How Are Junior And Thomas Alike

In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior is a young American Indian that is shy and has low self-esteem, and has a few issues physically and his surroundings. He has a best friend named Rowdy. Rowdy is rude and has no emotion to any situation. What many people at the reservation don’t know is that Rowdy and Junior have real problems at home with their parents. The differences between Rowdy and Junior are the family and the personalities.

21. How does Victor look to others, feel about himself, and behave toward his family when he arrives

In modern times, Native Americans are often overlooked and even looked down upon. In “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, the author writes about the life of one particular Native American. Overall, the story is about Victor Joseph, the protagonist, and his personal growth throughout the duration of his life and life struggles. In the beginning, it is said that Victor’s father leaves his family. This conflict really had a long term effect on Victor and also on Thomas Builds-the-Fire, another main character. All in all, Sherman Alexie displays the use of flashbacks and personal conflicts to build the main plot.

He is very optimistic and loves to talk and tell stories. As these two individuals set out on the journey to Arizona to retrieve Thomas’s dad’s ashes after they learn that he has passed, they also begin to discover themselves in the a new and “foreign” world. While on this journey,Victor’s

Picture having a mother who does not care and is neglectful. Imagine getting shot by cops or burned in a fire. Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston, two characters from S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, are similar in some ways and different in others. Johnny and Dally have similarities as they both have abusive, neglectful parents and place little value on their lives. Despite these similarities they also have differences as they give different advice to Ponyboy another greaser from The Outsiders before Johnny dies a hero and Dally dies a Gallant. In the end Johnny and Dally have similarities and differences.

In Sherman Alexie’s Indian Education, he conveys the theme of identity through events in Victor’s, the main character, education experience as an Indian. This reveals how humans experience conflict when it comes to their race. Victor went to a school in his reservation where he suffers throughout his years because of who he is on the outside, an Indian. Kids would fight him and always knock him down. They called him names like Junior Falls Down, Bloody Nose, Steal-His-Lunch, and Cris-Like-a-White-Boy. Teachers insult and give him unfair treatment like make him stand in class with books in each hand, gives him a more difficult test than the other students, and take away his artwork because it was inappropriate for having an Indian in the portrait; however, one teacher sees beyond Victor’s race. This teacher believes he should be a doctor, so when Victor grows up, he can heal people and make his people proud. Alexie uses the problems a character face because of it’s race throughout the person’s life to illustrate the theme of identity.

“ This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona.” Alexie’s background influences the type of characters that are in the story because he grew up on an Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington (272). First of all, the flashbacks in the story gives the reader an insight of Victor’s and Thomas’s childhood bond. We all understand that if we develop friendships, they aren’t always going to be perfect.

     Early in the book, Victor is portrayed as somewhat of a bully, and he and Junior are even referred to as, "two of the most accomplished bullies of recent Native American history." (page 13) Victor's closest and most meaningful relationship in the book is his friendship with Junior. It's unclear why Junior

Junior also loved Rowdy a lot. But he didn’t ever mention that to Rowdy because he wasn’t like that. He is the toughest kid on the rez. He beats up everyone, except for his best friend Junior. Junior gets beat up a lot. His first fist fight was when he was 3 and he only won 5 and lost 102 in his whole life as it says on page 62. Junior was used to it, he didn’t enjoy it but he was used to it. On Junior’s first day of highschool, he got suspended for throwing a textbook at his teacher, Mr. P. A few days later he got a visit from Mr. P along with a very long talk. After the talk, Junior decided to switch schools from Mr. P’s request. Not because Mr. P didn’t like him anymore, it was for his own good. He wanted to switch to Reardan highschool,, where all the rich white kids go. Well he had to break the news to his best friend Rowdy and his parents but his parents accepted his choice. Rowdy wasn’t happy with Junior’s decision. Junior insisted for Browdy to come but he refused. Browdy was devastated but Junior made the switch without Browdy anyways. His first day at Reardan, he punched a guy named Rogers in the face, he made his nose bleed like

Victor having a devastating experience by losing his father in this case, he now collects what his father left behind. In addition he had also lost his job at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Alexie 319) and Thomas who is the tribal story teller that nobody wanted to listen to (Alexie 320). Victor and Thomas weren’t friends in childhood because as a child Victor always think people around him would embarrass him, “Victor closed his eyes in embarrassment"(Alexie 322). In addition, Victor and Thomas had a fight, “When they were fifteen and had long since stopped being friends, Victor and Thomas got into a fight” (Alexie 322). Which makes perfectly good sense they never established a good childhood relationship.

Later Thomas makes another joke about “having a lot in common with the Indians” referring to how the government screwed them over, just like they did to the women in her Olympic games. Victor was surprised that a “crazy Indian storyteller with ratty old braids and broken teeth” was talking to a woman like her. This scene shows how physical, social, and personal links shape someone’s conception of identity, in this case it was Thomas’s. Thomas was also an orphan when was born. His father died in WWII “fighting for a country which had tried to kill him for years”, and his mother giving birth to him.

Tradition plays a huge role in the characters’ lives that live on the reservation. Thomas portrays his respect towards traditional Spokane culture by participating in Spokane storytelling. He is always trying to convince Victor to join in on the storytelling, dancing, and ceremonies, but Victor seems uninterested. Compared to Thomas, Victor seems to be quite removed at the beginning of the book. Victor actively makes fun of Thomas and how much he cares about the culture on the reservation. Although Thomas is constantly being made fun of by Victor, he still continues his traditions and still continues to try to convince Victor to join in on the traditions. Towards the end, Victor begins to connect more with

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” History plays a part in who we are as people, configuring us through our thoughts and actions. Such an idea of history’s importance in the building of one’s character manifests in the movie Smoke Signals. In Smoke Signals, author Sherman Alexie uses literary devices such as costumes, flashbacks, a detailed narrative, and other devices to create two distinct characters, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-The-Fire, that symbolize a clash between Native American culture and modern society through the theme of storytelling.

He ends up getting a part time job and meeting a woman, but she ended up leaving him to get back with her already married boyfriend. Later on, his country is no longer at war and his passport was valid, and was able to complete his father's dream and went back to his country. Even though Victor was in a country completely foreign to him he set his culture aside to solve problems that culture really couldn't. His choice was to escape his home country and come here and he didn’t base this choice to leave off of his culture, he didn’t try adapt to the odd customs of America because of his culture, he based all of his choices off of what he had to do for himself and that needed little to no culture to influence his

The short story "Class" by Sherman Alexie tells of the struggles of an American Indian man and tries to demonstrate how he reacts to his contrasted feelings and diverse world around him. The central theme of Alexie's short story is contrast, and this theme is evident throughout the story, even in the smallest of details. The actions, emotions and even the language of the characters contrast and these contrasts clearly illustrate the difference the characters have in class.