The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by
Sherman Alexie features a freshman boy named Junior (Arnold) as the
protagonist. Not only does Junior have conflict with fate in that he has had to
deal with physical defects throughout his life, but he has had to face conflict
from society with both his ethnicity and class. You see, Junior is a young man on
an Indian reservation, which means that because of his ethnicity and belonging
to his native tribe, his family has suffered many economic setbacks throughout
his family’s history that still influence him today. They have experience
generational poverty, as he puts it, “It’s not like they [his parents] gambled
away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor
people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor
people” (p.11).
He discusses in great depth what it is to be poor on the
reservation. While describing the health services that he could afford, Junior
tells the reader about when he needed ten teeth pulled:
I went to the Indian Health
Service to get some teeth pulled so I could eat normally, not like some
slobbering vulture. But the Indian Health Service funded major dental work only
once a year, so I had to have all ten extra teeth pulled in one day. And what’s
more, our white dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as
white people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain.” (p. 2)
This above section describes an instance where his
development was stunted in that he needed dental work done in order to eat
normally. However, due to the economic situation that his tribe had been forced
into over the last two hundred years by the American government, he was unable
to gain the services he needed when he needed them. As the story continues,
Junior’s acute awareness of his situation pushes him to eventually reach out
for better things. Because he is aware that his situation could be better, it
(his situation) pushes him to leave and get a better education and more life
experiences. As a result, his class and ethnicity could be argued to have been
a detriment, or you could look at it as a catalyst that took him to a new
journey to what will hopefully turn out to be a better life.
You make interesting observations regarding the manner in which the futility of life on the rez propels Junior toward a brighter future. Rather than wallowing in the pain of poverty, he reaches for something more. Those first steps into the unknown are always the most difficult.
ReplyDeleteI love how you view Junior's social class and ethnicity as a catalyst. This supports the additive theory we have discussed in ELL class. Viewing multiculturalism as a positive addition to the classroom encourages all students to set goals and make the appropriate choices to reach those goals. Junior is a great example of just that!
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