The Absolutely True Diary

In the fictional novel The Absolutely True Diarv of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Junior is an American Indian adolescent in search of new opportunities who leaves his family’s reservation to attend a wealthy white high school. Junior’s sense of identity after transferring to Reardan High School changed by integrating two conflicting racial backgrounds: those of his wealthy white peers at Reardan High School, and those of his poverty-stricken Indian friends on the reservation in Wellpinit. A primary source is the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

A secondary source is Lynn Cline’s biography about Sherman Alexie detailing his childhood, since the novel is based on Sherman Alexie’s life as a developing adolescent. An additional secondary source is the Civil Rights Book Club’s, a organization seeking to integrate diversity and social justice with a literature, review of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

In the exposition of the novel, Junior lives with his family and attends school on the Indian reservation.

He feels trapped in the Indian reservation’s poverty and despair: “I draw because I want to talk to the world, And I want the world to pay attention to me. , I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation,” Junior uses drawing as a creative outlet, which indicates that he is bored, isolated, and seeking new opportunities Lynn Cline describes Sherman Alexie‘s childhood, upon which Junior‘s story is based, Accordingly, the upbringing of Alexie mirrors that of Junior: He grew up in Wellpinit, a town on the 156,000-acre Spokane Indian reservation in eastern Washington, where he was, frankly, ‘miserable.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified

Proficient in: Culture

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

’ His father, an alcoholic, often disappeared from home for days at a time His mother sewed quilts and clerked at the Wellpinit Trading Post to support her six children.

As a boy, Alexie was teased mercilessly by the other reservation kids. . .his precociousness didn’t help his popularity, nor did his government-issued, horn- rimmed glasses. He found solace at the Wellpinit School Library, where he read every book on the shelf by the time he was twelve Like Junior, Alexie’s family faced difficult adversities in the poverty-stricken Indian reservation, which prompted Alexie to seek new opportunities by transferring schools. After transferring to Reardan High School, Junior begins to feel conflicted with his racial identity He explores the unfamiliar world that lies beyond the reservation: “Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a strangert I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other, It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job”.

As an American Indian attending a white high school, Junior is an outsider to both the Indians and the whites. Junior feels conflicted with the dissonance between these two different racial identities Lynn Cline further explains how Alexie’s childhood is reflected in the novel through the unhappiness that accompanied Alexie’s racial dysphoria: In order to obtain the required credits for college, he chose to go to high school in Reardan, thirty miles off the reservation, where most of the students were white, There, he flourished, becoming a star player (and the only Indian) on the school’s basketball team . ,but living among the wealthy white students made Alexie feel acutely like a second»class citizen, and he began to drink for the first time in his life.

Like Junior, Alexie felt as if he did not belong with the white students at Reardan High School because of his racial background and socioeconomic class. He turned to alcohol to ameliorate the misery of the dissonance between his two racial identities, At Reardan High School, Junior attempted to hide his family’s poverty from the white students at the school. He did this in order to fit in: “White people everywhere have always believed that the government just gives money to Indians And since the kids and parents at Reardan thought I had a lot of money I pretended to have a little money. I pretended to be middle class I pretended I belonged”. In accordance with the racial stereotype of American Indians benefitting from government welfare, Junior pretended to be middle class in an attempt to harmonize the discrepancy between his Indian background and his white peers.

In the Civil Rights Book Club’s review of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Alexie’s racial conflict throughout the novel between his Indian side and his white side is highlighted: Heavily based on Alexie‘s personal experiences, this fictional story depicts struggles, injustices and the long-lasting effects of historical oppression toward Native Americans. Although Junior is a young adult, he must face the reality of living in utter poverty, contend with the discrimination of those outside of the reservation, cope with a community and a family ravaged and often killed by alcoholism, break cultural barriers at an all—White high school, and maintain the perseverance needed to hope and work for a better future.

Junior must decide whether to stay true to his Indian roots or adopt the promising new opportunities presented to him at Reardan High School. The Indians on the reservation label Junior as a traitor for transferring to a white high school, and Junior seeks to get revenge by defeating their team in a basketball game. He befriends Roger, a tough kid who respects Junior after being punched by him, and Gordy, a nerd who enjoys working on computers He also gets into a relationship with a girl named Penelope. Though Junior is American Indian, he is beginning to culturally assimilate with the whites at his school, After defeating Wellpinit‘s basketball team in an intense game, Junior comes to several realizations: I whooped, We had defeated the enemyli .

And then I realized something . .I looked over at the Wellpinit Redskins I .I knew that seven or eight of those Indians lived with drunken mothers and fathers. I knew that none of them was going to college I ‘1 suddenly wanted to apologize to Rowdy, to all of the other Spokanesi I was suddenly ashamed that I’d wanted so badly to take revenge on them. (195-196) Junior feels regret after defeating Wellpinit’s basketball team, since the Indians on the reservation are full of despair and poverty. Additionally, Junior suddenly realizes that he is a privileged child because of the fact that he attends Reardan High School. From this moment on, he decides to retain his Indian background while thriving happily at Reardan High Schools Through defeating Wellpinit in the basketball game, he has a moment of epiphany in which he finally integrates his two conflicting racial identities

Throughout the novel, Junior undergoes a journey of dramatic change in racial identity In the beginning of the book, while living in the bleak Indian reservation of Wellpinit, Junior feels trapped and hopeless. After being encouraged by his geometry teacher, Mr. R, to transfer to Reardan High School in order to find new opportunities, he decides to do so, and feels out of place with the wealthy white kids at his new schoolr Junior tries to fit in with the white kids by pretending to be middle class. He is deemed a traitor by the Indians at Wellpinit, and is determined to get revenge on the Indians by defeating their team in a basketball game After defeating the Wellpinit basketball team, he regrets his vengeful attitude, realizing that the Indians are living in despair and poverty. He decides to support the hopeless people living on the reservation and embrace his Indian background while also enjoying the company of the white kids at Reardan High School and appreciating the opportunities he has been given. From this influential event, he learns to integrate his two conflicting racial identities into a balanced harmony.