Introduction
It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor (Alexie ,2007). This quote highlights the theme of poverty in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Poverty is in a cycle and leads to worse circumstances unless the cycle is broken. In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian”by Sherman Alexie, Jr and his people live in poverty which creates addiction resulting in a loss of hope.
In “The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-time Indian “ Jr and his people live in poverty.
The people on the reservation all live in some sort of poverty, poverty is complicated and can be explained in many ways. Poverty could be when you do not have enough money to meet basic needs, food, shelter, and clothing. Poverty may connect to not having a good education , Jr. and his people are held back because of their race and have a lack of decision making in their lives. Jr. reflects on poverty early
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Most people on the reservation were addicted to substances or alcohol. Many things can cause people to become addicted to something. Past trauma can cause someone to become addicted, the past trauma can be anything like abuse or something that had happened to your family. Addiction can also cause poverty, the addiction may become so strong that you are spending lots of money on whatever you are addicted to and slowly move into poverty and vice versa. Poverty can affect you in multiple ways and living in poverty puts you at a higher risk of mental illness, which can lead to addiction. Addiction does not only affect you if it gets serious enough the people around you can be affected also. Jr talks about how addiction affects other people around them. “ All unhappy families on the reservation have alcohol”(Alexie, 2007). An example in the story relating to this quote is when Eugene and Jrs grandmother die at the hands of
What Hari and his findings concluded about addiction is that addiction doesn’t come from drug hooks, more so the root of addiction is depression and disconnection. “The Canadian physician Gabor Maté argues in his book “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts” that studies examining the medicinal use of narcotics for pain relief find no significant risk of addiction” (Hari). This being said, what we thought we knew about addiction isn’t correct. During the Gin Craze back in the 18th century an enormous amount of people was driven out of their everyday lives to urban slums, which through all their distressed caused them to drink their selves to death. Even if Gin wasn’t around, they would have found something else to ease the pain of everyday life.
Poverty is the extent to which an individual does without resources. These resources can be financial, emotional, mental, relational, knowledge of hidden rules, and spiritual. In order to for a person to leave poverty, it is necessary that the individual can be confronted and concern with his current state of life. Flannery O Connor gives us a good example of how poverty (or lack of resources) affects the humans’ decisions. In her story Parker´s Back, Flannery O Connor uses the theme of “poverty” by the description and mannerism of her characters, but also by using a casual-register story structure.
The impoverished worked for extremely low wages mainly because of major issues, such as a language barrier, that hindered their ability to find decent work in the United States. These individuals were being charged unrealistically high rent by the same people who paid them extremely low wages (Riis, Ch. 12). Riis’ is portraying poverty as being a tool that enables people to take advantage of others. Riis tell a story of a man who was blacksmith in is home land but do to his inability to speak English stops him from being able to practice his trade. He and his wife had no other choice but to work a cigar makers with his wife and son.
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.
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.
When Junior attempted to raise money to help Native Americans out of poverty, he recalls that “there were a lot more people who just called me names and slammed the door in my face,” (Alexie 79). Alongside this, when Junior was supposed to get picked up by his father after school, Junior’s dad “wasn’t sure if he’d have enough gas money. Especially if he was going to stop at the rez casino and play slot machines first,” (Alexie 87). Junior, and his family, weren’t able to gain enough income to purchase what seem to be the smaller things in life. This shows that alongside Junior, people in poverty have the even more overwhelming issue of being unable to gain enough funds to purchase smaller
(Bassil) He adds “Nobody’s saying that every traumatized person becomes addicted. I’m saying that every addicted person was traumatized.” Moreover, usage of substance especially if it turnes to addiction inevitably affected one’s health and social life. Usage of substance might have excessive amount of detrimental effects on users.
When one lives through a cycle of poverty, they are more likely to be given fewer opportunities to succeed in life. Which can cause hardships like losing out on education. " That Walter's as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. There's nothing wrong with him.
One thing that Edin and Shaefer makes abundantly clear is that poverty has no face. Victims of a failing economic system come from different backgrounds and all have different stories. The 1.2 million families below the poverty line are black, white, Hispanic and Asian. Although there are different types of families living on $2.00 a day, many of the families have commonalities. For instance, I believe that Madonna, Jennifer and Rae had the most in common.
“In the middle of a crazy drunk life, you have to hang on the good and sober moments tightly.” (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie page 216) This is a quote from the book that shows how Junior learns how to appreciate the good moments in life. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie the character Junior faces problems caused by drinking. The book starts off with his family living on the Indian reservation suffering from poverty and death.
Addiction is the number one cause of death in the US. Addiction can run in the family and be passed down through genes. Generally, that’s how addiction starts but it can start by recreational use, and then turn into something far more serious. In order to break the addiction, there is a 12 step program to follow, but one must be willing to admit there is a problem. Recovery is hard, but it is possible to maintain.
In the passage “What is poverty?”, the author Jo Goodwin Parker, describes a variety of things that she considers to portray the poverty in which she lives in. She seems to do this through her use of first-person point of view to deliver a view of poverty created by a focused use of rhetorical questions, metaphors, imagery, and repetition to fill her audience with a sense of empathy towards the poor. The author’s use of first person point of view creates the effect of knowing exactly what she is feeling. “The baby and I suffered on. I have to decide every day if I can bear to put my cracked hands into the cold water and strong soap.”
Argument for Banning “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” Book in Middle Schools Published in 2007, “The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie says about the moving story of a Native American teenager named Arnold Spirit who made the bold decision to attend an all-white high school from Spokane reservation to find hope for the future in the Reardan. This volume won the National Book Award in 2007 and won several other awards. Even though this novel can be power of education, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” paperback should be banned because this is not appropriate for middle schools.
Generational Poverty Poverty has been around for numerous years. Poverty can be a generational problem if people let it. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and David Joy’s “Digging in the trash” both show that families in poverty do not have it easy, the children will live in poverty unless something is done, and people either find a way of escape or stand up against it. In the short story, “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin shows how the lack of monetary resources affects many generations.
Addiction is the reliance on a routine. There are many addictive stages. Addiction, as it comes along, becomes a way of life. The persistent use of the substance causes to the user serious physical or psychological problems and dysfunctions in major areas of his or her life. The drug user continues to use substances and the compulsive behavior despite the harmful consequences, and tries to systematically avoid responsibility and reality, while he or she tends to isolate himself/herself from others because of guilt and pain (Angres, & Bettinardi-Angres, 2008).