Chapter 24 ” Valentine Heart” of the book ” The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, written by Sherman Alexie  in year 2007, is about the death of Junior´s father´s best friend, Eugene, and Juniors feelings about this happening . Eugene was killed by Bobby, his friend, while both are drunk. The reactions to this are diffrent: Junior´s father begins with much drinking, Junior´s mother goes to church and Junior impress his feeling with drawing cartoons while he shows how mad he is about God and Jesus. Later he thinks it is his fault, because he transfers to another school and left his family and friends alone in the rez. Junior doesn´t go a few days to school, but then he returns. In school his teacher Mrs. Jeremy says something hurtful to him. Therefore his class beginn a demonstration. Junior makes fun of that and tells his teacher that there are two types of people: these one who are assholes and this one who are not. In the end it all gives him hope again. Finally Junior makes lists of people and things, which give him the most joy in his life.

In the chapter eleven Halloween is celebrated and Junior is dressed up as homeless person but there is no difference between his normal clothes and this homeless dude clothes. He looks like a half-homeless person. Penelope, Juniors secret love, has the same costume and she has a good ulterior motive. She wants to protest against the treatment of homeless People in this Country. Therefore she has the plan to collect money and sweets for poor families with Kids. That raises Junior to an idea. He wants to impress Penelope so he lies and tells her that he Protests also against the treatment of homeless Native Americans in this country. He wants to collect trick-or-treating on his reservation. So they both make a deal: they want to gather the money and send it together to a relief organisation.

Junior has luck: he can collect a little bit of Money in his poor reservation but then something awful happens. Three guys jump at Junior and they kick him very often on his belly, ribs and back. They spit on him and steal him all the collected money. The fact that he does not have enough money anymore is not so terrible because Penelope has appreciation for this situation. She wants to write Juniors Name on the money envelope with the money she has collected. So in the end of this chapter Junior has succeeded to impress his love Penelope.

Dear diary,

today Arnold told me, he is poor. That makes me feel really bad. I mean, I always complain about my little problems but his problems are existential. Sometimes he says, he has to walk 22 miles from school to the Rez or from home to school. That is simply terrible. I wish I could help him. Maybe we could have done something if he had told me earlier. But he seems to be very proud and doesn’t want to be pitied for his poverty. I think that is very strong. And because of his pride I think it is better if I don’t talk about it with him anymore. I mean, what can I do to change it? Right. Nothing. It doesn’t really seem to bother him, so why should I make a fuss? I should just leave him. But maybe I shouldn’t be so mean to him anymore. I mean he already is kind of my boyfriend but I always keep him at distance for some reason. Maybe it is because of my dad. He frightened Arnold away and now I am scared what will happen if my dad sees him again and how he will react if he finds out that Arnold is poor. Should I break up with him? But that is not fair either. I don’t know what to do.

Well, see you soon,

Penelope

In the following I am going to analyse Arnold’s poverty.

Arnold’s poverty is already mentioned in the second chapter of the book and is one of the main problems of Arnold’s family. Throughout the whole book it gets clear how hard it is to be poor and what consequences that has. Arnold explains that he can never go to college because of their poverty. Arnold’s poverty is also the reason why Arnold had given up on his life and because everyone else on the Rez is poor to, it never really bothered him. He got used to it and never wanted to change it. The only reason, Arnold changed his mind was his geometry teacher Mr.P. He showed Arnold what he has to do to have a better life, which is leaving the Rez. He told him that the hope is gone on the rez because the poverty has been given through generations and nobody can change it if they stay on the Rez. The Indians always have been poor and even the white people on the Rez are poor because the chances for the future are bad and all the wealth and chances and hope lie outside of the Rez. Throughout the book Arnold explains that there are lots of different stages of poverty in the Rez and that people have lots of different ways to handle them. Arnold’s family for example is so poor, they sometimes can’t afford food. Arnold’s dog had to die because of poverty(chapter 2). Also there is no money for Christmas presents or, as already mentioned, for college. Arnold’s father handles the poverty with drinking all the time and spending the last money in the casino. As Arnold explains, some parents even deal with drugs to outcome poverty a bit. When Arnold comes to Reardan he first realises how wealthy the White kids are and feels ashamed of his poverty. In a community of poor kids he never cared about it because everyone was poor but at Reardan he seems to be the only poor child which humiliates him. The fact that sometimes he has to walk to and from school because his parents can’t pay the gas makes it worse for him.

All in all, Arnold’s family as well as all the other Indian families are very poor and suffer from it but refuse to admit it to White people. That’s proves the pride the Indians have and how they still try to enjoy their life.

The novel “the absolutely true diary if a part time Indian”, written by Sherman Alexie and published in year 2007, deals with a boy called Arnold, who has lots of physical and emotional problems. He lives in an Indian reservation and has a hopeless future. He wants to change his destiny and transfers to a school outside of the rez, the Reardan high, where only White children are. The chapter I am summarising is about the most important basketball game for Arnold because after the Reardan team looses against the team of the Wellpinit school, Arnold’s old school, this game is the rematch. Arnold says he is very nervous and wants to come up to the expectations of the team and when he finds out that he is supposed to defend his former best friend, he doesn’t believe in his abilities and says he can’t do it. The coach convinces him to play and now that Arnold believes in himself, he defends Rowdy and scores three points. The Reardan team wins and Arnold feels very proud and happy but when he sees his old team, he feels ashamed of his happiness and starts to cry in the locker room.

All in all, this chapter shows that Arnold feels sorry for betraying his old friends but at the same time how confident Arnold has gotten ever since he goes to Rerdan.

What’s up diary?

I have to tell you about what happend to me today.. I spotted – hold your hat – JUNIOR’S CARTOON! Well yeah, I normally like his cartoons ‘cuz they are funny and stuff but this one was a bit different..maybe more than a bit, I believe. He illustrates himself in a overly-exaggerated-ugly  way by drawing all his disabilities very dramaticallly. This got me shocked, even if  I am well aware of his problems concerning self confidence. His cartoon told me how he really feels and thinks  about his circumstances and himself secretly. Junior told me that words are too limited to express what one wants to say. I have to admit that this one drawing was extremely expressive and I am feelig sad and kind of guilty for him. However I am super happy about the fact he has found a way to overcome the limit of explaining or more precisely illustraiting himself. Man, poverty, his disabilities like stuttering and lisping the rez… this combination must bother him more than I’ve imagened. I am not being fooled , I know he exaggerates but this idea has his backround thoughts as wee which shouldn’t be forgotten..this cool, talented retard is my best friend and my brother from another mother!! I will try harder to show this guy how much I care about him and what a nice friend he is;)

See ya, Rowdie

The novel “The Absolutely true diary of a Part-Time Indian”,written by Sherman Alexie and published in September 2007, is about a poor and disabled Indian boy, who tries to change his life by transfering from his old  reservation school to a normal school out of the reservation.  The author is writing out of Arnolds perspective, first person narrator.

Arnold is using several stylistic devices to describe his emotions and his situation. Arnold is using a repetition (ll.3/8 ” I wish “), that shows that he is desperate abd he is somehow looking for miracle.When describing his sick dog he is using  an enumeration and a simile (ll.3-4 “He was laying on his bed with red, watery,snory eyes .He whimpered in pain. (…), he yelped like crazy.”)Both stylistic devices make clear how muich his dog,Oscar,is suffering.

In line 11-13 Arnold is using an enumeration(“He was more dependable than my parents, grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins and big  sister”),which describes that Arnold loves his dog more than any other person.

After his mother said “no” to take Oscar to the vet, because they dont hace enough money, Arnold makes the proposal to get a job.But Arnold`s  rhetorical question (c.t 7-8) shows , that he knows it`s an absurd idea, but nevertheless he would do everything for his dog.The repetetion of the word nothing “nothing”(ll.15,16,17) explains that Arnold is very angry and desprit,because of his helplessnes and his poverty.

When Arnold`s father wants to kill Oscar,because he is suffering Arnold becomes very mad.To make clear that he is angry he is using an enumeration and a climax (ll.1-3,5).At the end of the chapter Arnold`s dog Oscar died.

In conclusion it can be said that, Anrold suffers from being disabled as well as from being poor.When his family has no money to save his dog,which he calls his best friend, Arnold gets desperate and angry. He loves his dog more then any other person in the world, so his death is very tragic to Arnold.

The novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian” written by Sherman Alexie was published in the year 2007. It deals with the young boy Arnold called “Junior” who lives with his poor family in a reservation. In this novel Arnold tells the reader his problems in his daily life.

In the following I will analyse the feelings and emotions of Arnold in the second chapter “Why chicken means so much to me”. At the beginning of the second chapter Arnold tells something about his passion to draw cartoons (p. 17 l.1). He whises that he can make his cartoons real, that he draws something magical. So he is very sad as he realises that nobody can do this and that he is just a “poor-ass” reservation kid (p. 17 ll.7-8). On this part the author uses the stylistic form anaphora. That underlines how unhappy Arnold is because the word “poor-ass” is very often repeated. After that Arnold tells the reader something about the worst thing about being poor (p.18 l.4). He tells that his best friend Oscar, the dog, became really sick. Oscar means so much to Arnold. He was more dependabel than the parents or the gandmother (p.19 ll.11-12). So it was a shock for Arnold that his poor Indian family has not enough money for the vet (p.19 l.11-p.20 ll.1-2). That was a very sad situation for Arnold because he has not any chance to help his best friend. In this moment it was clear that Arnold was very desperate. That illustrates the anaphora on page 20 line 15-17. “Nothing. Nothing. Nothing”. The dad of Arnold tries to help Oscar and he shoots him down (p.24 ll.7-9). During this sad situation Arnold uses a lot of rhetorical questions (p.17 l.11/p.18 l.4/l.10). That has the effect that the reader is more influenced into the story. In the last part of the second chapter Arnold tells something about his parents and their unrealised dreams (p.23 ll.1-22). His mum is very intelligent. ” And she remembers everything she reads. She can recite whole pages by memory. She’s a human tape recorder”(p.23ll.2-4). After that he tells something about his dad who is a very good singer and musician (p.23 ll.8-10). It sounds a little bit that Arnold is a little bit proud about his parents but in the next lines it is also clear how desperate Arnold is. “But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choises. We’re just poor. That’s all we are.[…] to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor.You start believing that you’re poor because you’re stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because you’re Indian. […]. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it”(p.23 ll.14-22).

In conclusion I can say that in this second chapter the feelings of Arnold are very clear described. It is good comprehensible why Arnold is desperate. The stylistic devices help the reader to be more included in the story and it is easier to follow it. I would say that this chapter is important for the next course because in this chapter there are some important information about Arnold’s family and the hard blow, the loss of the best friend Oscar.

Dear Diary,

today was a strange day. I found Juniors cartoon and I was very shocked. I konw that Junior has many problems and his life in the reservation is not very easy, but that he really thinks that he is the biggest retard in the world was new to me. Actually I thought that his cartoons are funny and I was able to laugh about it. But now I know that this is Juniors way to tell his feelings and his true mind to the world. He told me that he thinks that pictures can tell more than words because words are too limited. And now I realised that. I was shocked about the cartoon about his self-portrayal. This picture was so expressive. I think I can’t imagine how hard it is to live with this problems for example the stutter and lisps or very big hands and feet. Although he has really big hands and feet;) Anyway that is no reason to offend him. I hope that I can protect him the next time. And I hope that I can give him the feeling that he is a cool friend.

See you tomorrow Rowdy