“My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents study from; that is absolutely the saddest thing in the world”. Junior then throws the book at the Mr. P, the teacher. In retrospect, he throws it to show just how poor his rez is and that he now has to use the same textbook his mother used. Junior, feeling even more hopeless, decides to leave the Spokane Reservation and its problems with poverty, domestic violence, and alcoholism; He then finds the school with the most hope, the rich, white school in Reardan, after talking to Mr. P. “You kill Indians?” Junior asks; “No, no, it’s just a saying” (4). Mr. P reveals to Junior that his teacher’s training at the Spokane Reservation was focused on striping the children of their culture; their songs, stories, language, and dancing.
It started with Victor’s encounter with other Indian boys bullying him because of his too short hair and horn-rimmed, ugly glasses. Victor was constantly bullied until one day he fought back. Bullying wasn’t contained to his fellow classmates; one teacher, Betty Towle, was impartial to him because he was Indian. He was given a test designed for junior high students and was punished for answering everything right. In the fourth grade, Victor’s father started drinking.
Junior’s Poverty One’s achievements are based on how hard one works. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, We are introduced to Junior a young Native American boy who wants to better himself and not follow in the same footsteps as his family or others in the reservations. He brings it upon himself to change schools and become someone, other than just another poor drunk Native American in the Rez. He is faced with many obstacles for leaving his school in the reservation and going to Reardan, an all-white school in the white part of town. During his experience he finds the true meaning of friendship, love, hope, as well as poverty and loss.
He draws “because I want to talk to the world. And I want the world to pay attention to me.” How do Junior’s cartoons (for example, “Who my parents would have been if somebody had paid attention to their dreams” and “white/Indian”) show his understanding of the ways that racism has deeply impacted his and his family’s lives? 3. When Junior is in Reardan (the white town), he is “half Indian,” and when he is in Wellpinit (his reservation), he is “half white.” “It was like being Indian was my job,” he says, “but it was only a part-time job. And it didn’t pay well at all.” At Reardan High, why does Junior pretend he has more money than he does, even though he knows “lies have short shelf lives”?
I actually hate that book!”My dad looked at me with confusion. He said, “What is wrong? You liked it yesterday.”“I just don’t like it, okay!” I said wanting him to leave me alone. Of course, he is my dad, so he got it out of me. I told him what happened at school.
Life is too short for people to learn everything in the whole world, so learning should never stop. In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie wrote about Arnold Spirit Junior, the Indian boy who used to live and go to school on his reservation. Arnold was born in a poor family with many health problems, but he is clever, dexterous and always believes in himself. He decides to improve his life by leaving his old school and moving to Reardan, a white high school filled with smart students located more than twenty miles away from his house. In geology class at Reardan, Arnold meets Gordy, the class genius.
Completely stunned by the first words coming out of this new, intimidating teacher, I was excited for an English class for the first time. Growing up I absolutely dreaded reading and writing. Literature as a whole was the bane of my existence. However, this teacher changed it all for me. Mr. Alessandri had us read Silence of the Lambs, Dune, and numerous short stories.
When the teacher gets to David, he says how he loves IBM typewriters, the French word bruise, and his electric floor waxer. The teacher’s reaction made him think that his mispronunciation was a capital crime in France. David believes he have to the absorb to the abuse from the teacher. As the month went by David‘s teacher didn’t change she got worst, and they had to dodge chalk, and protect their heads and stomach when she came with a question. Since the teacher felt David was lazy he started to study four hours a night.
He snarled. He dispised the trivialization of higher education…”(Pg.522) His parents lack of understanding caused frustration in Rodriguez at first, but throughout the story, he found himself becoming more and more like them. “I thought as I watched my mother one night… I gestured and laughed like my mother. Another time I saw for myself: my father’s eyes were much like my own, constantly watchful.”(pg531) This realization was a revelation for Rodriguez; all this time throughout his schooling career, he had thought he was so different from his parents, him being an Americanized “scholarship boy” and them being working class immigrants, but he had learned a lot from them, and his realization of their differences, combined with his education is what ultimately drove his
When we face difficulties in daily life, sharing is the best way to deal with the problems. So a problem shared is a problem solved. Like most of the people, I didn’t understand this statement until I read a book last month. The wonderful book is called Front of the class which tells a story about a young man named Bobo who has Tourette syndrome. During his childhood, friends and teachers even his parents accuses him of making too much tics and noises at school.