illustration of main character, Junior, holding a basketball and looking over his shoulder

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

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Junior's Resilience and Challenges in "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian"

Summary:

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior faces numerous challenges both on and off the reservation. On the reservation, he deals with poverty, outdated educational resources, and widespread alcoholism, which also affects his family. His health issues, including hydrocephalus and resulting physical impairments, make him a target for bullying. In pursuit of a better education, Junior attends Reardan, a predominantly white school, where he struggles with fitting in and is considered a traitor by his community. Despite these obstacles, Junior's resilience and hope drive him to seek a better future.

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What challenges does Junior face on and off the reservation in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

Perhaps an easier question to answer would be, "What problems does Junior not go through?"

Throughout this funny, touching, and often heartbreaking book, Junior goes through a series of trials and tribulations, both on the reservation and in his new life at Reardan High School.

The first problem that Junior tells us about, apart from the fact that he was born with water on the brain, is the poverty faced by everybody on the reservation. He and his family are so poor that they cannot to take Junior's much-loved dog, Oscar, to the vet when he gets sick, so Junior's father's solution was to take Oscar out back and shoot him.

The other big problem that Oscar later faced on the reservation was being rejected by his best friend, Rowdy, after he decided to leave the reservation high school and transfer to Reardan, a "white" school.

Once he gets to Reardan, he faces problems such as a much longer trip from home to school, which he sometimes has to make on foot. Then, of course, there are the inevitable problems of trying to fit in at a new school, which were exacerbated by the fact that Junior was different from all the other students.

Perhaps the biggest trial of all is the death of Oscar's sister, which has a profound effect on every facet of Oscar's life.

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What challenges does Junior face on and off the reservation in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

On the reservation, Junior faces poverty and a school system that is missing a lot of vital resources. His parents' lack of money means that they haven't been able to realize their dreams, and they are depressed. His sister, Mary, dreams of being a romance writer, but she too seems depressed. His family cannot afford veterinary care for his dog, who his father has to shoot. The school Junior attends is so old that he has the same geometry book his mother had when she attended school.

Off the reservation, Junior faces prejudice when he attends a school with white kids. He feels out of place in the school off the reservation, and his friends back home consider him a traitor for having left the reservation school. He also is embarrassed because he doesn't have the money the white kids do. These are some of the troubles he faces on and off the reservation.

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What challenges does Junior face on and off the reservation in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

The protagonist Junior (Arnold Spirit) faces many challenges on and off the reservation in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.  On the reservation, Junior feels that he is not getting a quality education.  When he receives his mother's previous math textbook, he realizes that the school materials have not been updated for decades.  He is angry because he feels like he and others on the reservation are being treated like they are not worthy of a solid education.  In addition, Junior sees the rampant alcoholism that is destroying many people's lives on the reservation, and he wishes that there were some way correct this problem.

Junior decides to pursue his education outside the reservation so that he can have better opportunities than the ones offered on the Spokane Indian Reservation.  He travels miles to Reardan, the nearest school off the reservation.  There he is the only Native American student, and he does not fit in easily with the rest of the crowd.  Plus, his best friend Rowdy who is back on the reservation feels like Junior has betrayed him, so after Junior leaves to Reardan, Rowdy cuts off their friendship.  Junior must deal with many challenges in order to try to improve his life.

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What challenges does Junior face on and off the reservation in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

Junior recognizes early on the in the narrative that he is fundamentally incapable of changing the structure of Native American life.  There is very little he can do to remedy the impoverished conditions on both emotional and financial levels that helps to facilitate so much of alcohol abuse.  Instead, he recognizes that this is not the life he wishes to become for himself.  With the alcoholism that has robbed his father of his emotional and spiritual senses of self and the alcohol induced fire that robbed his sister of her life, Junior understands that this is not something in which he is going to indulge.  To this extent, Junior is able to cope with the alcoholism that is such a part of his community.  The issue of poverty is a force that Junior recognizes he cannot defeat on his own.  Yet, what he can do is to envision a life where poverty does not control him so very much.  It is here where Junior's endeavors in Reardon, in a White school with a White community, become important.  Junior copes with his poverty by seeking to rise above it, to leave it behind so that it does not follow him and haunt him as it has so many others in his community.  It is to this end that Junior recognizes that such a move will be difficult, as the hold poverty has on the community is a strong one.  Yet, Junior also knows that one of his primary character traits is a sense of resilience and endurance that will allow him to find success in an eventual frame of reference.  It is through this that will enable Junior to cope with the poverty that is so embedded in his culture and something that is such a strong part of his identity as a Native American.

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What challenges does Junior face on and off the reservation in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

Junior's most important conflict is how to get a decent education while remaining connected to his family and friends on the reservation. Junior attends school in Reardan, a white town, because he knows the school system is better there, but he feels disconnected from life on the reservation and from the white people in Reardan. In addition, Rowdy, his best friend, is angry at Junior because he feels Junior has abandoned him. 

Part of the way Junior resolves this conflict is by no longer telling lies to the white kids in Reardan. Junior admits to Penelope, his girlfriend, that he's poor. Junior is surprised by her response: "I figured she was going to march out of my life right then. But she didn't. Instead she kissed me." Junior realizes, "If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing." In other words, he realizes that by telling the truth to the kids in Reardan, he can really befriend them and bridge the gulf between them. In the end, Junior is also able to reconcile with Rowdy because they realize that they still have a lot in common, such as shared memories and a love of basketball. Rowdy also tells Junior that he is like "an old-time nomad," which is respected in Native American tradition. That is Rowdy's way of saying that he respects Junior for going to school in Reardan, and the conflict between them is over. 

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What health issues does Junior face in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and how does he react to them?

Junior was born with "water on the brain," also called hydrocephaly. This is a condition where fluid builds up in the cranium and can cause brain damage or swelling of the skull. Junior attributes his large skull to having been born with hydrocephaly, and believes it is also the cause of his abnormal number of teeth- forty-two in all. He also suffers seizures and has poor eyesight, which may be the result of some brain damage from the swelling in his cranium. When Junior was an infant, he had surgery to correct the hydrocephaly, but he is still physically atypical today. He also describes himself as being very thin, with big hands and feet.

Junior has been the subject of much discrimination and teasing during his life. Though he has built up a thick skin to such treatment, it still makes him angry inside when people attack his lisp or appearance. He spends a lot of time by himself, reading and drawing, to avoid being picked on. Despite being physically atypical and the fact that his family is impoverished, Junior has an unshakable thirst for opportunity. He hopes that his drawings might make him rich and famous one day and take him away from the troubles of the Reservation. When Junior becomes one of the best players on his basketball team, he finds that people are willing to overlook the ways in which he might be strange because he is good at something.

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What health problems does Junior have, and what is his attitude toward them?

It is true that Junior has hydrocephalus, which translates as "water on the brain" but actually refers to a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid. As a result, Junior needed brain surgery at six months old. He survived the risky surgery but is left with brain damage that causes several impairments. First, instead of the normal thirty-two adult teeth, Junior has forty-two. He has ten teeth extracted in one day.

His brain damage also causes problems with his eye-sight. He is nearsighted in one eye, and farsighted in the other. Even with corrective lenses, this causes him to have headaches. His hands and feet are also disproportionately large in comparison to his very skinny body, and like others with "water on the brain" his skull is disproportionately large.

He also has a lisp, a stutter, and is "susceptible to seizure activity" (3). As a young child he had seizures up to twice a week.

Despite all of his health issues and the social problems that accompany them on his reservation, Junior's attitude is one of resigned complacence, combined with a feeling of hope that he can do something better for himself in the future. He approaches life with a sense of self that makes him seem wise beyond his years. He describes his current life with a sad but straightforward sense of humor, as if he has come to accept his social position and this is his coping mechanism.

Do you know what happens to retards on the rez?

We get beat up.

At least once a month.

Yep, I belong to the Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club. (4)

Junior is also hopeful that he will not be poor forever. We know he has big dreams and does not wish to be stuck in the same fate his poor father and mother are stuck in. 

I feel important with a pen in my hand. I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important. An artist. Maybe a famous artist. Maybe a rich artist. (6)

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What makes Junior strong enough to leave in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

What gives Junior the courage to leave the reservation more than anything else is the conversation he has with Mr P after throwing a book at him where Mr P tells him in no uncertain terms that he has to leave the reservation, saying that if he doesn't, he is going to be "killed" by everybody else eventually, including himself. Mr P doesn't literally mean killing, but he does mean that the unique person that Junior is who has so much potential is going to vanish if he stays on the reservation for a long time, as he will become just like everybody else. Junior is different, as the following quote describes:

You've been fighting since you were born... You fought off that brain surgery. You fought off those seizures. You fought off all the drunks and drug addicts. You kept your hope. And now, you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope.

It is these words above all else that show Junior the truth of what Mr P is saying. He is a character who, unlike the rest of his friends and family, has not lost hope. Because of this, he deserves and is capable of achieving a better future. After this conversation, Junior sets himself on a course to leave the reservation and find more and more hope as he goes on through life.

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How does the character Junior overcome his fear in "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian"?

Junior had several fears. As a young man, he faced typical school-age fears around acceptance, the ability to succeed, and the ability to talk to girls. He also had more unique fears because of his upbringing on a reservation. He wanted to be able to escape the fate of his family and others he saw as having dead-end, hopeless existences.

To combat his school-age fears, Junior tries to find solace in friendship. On the reservation, he accepts Rowdy, despite Rowdy's tendency towards violent outbursts. At Reardan, Junior plays on the basketball team and befriends Gordy. He also faces his bully, Roger.

His fears about a lifetime on the reservation are addressed in several ways. He escapes his parents' alcoholism through his art. He expresses his feelings and works through his experiences by drawing. When he decides he would like to attend Reardan, he takes his future into his own hands. Leaving the life and people he knows to attend a white, higher-income school is an overwhelming, frightening prospect. Junior considers the transition less frightening than the prospect of staying on the reservation. He faces his fear and makes the decision to attend the new school. When Junior weighs his options, he chooses to face his fears. This is seen in his decision to attend Reardan and in his decision to punch his bully, Roger.

While Junior faces his greatest fears, it is not exactly accurate that he loses his fears. Rather, he accepts the challenges in his life. He uses his art to work through his emotions. He takes action based on the goals he wants to achieve and makes the best of each circumstance.

For more insight, please see the link below featuring author, Sherman Alexie, discussing this book.

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What medical issues does Junior face in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian?

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior tells the reader in the first chapter about all the medical issues with which he deals.  First, Junior was born with hydrocephalus, or water on the brain.  In addition, he has 42 teeth, which is 10 more than the average adult has.  Junior is also near-sighted, so he wears glasses to correct his vision.  Finally, Junior suffers from seizures, and he has a lisp.  In the chapter, Junior also says that he has a large head and that he is very skinny, but these are not medical issues per se.  But Junior likely mentions them because he is constantly bullied and beat-up by others because of his physical appearance and his medical issues.  Junior uses humor to deal with bullying, and he finds that he can express his feelings through pictures, so he often draws to deal with the harsh treatment he receives.

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