Part Time Indian

One of the main obstacles Junior overcomes is stereotypes. Junior is an Indian who lives on a reservation. Indians have many stereotypes that are towards them. For instance one stereotype is that they have no hope. Junior had a conversation with one of his teachers about his future, which involved him switching schools. Junior knew that if he stayed at the reservation high school he won’t be able to make a future for himself. So when his parents got home he asked them who has the most hope, “’White people, (Alexie45)’” his parents told him at the same time. Even

This draws a connection to the erasure of Native American culture in history, they are seen as rare and different from the ordinary, and for some people their existence is completely forgotten or denied. His own comments of not belonging at a white school, because of his nationality and family history further show the division of race that he can see at Reardan. Junior’s cursing accentuates how frustrated and pathetic he feels, viewed as less than everyone at his school, and constantly rejected and isolated by his white peers. The negative, demeaning mindset of those white kids is that Native Americans do not deserve anything from white people, not their time, attention, care, or even a proficient education. According to Jens Manuel Krogstad at Pew Research Center, Native Americans have the second highest high school dropout rate- eleven percent. This is very high, especially when compared to the white or Asian dropout rates- five and three percent, respectively. Additionally, it says Native Americans have the second lowest percentage of bachelor’s degrees, only seventeen percent, compared to the two highest, white and Asian, at thirty three and fifty percent (Krogstad). Many Native Americans today are not allowed a chance at education because of poverty at reservations, and lousy, penniless schools. These issues are not thought about or spoken of often, because they are simply not

The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is about a Spokane Native American boy named Arnold, or Junior as he is referred to on the reservation, and his life living on and off the Spokane reservation. Arnold had severe health problems as a young child, leading to him being bullied and transferring to a more prestigious school. These two events, and more, led to Arnold facing some extreme adversity. With the help and support of his best friend Rowdy, his girlfriend Penelope, his classmate Gordy, and his teammate Roger, Arnold overcame the adversity he faced through the help of friendship. In the book, Arnold’s first and best friend is Rowdy.

The Spokane Indians were victims of adversity, whereas the students of Reardan high school were met with privilege. With this in mind, the reader is able to recognize the deviation in the aforementioned environments throughout the novel. To support this, a statement that exposes a confession of the direct oppression youth on the reservation face is one made by Arnold’s teacher, Mr. P. Mr. P is in the midst of lecturing Arnold about the reasons he should leave the reservation when he says, “We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child” (Sherman 35). Mr. P explains to Arnold that the teachers were instructed to strip Indians of their culture. Within the same conversation Mr. P continues on to say, “The only thing you kids are being

One of the many personal characteristics that led Junior into success at Reardan was his confidence. Evidence that can support my answer can be found on page 46, in the novel “the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”. The quote reads: “I want to go to Reardan.”. This quote reveals that Junior was finally confident enough in himself. His confidence has reached the level to make him make the decision of leaving the Rez; in order to transfer to Reardan. He is aware that others will disown him for leaving the school at the Rez, to attend a school with white richer people. Ultimately, this personal characteristic led him into success at Reardan because the schools at the Rez aren’t good enough for his education and or future; meanwhile, Reardan makes a life impacting change on him.

On Junior’s first day at Reardan he already starts to notice this difference. The whites, when faced with their first Indian student, are a little afraid so they resort to what they were always taught to do when faced with an unfamiliar situation. They start to insult him by calling him names like Chief and Red-Skin. They also did this because they feared Junior. While explaining his first day at Reardan he says, “None of those guys punched me or got violent. After all, I was a reservation Indian, and no matter how geeky and weak I appeared to be, I was still a potential killer. So mostly they called me names. Lots of names” (Alexie 63). This shows that they fear him just as much as he fears them. Soon, they realize he is not a threat to them, and they quickly became friends with him. This is shown when the Reardan crowd cheered Junior on after seeing the way the Indians treated him at the first basketball game. They also booed the Indian team upon their arrival to the Reardan gym. This shows how the whites use a verbal approach to deal with

Junior believes that pictures are universal, “ If you are speaking and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning. But when you draw a picture everyone can understand it.” (5) The drawing of cartoons provides his ticket out of the reservation. He receives a scholarship to the all white high school, Reardan. However, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine, by accepting the scholarship, Junior is labeled a traitor and ostracized by his only friend and community, he becomes a “Part-Time Indian.” He transforms into Arnold Spirit while attending Reardan. At first he is bullied by the jocks, but after a sharp right hook to the jaw of the leader, he shows his courage and fortitude . Arnold Spirit is dating the most popular girl in school and is on the varsity basketball team. Through his metamorphoses, Junior, aka, Arnold is able to overcome his self-deprecation and accept his new identity, along with being true to his roots.

Because he’s both a traitor and a stranger, Junior is considered weird. But, he’s not weird alone. He and his new genius friend at Reardan Gordy, have made their own tribe of two weird people. Although it seems that Junior’s life is totally terrible, there are some positive aspects of it. Junior was a one of the few freshman to make Reardan’s varsity basketball team.

At the point when Junior chooses to transfer to Rearden an all-white school twenty-two miles from the reservation, it would become a big change in Junior's life making him a part time Indian. When Junior's family hears that

Growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, Junior faces daily prejudice and discrimination, which shape his journey of self-discovery and resilience. Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian provides a candid look at the struggles faced by Arnold Spirit Jr., known as Junior, a Native American teenager. Alexie, a Native American writer, draws from his own experiences to explore identity, cultural complexities, and the impact of prejudice and discrimination. By examining Junior's coming-of-age journey, the book shows how prejudice and discrimination create internal and external conflicts, shape identities, and uphold societal inequalities.

In today’s world, Native Americans are still mistreated and dehumanized. Sherman Alexie’s award winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian depicts life as a teenage Native American who decides to go against the cultural expectations set for him and go to school off of his tribe’s reservation. Through poverty, bullying, loss, and racism, Arnold Spirit Junior navigates his way through adolescence while attempting to achieve his goals. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie uses several significant events in Junior’s life to illustrate how heritage creates a predetermined path in life, one which can only be changed through determination and courage.

In the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian the main character Arnold (Junior) is struggling to find his true identity, he transfers from an all Indian school on a reservation, to a predominantly white school, and his tribesmen do not take kindly to his decision. Arnold has a tough time at first in the school, until he finds friends in the “jocks”. In his first game back on the reservation, Arnold is struck in the head by a quarter, and once he returns to play, he is given a concussion by his former best friend, Rowdy (fitting name). Arnold continues the season as a mediocre player, but comes up big when they play his former high school back at home. Later on, Arnold struggles handling the deaths of three characters, his

Even after hanging out with a bunch of the American people, Arnold still feels attached to his own heritage. He loves his family and his best friend, Rowdy, and he feels that he needs to make amends with Rowdy. He was really scared that Rowdy would hate him and Junior would need to leave his old Indian self. Later he fixed his problems while playing "one-on-one (basketball) for hours..." (pg. 230) and they "didn't keep score" (pg. 230). Also, Junior cares about his family a lot. When two of them died in a row (his grandmother and sister), he didn't know what to do without them. He also thinks that Indians are forgiving of any kind of eccentricity (until the Americans came). "Gay people were seen as magical, too...Gay people could do anything. They were like Swiss army knives!" (pg. 155). He is pretty accepting of his heritage. He knows that he is Indian going to a white

" Page 63. Many of his classmates at his new school thought that he was a violent savage because he was Native Americans. This helped Junior understand. what life would be like from then on because he would have to fight many stereotypes but he would eventually overcome them and earn people’s

To start off, Junior’s choice of transferring schools is a detriment because he never feels welcome, due to his preconceived ideas of being physically and mentally different, as a result, he has difficulty fitting in and the school actively tries to remove his Indian culture. Junior is fully susceptible to these influences, since the school curriculum on the reservation is designed to take away Native American practices (Labelle & Peden 5). This makes him an easy victim for the government because he essentially volunteers to drop his Indian practices, which completely correlates with their intentions (Labelle & Peden 5). In the first place, during Junior’s transition, he automatically is in the mindset that he is different and inferior to white people. Specifically, he expresses his feelings towards the two ethnics by comparing outfits and common words that associate with them (Alexie 46). This cartoon contrasts white people versus Indians, the white people portray to be far more superior and glorious than Native Americans, as they are everything Junior aspires to be (Alexie 46). This shows significance to the novel, since one word that is associated with white people is hope, however, he finds the opposite of hope at Reardan. Secondly, Junior