Part Time Indian D Block Blog 2017

      At the end of this novel rowdy and Junior were conferring with each other and Rowdy explained that junior was a nomad. A nomad is a person who is always moving around, in search of food and water and grazing land. Rowdy explains, "I always knew you were going to leave. I always knew you were going to leave us behind and travel the world." And he finally realized it,  when Junior moved to Reardan. He was in search of a better life. Junior also realizes that Rowdy is not just a tough jerk he was a caring person. For  example it states that Rowdy says, " I had this dream about you a few months ago. You were standing on the Great Wall of China. You looked happy. And I was happy for you." Rowdy had never opened up like that and when Junior said thing's like that he would punch him and call him a wuss.

Rowdy thinks that Mary got married just to adventure out of the tribe like Junior did. After Mary’s funeral, Junior runs straight into Rowdy who was watching from the forest. When Junior looks up he see’s that Rowdy has damp cheeks, symbolizing that he was crying. At first, Rowdy denies the tears and even tries to punch Junior, but when Junior starts laughing the tears come out stronger. Rowdy breaks down and says, “Your Sister is dead because you left us. You killed her” (Alexie 211). This makes Junior stop laughing, “I suddenly felt like I might never laugh again” (Alexie 211). After Rowdy runs away, the pain of his comment hits Junior hard. Junior himself does not deny the statement and he blames it all on himself. He tells himself that because he decided to spend his time with white people, she had burned. There is no truth in Rowdy’s statement because Mary had always been adventurous. She was adventurous enough to run away from home with no money, support, or experience...

On pages 216 and 217 Junior is crying because he knows that Indians will never have the same opportunities that white people will have; there will be many challenges to face among, deaths, drunken Indians and loss of hope in the upcoming years. Shortly after Mary passed away, Junior is mourning over her death but begins to realize that even though it didn’t end well, moving to Montana was one of the best things she ever did; it showed that she still had an inkling of hope, “I mean, she was amazing. It was courageous of her to leave the basement and move to Montana. She went searching for her dreams, and she didn’t find them, but she made the attempt. And I was making the attempt, too. And maybe it would kill me, too, but I knew that staying on the rez would have killed me, too” (Alexie 216). Although many of the Indians on the reservation have given up hope and grieved by becoming drunk and an alcoholic the quotes shows that both Mary and Junior have not lost hope and they will attemp...

At the end of the book, Rowdy and Junior shoot hoops all through the night, and Junior states, “We didn’t keep score” (Alexie 230). This quote explores how in basketball and in life people think everything is about the score. This signifies that when Rowdy and Junior work over their obvious traits that make them different, they realize that life is not a race, nor something where you have to keep score, and they end up reviving their friendship above the rest of the tribe’s prejudice against Junior leaving the rez. This friendship relinquished joy between both Junior and Rowdy after the losses that they both suffered. For example, When Junior and Rowdy were talking about Junior going off and being a “nomad”, Junior states, “I would always Love Rowdy. And I would always miss him, too. Just as I would always love and miss my grandmother, my big sister, and Eugene” (Alexie 230). When Junior comes to this realization, he notices and understands how everybody thinks one has to b...

The image on page 182, represents how much hope exists at Reardan as opposed to Wellpinit. The crowd at Wellpinit is shouting “White-lover!” as a way of draining Arnold of self esteem, causing him to question his loyalty. However, the crowd at Reardan shouts “Destroy them Arnold!” as a way of boosting him with confidence. In the cartoon on page 53, Rowdy screams, “You white-lover! You Suck! I Hate You!”(Alexie 53). All of those insults are supposed to make Arnold doubt himself, therefore not go to Reardan, but in Arnold’s case losing hope just makes him want to try harder to gain hope.  The lack of hope in Wellpinit is contagious, so he always feels deflated there, but at Reardan, everything is different, he and everyone around him have an optimistic view of the future. The dilemma is that Arnold doesn’t know who’s side he is on. He doesn’t know if he is part of the reservation or if he is “white”, and it is confusing him. If he chooses to return to the reservation again, he will ...

The humor and irony of the title of the chapter “Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball." is the fact that Junior is trying to show that he is upset about winning but then Junior and Rowdy are going back and fourth about being faggots. This is shown in the quote on page 197, where Rowdy says, "'We'll kick your asses next year.' Rowdy wrote back. 'And you'll cry like the little faggot you are.'". This quote shows that they are trying to joke around by saying that “Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball", but really it is trying to say that they are having a short discussion and are really just joking around. In conclusion, Rowdy and Junior are showing irony and humor through the title of the chapter, “Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball.”

At the end of the game, Reardan wins by 40 points. Even though Junior only scored three points, he held Rowdy to only four. Rowdy always beat him by many points when he was younger, and it was great for him that he only lost to Rowdy’s points by 1. He was so happy to have won, but “Then I realized something… two or three of those Indians might not have had eaten breakfast that morning… two of those Indians had fathers in prison” (Alexie 195). Junior then started to cry because of what he had just done to Rowdy, since his dad was bound to beat him up. Junior’s teammates think he is crying from joy, but he really is crying about his betrayal to his identity of an Indian. He understands the pain he has brought Wellpinit and feels sorry for dragging the Wellpinit season down. Feeling guilty Junior emails Rowdy to say sorry. Rowdy emails back with derogatory comments, but speaks to Junior for the first time in a while. It was a bittersweet ending, but there are signs that Rowdy still cares ...

            The first game Arnold and his team played against was Wellpinit High School. When Arnold first enters the court he is greeted by rez basket basketball fans who were screaming, "Ar-nold sucks, Ar-nold sucks"(Alexie 143). When Arnold saw all of the fans from the rez turn his back against him he just laughed, he thought it was funny how organized they were. Rowdy was glaring at him and passing a ball around his back ready to crush Arnold in the game. That caused Arnold to laugh even harder, then the coach joined in on the fun and was laughing with him.T he whole team started laughing as they went into the locker room to prepare for the game. Later in the game, Arnold gets hit with a quarter  and was not allowed to play but he was desperate to play so he made Eugene stitch him so  he can go back in the game. When he goes back in the game Rowdy hits him in the head knocking him out. They had lost that game and Arnold was sent to t...

Junior made the basketball team because he was committed and wouldn’t give up. In tryouts, the coach saw him play against Roger (who is twice his size). He recognizes the difficulty and gave Junior a chance to take a break. Junior recognized that, “if I took that break I would never make the team”(Alexie 140). He was persistent and didn’t take the break. By continuing to work hard he was better than other candidates that had given up in the first 100 laps. During the game someone hit Junior, “IN THE FREAKING HEAD”( Alexie 145) with a quarter. He needed stitches and requested Eugene to do them on site so he could play in the second half. He really connected with and followed his dad’s advice of; “You have to dream big to get big”(Alexie 136). In tryouts, Junior believed he was worthy of varsity. If he didn’t believe this he wouldn’t have tried. His trying and dreaming big resulted in the coach seeing him persisting, even in the eyes of defeat. Above all, Junior’s Dad gives this advice b...

Junior’s grandmother had the unique gift of tolerance for others, a trait that all Native Americans used to have before xenophobic white people showed up in America. According to Junior, Indians used to celebrate people who were different from them: “Epileptics were often shamans because people just assumed that God gave seizure-visions to the lucky ones. Gay people were seen as magical, too” (Alexie 155). For a long time Indians viewed people who were unique as powerful and respected them. The Native Americans’ views on the matter slowly changed as white people began populating North America, bringing along their “Christianity and fears of eccentricity” (Alexie 155). Being surrounded by closed-minded white people, the Indians’ tolerance for others ended up diminishing. This is evident on the Spokane Indian reservation when the Wellpinit high schoolers turn their backs on Arnold just before their basketball game. They do not accept the fact that he is following his dreams at Reardan ...

Junior discovers that Penelope has been hiding her Bulimia from everyone in Reardan High School. She feels like she needs to hide this because people expect her to be perfect based on her appearance. Following Junior’s advice to Penelope, “Penelope starts crying, talking about how lonely she is, and how everybody thinks her life is perfect because she’s pretty and smart and popular” (Alexie, 108). Penelope is very well-liked in school, and therefore it is harder for her to express her differences because everyone expects her to be flawless. Penelope is scared that if people find out about her Bulimia, her reputation will be negatively impacted and that she will feel even lonelier than how she feels now. She may throw up to maintain the image of herself that other people see. She feels like she can confide in Junior because he is new to this school and he may not have the same expectations as others for her. People like Penelope have difficulty sharing personal struggles with oth...

Since Arnold has been at Reardan, he has been hiding the fact that he is poor, and he finally confesses the truth to Penelope and Roger. He learns that they are real friends of his, as their view of him as a person does not change when they learn about his financial status. At Reardan, people generally assume that Junior is rich as they think that the government gives money to Indians. As Junior is starting to gain some popularity at school, he concludes that if his peers find out he is disadvantaged financially, then they would stop liking him or dislike him even more. Arnold states: “I figured it wouldn’t do me any good if they knew I was dirt poor… So I pretended to have a little money… I pretended I belonged” (Alexie 119). Junior is afraid that if everybody knows he is poor, then his reputation as a weird, Indian, new kid would be even worse. However, this assumption of his is proven wrong, as when he comes back from the pancake restaurant with Roger and Penelope, he ends up tell...

It is ironic that Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving because after the Indians opened their hearts and home to the pilgrims, the pilgrims killed them off, enslaved them, and tortured them. Junior explains that he thinks it’s strange to celebrate Thanksgiving, “The Indians and Pilgrims were best friends during that first Thanksgiving, but a few years later, the Pilgrims were shooting Indians. So I’m never quite sure why we eat turkey like everybody else” (Alexie 101). Junior expresses that he is confused on why they celebrate Thanksgiving because when they celebrate it, it is like they are celebrating the Pilgrim's victory and the Native American’s brutal defeat. Junior may also be confused because they are celebrating and giving thanks to a time when the Indians were brave enough to have hope and let in new people, but it instead of a good outcome the Pilgrims took everything they had and betrayed their once friends.

    Group D #5                  Arnold's sister was a quiet girl who sat in the basement alone for most of the time. When Mr.P told Arnold that his sister once had a dream, but lost hope he thought that she had just gave up. When Junior found out that she had married a random guy who she thought was the one, he  was thinking to himself that, "My sister's spirit hadn't been killed."(pg91) because she used to love writing romance novels, but now she is living a romance novel. She had finally broken out and got to pursue  her dream. She had not lost hope like Mr.P had said she had gained it. (Shane)

In the beginning of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Penelope treats Junior like she is too cool to be friends with an Indian, but over time she realizes that Junior is a nice kid that is not that much different from the rest of them. After Junior talks with Roger, he is feeling confident, so he goes up to Penelope and when he greets her, she rudely sniffs him and says, “‘Do I know you?’ ‘I’m Junior, I mean, I’m Arnold.’ ‘Oh, that’s right, you’re the boy who can’t figure out his own name’” (Alexie 73).   This quote shows that Penelope made assumptions and had a single story in her mind of what Indians were like and created a grudge against them based on stereotypes. Penelope had decided to make Junior invisible to herself before she even got to know him and was deliberately rude to him. Later on, Penelope gets to know Junior better and realizes that he is just a normal kid like her. When Junior comes in empty handed after halloween he says, “‘I’m sorry,’ I ...

The significance of the friendship with Gordy and Junior is that even though they are from different places and have different academic abilities, they both feel out of place in Reardan and have similar reasons to why they are different. For example, after Junior asked Gordy if he could be his friend, Junior notes, “I was an Indian kid from the reservation. I was lonely and sad and isolated and terrified. Just like Gordy.” (Alexie 94). This quote proves that Junior has felt mixed emotions about the transfer to Reardan and he feels like less of an outsider when hanging out with Gordy. They obviously have their differences, for example Gordy has counted all of the books in the Reardan library, and Junior punched Roger in the face and gave him a nose that “bled like fireworks”. When Gordy was talking about books and Junior was talking about comics, Gordy says, “So you take drawing cartoons as seriously as you take books?” (Alexie 95). Showing that the two friends share common virtues, t...

Arnold loves his grandmother, he loves her because she gives him the best advice. On Arnold's second day at Reardon, he punches the school bully, Roger in the face. When Roger doesn't fight back he is confused because all he knows is the “Spokane Indian Rules Of Fisticuffs”(Alexie 61). That night he talks to his Grandmother and she gives him a piece of advice that changed how Arnold looked at the world. She told him that, “men and boys are like packs of wild dogs. This giant boy is the alpha male of the school, and you’re the new dog, so he pushed you around a bit to see how tough you are”(Alexie 68). This changed how he looked at society’s around him because it showed him that if he can prove to people that he is not just a skinny boy with a lisp and stutter but a tough and brave kid he can change people's views of him and all Indians. Arnold’s grandmother has seen everything from when the Indians were accepting of all to when they lost all hope. This helps ...

In Junior’s mind, being a “real indian” means that you are brave and take risks, but you also follow your heart and do whats right for yourself. Being a “real indian” presents Junior with this idea that he is the only indian left that has hope. Hope means that you believe in yourself and you feel that you have the ability to do anything you put your mind to. In the text on page 49, Junior states, “‘I’m transferring to Reardon.’”. This not only shows that Junior has the courage to do something that nobody from the reservation is doing and that he can stand out and be different. Another example of taking risks and following your heart is on page 50, where Junior says, “They were beautiful and smart and epic. They were filled with hope.” This quote shows the significance of hope and what other people think of foreign cultures. Through Junior’s struggle to succeed on “the rez” of Spokane, Washington, Junior learns that struggling to succeed the first time is not always a bad thing. Bein...

In the outside world and for white people, hope is an ordinary thing, but in the Rez it is only found in the rarest of dreams. Hope is a form of self esteem that people in the reservation lack. Junior thinks that hope is the key to a successful future for Indian people and that their lack of hope or self esteem is one of the main reasons behind their lack of success as compared to white people. Junior communicates this to the reader by saying, “I don’t know if hope is white. But I do know that hope for me is like some mythical creature”(51). While Junior is talking to Mr. P when he is on suspension, Mr. P tells him that all Indians have lost hope and that he is the only one with any left. Mr. P continues by advising Junior to leave the Rez in order to keep any of his hope. The idea is that by leaving, Junior will have as much hope as white people and have a chance at the same opportunities and successes. Hope is the magical ingredient that keeps white people going. For Indians in th...

Junior decides to tell Randy because Rowdy “was my best friend and I loved him like crazy” (Alexie 49). He didn’t believe that Rowdy had given up all hope yet and wanted Rowdy to come with him. From past experience at sports games, Rowdy has nothing but hate for the kids at Reardan. As a result of Rowdy’s anger, he screams and punches Junior in the face. Rowdy had just “become my worst enemy” (Alexie 53). Later on as Junior arrives at Reardan he acknowledges Rowdy’s parting gift, a black eye. Even though things didn’t end well on the rez, Rowdy said goodbye in a way that only he would ever do: a tough looking scar.

          In the book "Part Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie Mr. P has a deep talk with Arnold after he hit him in the nose with his mother's 30 year old book. Mr. P tells Arnold that he was not going to hit him because when he first started teaching, those were things he did to kids like Rowdy. He then says, "that's how we were taught to teach you. We were supposed to kill the indian to save the child"(Alexie 35). This was significant because what Mr. P is saying, is that people like rowdy have given up, his parents have given up and his grandparents have given up. They were supposed to be taught in a way that was teaching, but would also slowly rip and tear the indian culture apart. Their intentions were to make you feel ashamed and disgusted  being a indian and you should not be proud of yourself as an indian. Arnold is one of the only kids that have not given up. He threw the book at the teacher because he cares about his education and school. Pe...

Mr. P tells Junior that he must leave the reservation immediately. Mr. P believes he has potential. He tells Junior how he thinks he’s the smartest kid in school and deserves a more hopeful environment to reach his full potential. He doesn’t want him to lose grasp of his dreams was so disheartening that she kept her dream of writing a secret from even her family and finally gave up on it.  Mr. P explains “[They’re] all defeated”(Alexie 42), the whole Rez. has given up on trying to reach their goals and their full potential. This has created a sad environment. The longer Junior stays on the reservation the more his hope will drain to sadness. Mr. P also wants to make up for hitting Native American kids to make them want not to be Native American. By empowering Junior to embrace being Native American and do great things, he can cope a little more with himself and his actions. Overall Mr. P believes that Junior deserves a better education and environment to reach the high potential ...

For Arnold’s whole life he has been teased for being different, and his hope is diminishing due to lack of support from friends and teachers. After he hurls his geometry book, accidentally breaking Mr. P’s nose, his teacher pays him a visit. Mr. P surprises him by forgiving him, for he is sick of being violent toward Indians and trying to eliminate their Native American identity from school. During this conversation they discuss Arnold’s sister Mary, who had a dream to write romance novels but stopped writing out of the blue. Mr. P knows that Arnold has potential as an artist, and does not want him to live the same fate. It is upsetting to both Mr. P and Arnold that Indians at the reservation lose hope so easily due to what white people do to them. Mr. P admits that he had “hurt a lot of Indian kids when [he] was a young teacher” (Alexie 35). Arnold’s teacher realizes that white people discriminate against Indians and therefore all deserve to get hit in the face with a boo...