The sixth chapter of the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” written by Sherman Alexie and published in september 2007 is about Arnold Junior who wants to change schools and wants to go to Reardon high school.

In the following I´m going to analyze the structure  and Arnolds feeling of this chapter.

After Junior talks to his teacher who advices him to find hope anywhere else at another school he´s really confused what to do (c. l. 2). “Who has the most hope ?”(l.11), he asks his parents. With this rhetorical question the author tries to show Juniors way how to explain his parents that he wants to go to a high school where just white people go to. His parents don´t react directly and Junior asks again (ll.12ff.). “White people.”(l.2) his parents says at the same time. After this Junior tells his parent that he wants to transfer school (c. l. 5 ). His parents directly ask if he wants to go to “Hunters”(l.6) or “Springdale”(l.11) but Junior just explains that he wants to go to Reardan high school. “The kids in Reardon are the smartest and most athletic kids anywhere. They are the best.” (ll.26f.) Junior goes on. With this exaggeration the author underlines how the Indians saw the white people they think white people are in every way better than them. His parents react a bit confused and ask him if he´s sure and if he really wants to go the next day (ll.31ff.). But Junior just answers :”No, if I don´t go now, I never will.”(l.6). It gets clear how afraid Junior is to change school but he wants to do it either. His parents aren´t really happy about Juniors idea but they let him do it (ll.12ff.).

The diary “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” written by Sherman Alexie was published in September 2007. The second chapter is about the poverty of Junior and his hole family.
The chapter can be divided into two paragraphs. The first paragraph is about the wish of Junior who wants to buy Kentucky Fried Chicken, but isn´t able to because it´s to expensive (p.17-18). The second paragraph tells about Juniors best friend, his dog Oscar, who becomes ill and the parents can´t pay the vet,so they decide to shoot the dog down.

Now I´m going to analyse Juniors feelings, emotional conditions and his language.

“Okay, so now you know Í´m that I´m a cartoonist.” (p.17, l.1) says Junior. He shows us that he can describe his feelings better by drawing cartoons. The repitition “poor-ass”  (p.17, ll.8ff) underlines his lack off self-confidence. It also expresses his and their parents poverty. With the exaguration “And believe me, a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in the existence of God.” (p.17, ll. 22f), he makes his wish of eating some chicken clearer. In the following he tells us that being hungry is just one bad thing about being poor (c. p. 18, l1). “So, okay, I´ll tell you the worst thing. Last week, my best friend Oscar got really sick.” (p.18, ll. 5f) speeks Junior. With this he makes sure that his dog is more important to him than his own hunger problems. “Honestly, Oscar was a better person than any human I had ever known.” (p.19, ll15f), with this he underlines this again. At next a conversation starts between Junior and his parents. His parents tell him that they can´t pay the vet because it will be to expensive (c. p.20, ll.1f). Junior tries to convince them by saying he´ll get a job and  pay the vet back later on (c. p.20, l5) . After a while he feels he can´t convince them “There was nothing I could do to save Oscar. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.” (p20, ll14ff). With this repetition his desparation gets clear. His father wants him to carry Oscar outside and wants to shoot him down (c. p.20,ll24ff.). He thinks it will help Oscar because when he´s dead he doesn´t have to suffer anymore (c. p.20,l26). “I want to hate[…]. I want to hate […]. Iwant to blame […]. (p.21, ll8ff.). This parallelism underlines his desparation aswell. On the one hand he is really angry of his parents but on the other hand he can´t blame them because they aren´t guilty for their poverty and his world would “explode” (p.21, l14) without them (c. p.21, ll11ff).

To put it in a nutshell he seems to be really depressed person and he needs more self-confidence. without is friend he gets more sad and looses a really important part of his life.