This dialogue is about the discussion of Junior’s mum and dad in which they decide if Junior should be allowed to visit Reardan High School or not.

(M)other: So.. our son wants to transfer to Reardan High. I am so confused.

(F)ather: I know how you feel about it, I feel very unsure what would be the best way to help him to get a good live and career. But if I had tjhe chance  to transfer to reardan I would feel so much better than wasting time in this place whithout any future!

M: I want my son to be welcome and comfortable there. He should feel included and have the opportunity to live his dreams . He totally should go there.. or not?

F: Now that you said that he should be welcome there, I don’t think that it is a good idea anymore!!!!

M:What? Why would you say that? It is so obvious that parents want their children to feel comfortable around new people!

F:That is not what I am talking about. You are absolutely right. I just worry about him being ignored and excluded there eventhough he isn’t popular in our school.

M:Me too..me too! But he has nothing to loose right? I mean he has so much potentialwhich shouldn’t overlooked and ignored. We should at leat let him try his best and be there for him if he feels strange at his new school..

F: Well, I guess this is his one and only chance to escape from the rez and become strong and independent to live a wealthy,happy life!

M: YES!! Totally.

F: okay now that we’ve solved this problem, we can relax and be proud of our son.

M: I already am. I love my children.The most important point is that he should have parents wo don’t care about him. So this is our chance!

F: Absolutely!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this text , I am going to analyse Arnolds’s parents.

To begin with, one gets to know Arnolds parents’ names as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Spirit. This is done in order to the reader to get a mysterious impression of them. Living in the reservation, not having much money and being Indian are Arnold and his familys’ struggels.His parents have two children. Junior and his older sister. His parents had big dreams concerning their careers. His mother dreamed of becoming a teacher and his father wanted  to become a famous musician. Unfortunately, their families didn’t care about them back then. Being poor frustrates them very much because they can’t make their lives   better. Therefore, they  try their best to make junior’s  the best possible.

They became alcoholics because of their extreme sadness but they are always encouraging of their son.They are not abusive like Rowdy’s parents. Juniors never got hit by his parents. Moreover, another bad habbit of Arnolds’ father is that he goes to the casino drunk and gambles away their last money eventhough he knows that they have yet insufficient money.

Apart from this, his mother has areally well working memory. She loves reading books and remembes everything very well. His father is a talented guy as well because he can play the guitar and the piano a little bit and he can sing well.

They are more or less traditional indians. As Junior wants to transfer to Reardan, they originally were against it. However, they changed their minds and thought it iss good for their son to take this chance so they are proud of their son.

All in all, one can say that Arnolds’ parents are quite sad people who got disappointed in their lives which makes them lapsed and hopeless. However they are poor,sad and disappointed of their lives, they put all their left-over hope and expectations of life in their two children and try to help them getting the best future possible.

In the following, Iam going to summarize the 16th chapter of the novel ‘ The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’ by Sherman Alexie.

Arnold is at school watching Penelope play volleyball against the girls from Davenport Lady Gorillas. However Arnold’s beautiful Penelope and her team loose, he still is focused on Penelope playing volleyball. He is facsinated by her and talks about her skin colour and compares it to a vanilla cake. Because of Junior wanting him and Penelope being a couple, he even adds him as the chocolate topping on her being compared to an vanilla cake.Junior is obviously very confused about what he should do about his feelings. That’s why he decides  write an email to Rowdy asking  for an advice. In his email, Junior talks about Penelope by calling her ‘a white girl’. Therefore, Rowdy rapidly gets angry at Indians treating white women like ‘ bowling trophies’. He also seems as if he is still angry at Junior leaving the rez. As a result of it, Arnold decides to ask Gordy about how he could get penelope to be in love with him. Gordy who does research on the internet ends up telling Junior about an article about hundreds of mexican girls disappearing. Gordy believes that Junior is a racist which is the reason why junior notices the similarity between Rowdy and Gordy.

The novel “The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, which was published in 2007 , deals with a boy named Arnold `Junior` Spirit who is 14 years old. He is small, but intelligent and witty.                                                                                                           Since his birth, Rowdy is an aggressive guy because he bit his mother when she tried to feed him or he punched other children in the kindergarten, he doesn’t have any respect for anybody. When he was young, he shouted at other children, teachers and old people. His father is an abusive drunk and slapps Rowdy when he is drunk. When his father hits him, Rowdy never shows any pain. Because of that, he only has one friend, Junior, but this is a very good friend and they know each other like they know themselves. He spends most of his time at Junior´s house because it is a safe place for him. Junior´s parents are drunks too, but they would never ever slap him. Rowdy is like a brother to Junior and he protects him, because he likes Junior very much. Rowdy is aggressive, but he would never hit his best friend Junior, he would protect him.

The novel “The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, which was published in 2007 , deals with a boy named Arnold `Junior` Spirit who is 14 years old. He is small, but intelligent and witty.                                                                                                                    The chapter 3 called “Revenge is my middle name” starts with Junior who is very sad about his dog who died and wants to “crawl into a hole and disappearing forever” but his best and only friend Rowdy- who is very tough- talks him out of it. Rowdys`s parents are drunks and he gets beaten up very often by his father. Junior´s parents are drunks too, but they would never beat him up, so Rowdy is hanging out at Junior´s house most of his time because it is a “safe place”. Rowdy asks Junior if he wants to go down to the powwow, the Spokane Tribe’s annual Labor Day weekend celebration. Junior really doesn’t want to go, because he knows that he will get beaten up there. Rowdy tells him that he will defeat him, so Junior agrees. The two boys walk the three miles to the powwow. Rowdy trips and jams his shoulder on a minivan. Junior laughs, which is a big, huge, terrible mistake.Angry, Rowdy shoves Junior down to the ground. He then throws an empty beer bottle at the minivan, and then, if that weren’t enough, he grabs a shovel and beats the vehicle with it.Junior runs away  into the camp of a set of very cruel triplets named the Andruss brothers. The three boys started laughing about Junior and knocking him down the ground. After that all, they just walk away and Rowdy finds Junior on the ground and vows revenge against the triplets. He does so later that night when the men are asleep. He sneaks into their camp, shaves off their eyebrows, and cuts their braids.Also, Junior tells that Rowdy is more important than his own family.

 

This analysis is about identity in connect to Junior. Identity is generally a difficult topic in modern society. And to analyse it properly, I am first going to take a look at a definition I found.

According to merrriam-webster.com, identity is “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual” or “the relation established by psychological identification”.

To begin with, of course did Junior develope his own personality over time. But as we can tell by the second definition, who you are is also defined by who you think you are. By who you want to be.

Sometimes, Junior talks about himself as a retard (p. 13, ll. 29 & 30: “then you become the biggest retard in the world”). Although he quotes  the other Indians on the reservation, it is still clear that he isn’t really happy about himself. To support that statement, the language he uses (/the author uses for Junior) appears offensive and is colloquial and filled with sarcasm a lot of the time (p. 11, ll. 22 & 23: “I was supposed to croak during the surgery”; p. 18, ll. 2 – 4: “Okay, okay, Mr. Hunger Artist, Mr. Mouth-Full-of-Words […]”).

So, is Junior a depressive retard?

No, not really. Everybody developes and so does he. After Junior transferred to Reardan high school, it seems like less of Junior’s offensive language is used. Especially since he made new friends that (probably) boosted his self confidence. Penelope and Roger for example, who found out, that Junior was poor and didn’t seem to care (p. 134, ll. 12 – p. 136, ll. 9). His language improved and doesn’t seem as offensive as it seemed before.

So all in all, Junior’s thoughts of his identity have changed. At first he felt like a retard because most people around him made him feel that wat by calling him names. But after transferring schools and after he mad new friends the indicator for his feelings (his language) changed and he seemed to get more self-confident. With more positive thoughts about himself, his identity improved and made him someone else than a retard.

Dear Diary,

Today Junior told me that he is going to go to Reardan high school, so he will left the rez. He said he will do it tomorrow. I couldn´t believe it. I asked if he`s serious and he was…        I was so mad at him and… I can`t believe that i`ve done this,but.. I slapped him in his face. He wants me to go with him. I can`t understand how he came on that idea. I WON´T go to Reardan. I don´t know what to do right now because I can`t let him go. He is my best friend and now he wants to leave the rez. I will tell you more tomorrow . Good night!