The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indianby Sherman Alexie NOVEL PROJECT BY JENNI CROM

2. Explanation: • For my novel project, I connected the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to a poem written by John Francis Missittabout life on the reservation. • For each part of the poem, I will connect it to Juniors life and experiences.

3. Reservations, Apartheid, Final Solutions And Their Like.By John Francis Missett For Red Indians Everywhere On Reservations. Sometimes I want to become silence and peaces willing victim. Priest and sacrifice all at once. Scorning, for ever, this worlds art of compromise. Seeking to find lasting solutions. Instead of those long term stop gaps. These just create much bigger longer term problems. Reservations. Apartheid, Final Solutions... In the end become just other institutions.

4. Sometimes I want to become silence and peaces willing victim. • Life on the reservation is secluded and it’s own individuals can get stuck in the place they call home. Junior, however wanted to get out; as he knew that was his only way of becoming more than what the reservation had to offer. • Junior was different; he wanted more. And unlike many of the other characters that we learn about in this book, he is unwilling to be silenced; and refuses to be the unspoken victim of stillness.

5. Priest and sacrifice all at once. • I believe this refers to the feeling of helplessness while living on the reservation. They are looked up to as elders, but they are shunned and looked down upon by those outside the reservation. • Junior experienced this as he was basically a normal kid at his first school. However, when he decided to go to a school off the reservation, he not only lost the ties of camaraderie from his friends still on the reservation, but also never quite fit in when he was at his new school.

6. Scorning, for ever, this worlds art of compromise. • The idea of a compromise in how the reservations came about is degrading. The natives ‘scorn’ and are stuck in a one sided ‘compromise’ that they had no part in. • Junior, although he took heart to the feelings and emotions that came with the territory of growing up on the reservation, decided he wanted to take what was rightfully his; even if that landed him outside the reservation.

7. Seeking to find lasting solutions.Instead of those long term stop gaps. • Many of the vicious cycles that begin on the reservation are cloudy and difficult to see through, to see out of; alcohol, children at a young age, poverty, profound hopelessness. • Junior knows that getting a good education and breaking these specific ties between himself and the reservation are his only way to find his own ‘lasting solution;’ one that he can be proud of and accept.

8. These just create much bigger longer term problems. • When their way of life and the what they knew was taken from beneath their feet, Native Americans we stripped of their culture and self-respect. Depression turned into sadness, sadness turned into alcoholism, alcoholism turned into sick babies, sick babies turned into poverty, and poverty swung back around to depression. • These problems are long term, unless the cycle can be broken. And for a young boy, Junior seems to have this discovered and is turning away from this vicious cycle.

9. Reservations. Apartheid, Final Solutions... • Apartheid; a legal segregation by the government. This is what happened to the Natives. Their home was the open land, a place to roam and utilize nature to survive. However, when placed on the reservation as a ‘final solution,’ they were no longer able to live the way they knew and understood.

10. In the end become just other institutions. • They become institutions of who we become. When the light is dim to see through the darkness, the revolution of difficult situations and lifestyles continues through poverty, alcohol, and deep helplessness. • Junior refused to become part of the cycle of institutions. He wanted to find a way to become more than what he was witnessing; not as an insult to those he loved, but to see more out of himself – to see a future.

11. Conclusion • How does history and personal experience play a role is shaping who we are? • Poverty feeds itself. Alcoholism tears apart families. These are harsh realities of many of the individual living on a reservation. However, these problems occur everywhere and are not picky as to who they consume and affect. The physical elements that surround us and the choices we make in response to those elements makes us who we are and defines who we will become.