The Absolutely True Diary of a Party Time Indian Essay

In Sherman Alexies novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, the protagonist, Junior, overcomes many obstacles such as stereotypes, poverty and hopelessness. 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, â€Å"’White people, (Alexie45)’† his parents told him at the same time. Even†¦show more content†¦The second obstacle that Junior overcame was poverty. Being an Indian and living on the reservation he grew up with little to no money, and any money they did have his dad drank away. One common thing that Junior heard when he asked his dad for a ride to school in Reardan was, â€Å"’Don’t have enough gas,’ (Alexie70).† Junior never le t the fact that his parents didn’t have any money stop him from going to school. He would either walk or hitchhike his way there even if he would be late. Junior was very determined to get to school to create that future he was dreaming of. He didn’t want the kids at Reardan to think of him as any different as they were. One way he did this was by pretending he had money, â€Å"My parents gave me just enough money so that I could pretend to have more money than I did, (Alexie119).† He knew he was poor, but he didn’t want his friends to know he was too. Junior wanted to be like everyone else and just fit in. He didn’t want the kids to think just because he was poor he couldn’t hang out with them. Eventually his friends discover that he has little money. They didn’t even think about not hanging out with him. They actually offer to help him and give him rides. If anything the fact that they knew more about him made him more popular with them. Junior would walk to school when there was no gas, he would hang out and go places with friends even when they knew he was poor. When Junior lets loose, he becomes a better person an overcomes his poverty withShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Movie The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian `` By Sherman Alexie1403 Words   |  6 Pagessingle person out there longs to be part of something bigger than themselves. They don’t want to be alone in such a big place as the earth we live on. They want to feel like they belong. This is exactly how Arnold Spirit Junior (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; Sherman Alexie) feels. He has spent his entire life feeling like an outsider. He longs to be a part of something bigger than himself, to be accepted. There are many aspects in life in which one can feel like they belong. ThereRead MoreAlcoholism: An Enemy of the Abandon Essay1034 Words   |  5 Pagestoxic liquid, known as â€Å"Alcohol† has destroyed many lives. For instance, Sherman Alexie, a Native American writer, experiences many sorrows from alcohol. He writes about the sufferings he experienced in his fiction novel, â€Å"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian† and talks about the struggle in his interviews. In addition to Alexie’s stories, Diane Sawyer, a reporter, investigates a Native American tribe and discovers that alcohol abuse is common in the reservation. Alcoholism is portrayRead MoreChristopher and Junior’s Journey from Home in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon989 Words   |  4 PagesNight-Time by Mark Haddon and Junior, the main character in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexi, face difficult problems through t heir teenage years which they eventually overcome. Christopher, a fourteen year old boy from Great Britain struggles for social acceptance as a result of his autism. He struggles with empathy and understanding nuances in relationships and as a result, dislikes all forms of interaction. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, JuniorRead MoreAlcohol Abuse And Alcoholism Is A Big Part Of The Society Essay1410 Words   |  6 PagesAlcohol has been a big part of the society. It is how people socialize whether they are a business meeting, a party, a bar, and many more places and events. They tend to consume alcohol without knowing and questioning how much they have had. A huge amount of the population have not asked themselves this question, â€Å"Do I know what a standard drink is?† According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) booklet Rethinking Drinking, â€Å"Many people are surprised to learn what countsRead MorePersonal Essa y : Identity Expository Essay1427 Words   |  6 Pagessome time that my identity was a part of who I was, an unchangeable, connected, jumbled mass of my ideals and preferences. However, after speculation on this topic, and a deep and intimate search within my mind and soul, I have realized it is much, much more. I have searched through my community, my personal life, and the world around me to find answers to this deep and burning question. Furthermore, I have consulted the knowledge of books like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian to continueRead MoreThe Lone Ranger And Tonto In Heaven By Sherman Alexie978 Words   |  4 PagesA collection of twenty-two stories narrated by different characters, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie illustrates the lives of modern Native Americans on the Spokane Indian Reservation and their hardships, which include despair, alcoholism, and poverty. Tribal members hold high hopes for the young who have extrao rdinary talent while doubting that they will achieve success and watching them succumb to alcoholism. These stories, while sad and gloomy, are told with humorRead MoreThe Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian By Sherman Alexie1166 Words   |  5 Pagesyoung adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Sherman Alexie gives his audience characters who react differently when given an education they feel is low quality. Alexie uses Junior, Junior’s parents, and Junior’s sister Mary to show the impact an education can have on one s possibilities for a better life. Because of their lack of a good education, Junior’s parents live without a stable job and weren’t able to realize their dreams. â€Å"we reservation Indians don’t get to realizeRead MorePrejudice And Prejudice By Maya Angelou1824 Words   |  8 PagesAngelou to me perfectly describes the word and definition of prejudice. Prejudice was in all units in this class, in total there was prejudice against Indians, African Americans, and Jews. Prejudice was a huge theme or talking point in all the stories/movies, and it caused adversity for main characters. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior faced adversity. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus, Jem, Scout, and Tom Robinson all faced adversity. All Jews faced adversity during the HolocaustRead MoreSherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, And Jim Jarmusch877 Words   |  4 Pageshad a rich and interesting system of religious beliefs were introduced to Christianity during colonization and forced to accept t he teachings of the church. Alexie creates a powerful symbol of forced assimilation in his novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. He writes, â€Å"Then the white kids began arriving for school. They surrounded me† (Alexie, Forney, 56). This excerpt shows white society smothering Native culture, seizing control of a once peaceful environment and adopting a completeRead MoreThe Bullied Indian Valedictorian By Sherman Alexie1177 Words   |  5 PagesBrandon Borrego Professor Flores English 1301 M21 28 Oct. 2015 The Bullied Indian Valedictorian A rough childhood would be an understatement when talking about a minority child’s. Sherman Alexie’s â€Å"Indian Education† illustrates the life of a young Native American boy from early 1st grade, to the final moments he walked down to get his diploma. Along the way we are confronted by challenging suspects who test his patience and character. Being bullied in first grade, Victor tries to gain respect by

Pure Pressure Affects People Of Any Age - 1074 Words

Pure pressure affects people of any age, in a multitude of ways, for a number of reasons. It’s something everyone experiences at some point in their life. How you deal with it is and always will be entirely up to you. Red Flags for Peer Pressure Although peer pressure affects everyone, and I mean everyone, there are times where you are more vulnerable of falling for peer pressure. As we become more independent from our parents we become more prone to falling for peer pressure. This is because as we start to make our own choices we consider the long term effects of our actions less and we usually don’t know what we want most of the times anyways. There are two main features that seem to distinguish teenagers from adults in their decision making, during early adolescence in particular, teenagers are drawn to the immediate rewards of a potential choice and are less attentive to the possible risks. Second, teenagers in general are still learning to control their impulses, to think ahead, and to resist pressure from others.- Laurence Steinberg People who feel the need to fit in, weather it s because of society or themselves, are very prone for following the crowd and giving into peer pressure. When someone is a follower they tend to also have a low self importance making them even more prone. If you have a friend that is a bit of a follower try to help them out and make sure they aren’t making bad choices to gain friends. Trust me those are not the friends someone wouldShow MoreRelatedThe Power of Choice Essay751 Words   |  4 Pagesof choice† laws of life essay. Choices are the decisions we make in life, some are good and others are bad. People make choices every second of everyday. The choices we make will always have an outcome, whether or not it is a positive or negative one. 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Cults free essay sample

A persons thoughts, behaviors and emotions will be manipulated once they have joined a cult; the dangers of cults have become severe over the past years and have caused thousands of deaths due to the influence of cults members and leaders. Cults are able to gain members, due the fact that people in actuality do not know it is a cult they are joining. After joining a cult, some people still do not even understand that they are actually in a cult. Cults are something a person may read about or see on W, but to have the actuality of knowing that a person has joined a group is shocking.It is meeting that an individual would think, that could not happen to them. Over the past decades there have been several horrific events that have caused deaths to hundreds of Americans. The causes of their deaths were the effects of their leaders, who the followers once trusted. In return Jones provided everything necessary to live, even budding nursing homes.Other church members that still worked outside of the church would immediately sign over paychecks to Jones and in return were given a $5 allowance and provided with the needed necessities. The Move In 1 973 an article was published further criticizing Jones actions after 8 members defected and the hunt for their Caribbean missionary post began. Ultimately Jones settled on 3800 acres of jungle in an area of northwestern Guyana. Jones felt Guyana with a government considering mostly black leaders in an area that was small and poor could be easily influenced which would provide him with protection. After 500 members constructed Jamestown a mass migration followed. Most of the members felt in the beginning Jamestown resembled paradise. Of course it wasnt. Once again rumors circulated about the abuse taking place t Jamestown. Capital punishment, children being kept in ply-wood boxes, upside down, and overnight in the torture hole, drugs like sodium pentathlon, vellum, and Demeter being used to control unruly members and possible defectors long-term, and armed guards patrolling the Jamestown boundaries day and night.The beginning of the end- White Nights Jones began taking drugs and preaching paranoid rambling sermons warning his members that agencies like the CIA were conspiring with capitalist pigs to destroy Jamestown and harm them. He started asking members to vote on 4 possible contingency plans 1 . Attempt to flee the Soviet Union 2. Revolutionary suicide 3. Stay and fight or 4. Flee into the jungle. At least twice during the white nights the members chose revolutionary suicide.After the stolen custody dispute in September of 1977 Jones began broadcasting his sermons over loudspeakers placed around the encampment reminding members to hold strong when the time came. One of the many things that stick out for me after watching the documentary is hearing the surviving members of Jamestown talking about is the sound of Jones voice being played 24/7. He even recorded tapes so that the eradication never ceased. Meanwhile a group of concerned family members began campaigning to the US Secretary of State and the Guyana government their concerns.Finally Leo Ryan who represented Californians 1 lath district announced he was planning a visit to Jamestown. Ryan and a group of 18 flew to Jamestown but were initially refused entry. On November 17th Jones succumbed to the pressure and gave Ryan a tour. During the tour a member slipped a note to the party asking for help. After the note and defector were brought to light several members spoke up and voiced their desire to leave as well. Jones roll was begging to crumble. By November 18 the number of defectors had grown so that an additional aircraft was needed.Amongst the group loading on the first plane was a member pretending to be a defector. Larry Layton boarded the plane, pulled a gun from his clothing and began firing. A person aboard the plane was able to disarm him. Within minutes the group standing on the tarmac (including Congressman Ryan) noticed a truck with a group of men pull up. The men jumped from the truck and walked circles around the plane constantly firing their weapons. Several were killed including Ryan who was shot 20 times. The beginning of a nightmare Back at the encampment Jones received and spread work of the Congressmans death.A meeting began which produced a 44 minute tape called the death tape. Before the meeting aides were instructed to prepare Flavor-Aid in a large bin and to lace the drink With cyanide, vellum and Phenomena. On the tape Jones can be heard telling his members die with some dignity and telling mothers not to make their children suffer, to release them and lay next to them with dignity. The 1st to take the poison was Roulette Paul and her 1 year old infant. They seed syringes with the needles removed to squirt the drink into their mouths.Jones himself however chose to die by a self-inflicted gun-shot to the temple. Jones and many of the members were found with handwritten notes next to them. In Jones note he instructed over million dollars be left to the communist party of the USSR. In conclusion Jones Was a very manipulative and evil man who somehow was able to control and destroy thousands of lives. The sheer scale of this even speaks volumes to just how dangerous and controlling cults can be. I cant help to wonder how this many people followed his lead that far, and hope to never find out.

Steinbeck Essays - American Literature, Literature, John Steinbeck

Steinbeck Well in this short report on John Steinbeck I am about to include all of the work that I have done in this class Including my full report on one of his books, a little background on Mr. Steinbeck and many other things, All out of the mind and the computer of Jeremy Slaven. An American author and winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature, John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr., b. Salinas, Calif., Feb. 27, 1902, d. Dec. 20, 1968, based most of his novels on the American experience, often with sympathetic focus on the poor, the eccentric, or the dispossessed. Steinbeck grew up in Salinas Valley, a rich agricultural area of Monterey County and the setting of many of his works, where he learned firsthand of the difficulties of farm laborers. From 1919 to 1925 he studied intermittently at Stanford University but did not receive a degree. His early novels (Cup of Gold, 1929; The Pastures of Heaven, 1932; and To a God Unknown, 1933) aroused little public interest. The latter novel, however, a mystical story of self-sacrifice, is one of Steinbeck's strongest statements about the relationship between people and the land. Steinbeck turned to filmmaking after the film success of The Grapes of Wrath. He wrote impressive screenplays for the Mexican-based The Forgotten Village (1941) and Viva Zapata! (1952), as well as film scripts for his stories The Red Pony (1938) and The Pearl (1947). Another novel and play, The Moon Is Down (1942), about the German invasion of Norway, won critical praise. After World War II, in which he served as a war correspondent, Steinbeck wrote increasingly about social outcasts. Cannery Row (1945) relates the story of a group of vagabonds on the Monterey coast. The Wayward Bus (1947) presents a morality tale about characters who supposedly represent middle-class society. Burning Bright (1950) preached universal brotherhood but was largely unsuccessful. Steinbeck devoted several years to his most ambitious project, East of Eden (1952; film, 1955), which paralleled the history of his mother's family and was an allegorical modernization of the biblical story of Adam. Subsequent novels proved anticlimactic--Sweet Thursday (1954), a sentimental sequel to Cannery Row; The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957), a burlesque; and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), a moralistic tale about a decaying Long Island seaport. Steinbeck wrote popular sketches of his travels in Once There Was a War (1958), Travels with Charley (1962), and America and Americans (1966). He spent many of his later years writing a modern version of Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, which was published, incomplete and posthumously, as The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976). He has remained popular principally, however, for his compassionate portrayal of America's forgotten poor.(griolers) The works of Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by U.S. novelist John Steinbeck is one of the most powerful chronicles in American literature of the Depression of the 1930s. It deals with the Joads, a family that loses its farm through foreclosure and leaves the Oklahoma Dust Bowl for California in the hope of finding work. The eldest generation has the comfort of religion, the next one has a dogged perseverance, but the youngest has little to believe in. Embittered by the brutal exploitation of migrant workers, Tom, who had been jailed for murder and who later kills again, becomes a labor organizer. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning (1940) novel, Steinbeck alternates his narrative with serious discussion of the problems of migrant laborers.(Groliers) Of Mice and Men (1937; film, 1939), a short novel by John Steinbeck set in Salinas, Calif., has been called Steinbeck's most successful work. The novel deals with two migrant workers: Lennie, a physically powerful but mentally retarded giant, and George, his friend and protector. They share the dream of someday buying a farm together. The dream is shattered when Lennie accidentally kills the wife of a rich farmer and is then sought by a lynch mob. He and George tenderly recall their dream just before George shoots Lennie to save him from the crueler death he will inevitably face at the hands of the mob. The book established Steinbeck as a writer of distinction. It was made into a play shortly after publication. These are just a few of his most