OVERCOMING AND SUCCEEDING LIFE’S OBSTACLES In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, one of the themes of the story is the loss of loved ones. Not being born with many opportunities, the main character, Junior, lives on a reservation and is born with hydrocephalus. He suffers and struggles with loss throughout the story. Right from birth life isn’t easy for Junior, but the love and closeness of his family is very helpful. Over the course of the story he has to learn to accept the loss of key people in his life. His grandmother, Eugene, and sister pass away leaving him to deal and cope with it. From the beginning, Junior's grandmother has always believed in him and stood by him. When Junior went to Reardan, his grandmother was the only one who thought it was a good idea. She was someone he could always rely on. Sadly, while she was walking home from a mini powwow she was struck and killed by a drunk driver. But before she died she had said “forgive him”, talking about the driver that injured her, as she was always wanting peace in the world. For her wake, close to two thousand Indians showed up, resulting in the funeral being moved to the football field. After his grandmother died, the reservation stopped bugging him and let him live peacefully. Grandmother spirit was widely known and respected. …show more content…
Eugene was a very honest and nice person that Junior could trust. He had given Junior rides to school throughout the story and never said anything bad to Junior about going to an all white school. Tragically, one day Eugene died suddenly. It was believed, that he and a friend were fighting over the last drop of alcohol and his friend shot him in the face. Eugene’s friend, who was overcome with guilt, hung himself in his jail cell, before Eugene’s loved ones even have a chance to forgive him. This impacted Junior and his father in a large
In life you have many choices. One of which is deciding whether or not you are going to succeed or fail in life. In other words, choosing to stay hopeful or not. In the “Absolute True Diary of a Part- Time Indian” Junior goes through many situations where hope is needed. The author Sherman Alexie puts Junior as well as other characters in situations to make those hard decisions.
Mr. p was one of the biggest inspirations to juniors actions. If it weren't for him Junior would be stuck at the rez forever and most likely become like all the other adults, drunk and angry. When junior began his journey to achieve his goals at Reardan it was very difficult. He was the only “different” kid there. Different meaning he was the only Indian in a school of white kids.
While on trial, Junior was asked why he had turned to the FBI. “That was not the life that I wanted to live,” he testified. Junior has helped the FBI by leading them to bodies that were buried in various places, while Junior successfully stayed alive and well in MS-13. In the final closing of the article Junior says, “It just didn’t feel right. I had to do something…
“Each funeral was a funeral for all of us. We lived and died together.” (Alexie 166). Death and life are eternal conundrums that people must face, but how would an Indian boy think about mortality after having been through more than 40 funerals? In the first-person narrative novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the theme of mortality and the fragility and powerlessness of life is highlighted through characterization, figurative language, and setting.
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).
Have you ever lost someone you loved or was important in your life? Well Junior has, he has lost many people in his life. He has gone to a total of 42 funerals in his lifetime and he is only 14. You will find out more about Junior in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Most of the people Junior has lost were due to alcohol.
The novel Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, By Sherman Alexie it show how Indians or African Americans struggle with who they are and who they want to be. Arnold learns how to live through and with his struggles because of how his friends accepted and helped him. In this book Alexie shows how all of Arnold’s friends helped him through different aspects in life. If he didn’t have those friends than his life would have been so much harder.
Junior and his Family are not ready to forgive the drunk driver Gerald, but it was an action that felt right, as it was for Grandmother Spirit. “My father was all quiet and serious with the surgeon, a big and handsome white guy”(Alexie 157). This quotation has a big impact on Junior as person. Later, he got to know the driver was drunk, and Junior and his Father thought about thrashing the driver. Instead, they kept Grandmother Spirits last wishes.
The majority of people would rather admire a photograph of the sunset than read a paragraph describing one; however, while visualizing and seeing are two different experiences, they can go hand-in-hand. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the readers are able to see and visualize Junior’s journey of learning how to blend into two different worlds through the text paired with pictures. By incorporating images with exaggerative language and humor, Sherman Alexie is able to enhance Junior’s story and create a realistic narrative. Throughout True Diary, the humor and casual language give the narrator an authentic tone.
Junior loses a lot of friends and family at the young age of fourteen. He gets bullied because he was born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull, but he has his best friend Rowdy there to help him. Junior realizes that he needs to leave the reservation to get a better life for himself. He goes to a new school off the
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.
Facing struggles of life defines one’s character in life. The ability to confront one’s problems speaks volumes about their strength in character, hopefulness, and flexibility as a person. Through struggles, sacrifice, and tragedy, Junior in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Junior adapts to survive difficult situations and faces his problems head-on. As he makes radical changes to his life, adapts to unfamiliar culture, and finds himself amongst misery and heartbreak, Junior demonstrates this ability to overcome wicked adversity and struggles.
It all comes down to discovering how we can win, even when the odds are against us. A major theme in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is never giving up. Junior starts life with serious brain damage and physical abnormalities. His family is poor. He is Indian, he doesn’t have access to the same level of schools, and health care as the white kids.
After everyone compliments his suit, he realizes it is okay to be different. Another example of this lesson is when Junior goes to Reardon, knowing he is going to be the only Indian there. Junior knows he will be the only non-white student at reardon, yet he goes anyway. Even though he has to deal with being picked on, and standing out, he learns to cope with it. In conclusion, Junior is not afraid to be different, since he has had a lot of experience as always being different in his life.
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