Read House, Class of 2023
The struggle to find humanity in poverty
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” |
– Winston Churchill
Arnold Spirit’s life has been a climb harder than Mount Everest. Beginning with poverty and ending with looking different from everybody else, with numerous family deaths, beatings and insults somewhere in between, Arnold, who goes by Junior, has had a miserably, awesome, yet terrible life. Along with the poverty and the search for identity, is the sarcasm, the thing that makes Junior a teenager, the thing that makes him human, the thing that allows him to persevere. Junior plays the best round he can with the cards he’s been dealt.
Who you are doesn’t define who you can become. In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie a teenage scholar named Junior navigates his journey through youth to form an identity. Junior is born into poverty on an old reservation. He was presented with few opportunities in the so-called “res”, so he decided to exceed the expectations society had given him. He transferred to Reardan High and was forced to deal with the fierce judgment of his community while trying to shift his identity to fit in with all the white students. “ I was a traitor.”[Page 79] Junior’s first day at Reardan High School was full of mixed emotions.
Junior was an outcast at Reardan and didn’t fit in with the other students. He felt like he was betraying his community but many people supported him through his decision. A few folks, especially the grandmothers, thought I was a brave little dude for going to a white school. But there were a lot more people who just called me names and slammed the door in my face.”[Page 79] Junior’s entire life has been one big identity crisis, even when he attended school at the reservation he was seen as an outcast, something less than human, when he went to Rearden he felt as if he was even less than that, whatever that was.
I woke up on the reservation as an Indian, and somewhere on the road to Reardan, I became something less than an Indian. And once I arrived at Reardan, I became something less than less than less than Indian.[Page 83]
Students at Rearden make jokes towards him, give him weird looks and seem to have a phobia of him, even teachers treat him differently. “Joyous Freak.”[Page 98] There comes a time that he breaks and punches the popular boy named Roger square in the face. He has Roger’s respect, but his list ends there. It’s not until he develops a bond with a classmate of his named Gordy, the smartest human he’s ever met, that he gains some confidence at Rearden, providing him with the courage to speak to Penelope, the white girl he’s obsessed with, he begins to date her and his reputation changes. Junior found his identity through embracing his differences.
For the duration of the story Junior finds himself lost, his identity disarranged. “He was the loser Indian father of a loser Indian son living in a world built of winners.” [Page 55] Motivated to escape the “rez” and rewrite the path his family has always taken, Junior transfers to a school where he is the singular Indian there; he does so to prove to himself that he is destined for a brighter future than those surrounding him. Junior reconstructed his identity. Your identity doesn’t determine your worth. As Junior battles through life his identity is constructed; however poverty makes the battle close to impossible.
Junior is a teenage boy born into poverty. He tries everyday to get to an even playing field with the rest of society. Junior is a very creative kid who aspires to be great when he is older but unfortunately he is restricted by his poverty. His family doesn’t always have the money to get gas for the car, food for dinner and many other daily necessities. Junior’s future is held back by his family’s misfortune. “There’s not much difference between my good and bad clothes, so I pretty much look half homeless anyway.”
Junior, born to two parents who were too poor to live out their life-long dreams and he always thought he was destined for the same, living on an old Indian reservation Junior was never presented with any sort of opportunity. Poverty was killing his dreams. Junior cant take it anymore and throws a book at his under qualified teacher. Following this emotional lapse of judgment, Junior and his teacher talk, Junior leaves the conversation inspired to leave the reservation. Junior has found inspiration from his surroundings to leave the reservation. “My School and my Tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from.” He spontaneously demands his parents to transfer him to the higher quality school far away from the reservation named Rearden, at this school Junior is the only Indian, he’s petrified to attend a school where he stands out like a sore thumb, however he knows to make it out the reservation and seeka larger meaning of life, he must become uncomfortable.
Throughout the story, Junior is challenged and faces more difficulty than the other kids around him. His financial status holds him back and only allows him to reach a certain level of excellence. His potential is so much more than his family’s financial situation. “Poverty doesn’t give you strength to teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” In the beginning of the story Junior is very negative and believes he will never be able to escape the Rez. However, once a wise older teacher sits down with him and helps him realize his full potential Junior is ready to achieve more. “I suddenly understood that if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment should be taken seriously as well.” Junior comes to realize that despite his poor Background full of disappointment he can still take his life seriously to achieve better.
Poverty can hold you back, but you can always beat it.
A sarcastic voice is the best voice. In the book The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the main character and narrator Junior uses sarcasm to find his voice, to get his point across and most of all to feel better about the cards he’s been dealt. The sarcastic effect Junior uses creates an undeniable relatability to the book. Throughout the book Junior produced a contagious sympathy between the two of us, he did so through his humorous sarcasm, proving again and again that he’s not some un-human like superhero, he’s just like the rest of us, in fact his life sucks, however his sarcasm prevails through it all.
When first notified that I would be reading a book called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian I figured I’d be reading yet another book I can’t relate to, yet another book I won’t enjoy, however when I began to read the book I couldn’t stop, the main character Junior, a poor teenager, living on a poor reservation, going to a poor school, had an unbelievably sarcastic attitude for a kid who thought he’d never make it out of the reservation. As the plot rapidly advanced, Junior continued to become more and more relatable, Junior is a character any teen can relate to. When I completed the experience of the Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, I learned that every teen rich or poor, white or Indian, relates to sarcasm the same.
The process of reading this book evoked many different emotions, including pity, sympathy and most of all relatability. Junior’s constant use of witty phrases and occasionally harsh sarcasm was like seeing an insight to my brain daily. Being able to relate to a character makes the journey of reading a book completely worth it.
If you had asked me what my expectations were for this book the day I started it, you would’ve gotten a negative, close-minded answer. If you were to ask me today what I thought of the Absolutely True Diary Of a Part Time Indian I would say it was an extremely enjoyable, yet relatable experience. Sarcasm embodies the true experience of a teen and Junior couldn’t have done that any better. Sarcasm is the key ingredient to a memorable teenage experience.
Junior weaves through the life sized obstacles thrown at him by life with his witty commentary and sharp remarks. Without a sense of sarcasm to combat all the threats throughout his journey, Junior never would have defeated the blurry search for identity or even have overcome the one thousand mile setback named poverty. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian displayed the hardest years of Junior’s life, however Junior now knows the exact protocol when nothing goes right, or worse everything goes wrong.
