers, so his job was more like a hobby” (10). Furthermore, Junior’s reservation faces a lack of commerce, because of an absence in industrialization. James J. Davis says that “Like other minorities living in disadvantaged rural or urban areas, reservation economies are hurt by limited industrial diversity and a dearth of job opportunities caused by their geographic remoteness” (7). In addition to the lack of jobs, and industrialization, Junior’s reservation has poor healthcare as seen when Junior needed to get teeth pulled for having ten more than the average human who has thirty two. Because of the limited funds that the Indian Health Service could provide, Junior had to have all of his extra teeth pulled in one day. Though tens of millions Americans live in poverty, things have taken a turn for the better in recent years....
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...the themes of race, ethnicity, and culture are Day of Tears, by Julius Lester and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. These award-winning novels illustrate the fact that the viewpoints of authors who are members of the minority groups about which they write have a unique perspective that can be universally appreciated. That these works of literature have universal appeal is a testament to the writing skills of both authors, as well as to the way in which each of them has blended historical fact and fiction, to paraphrase Mr. Lester in his Author’s Note in Day of Tears (175). Although both novels furnish us with multiple examples of how African-Americans and Native Americans were, and in the case of Diary, still are being mistreated at the hands of the white majority, they nevertheless serve to affirm the fact that the resilience of the children exposed to these horrors transcends a mere discussion of race because resilience is part of the human spirit. Both books are replete with examples proving this thesis. These novels are of recent vintage. Day of Tears was first published in 2005, while Diary was copyrighted in 2007. Both authors are “insiders,” that is to say, they are members of the minority groups that are the subjects of their writing. The book jacket of the paperback edition of Diary proclaims that the work is “inspired by his [Alexie’s] own experiences growing up.” We learn from Lester’s Author’s Note that Day of Tears was...
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...the themes of race, ethnicity, and culture are Day of Tears, by Julius Lester and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. These award-winning novels illustrate the fact that the viewpoints of authors who are members of the minority groups about which they write have a unique perspective that can be universally appreciated. That these works of literature have universal appeal is a testament to the writing skills of both authors, as well as to the way in which each of them has blended historical fact and fiction, to paraphrase Mr. Lester in his Author’s Note in Day of Tears (175). Although both novels furnish us with multiple examples of how African-Americans and Native Americans were, and in the case of Diary, still are being mistreated at the hands of the white majority, they nevertheless serve to affirm the fact that the resilience of the children exposed to these horrors transcends a mere discussion of race because resilience is part of the human spirit. Both books are replete with examples proving this thesis. These novels are of recent vintage. Day of Tears was first published in 2005, while Diary was copyrighted in 2007. Both authors are “insiders,” that is to say, they are members of the minority groups that are the subjects of their writing. The book jacket of the paperback edition of Diary proclaims that the work is “inspired by his [Alexie’s] own experiences growing up.” We learn from Lester’s Author’s Note that Day of Tears was...
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