From Zero to Hero
From Zero to Hero
The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, is a book about an Indian kid named Junior who was born with water on the brain, forty two teeth, and lots of hope. Junior lives on the Rez, and to fulfill his dreams of being accepted, and getting better education, he switches to a full white school. At first it is hard for him, but after Junior gets new friends and even a girlfriend. After a while he joins the basketball team and is one of the best players.
At this point in time, Indians were not allowed to think big and nobody paid any attention to Indian dreams. Junior draws pictures to talk to the world to show his understandings of the ways the racism has deeply impacted his and his family’s lives. Junior shows strong feeling about his parents and their dreams, struggling with his own identity, and overall feelings through his dreams.
Indians are not very Rich and smart. Lots of movies show that Indians drink and like getting high. But not all Indians are like, but because of the majority that do that, most of them do not get respected as equally. Junior’s parents are very poor, however both of them have dreams. Junior’s dad would have been “The fifth best Jazz Sax player west of the Mississippi” (pg. 12), along with his mother who could have been a “Spokane Falls community college teacher of the year 1992-98” (pg. 12).
Junior gets really effected from that his parents don’t work. Junior loses his best friend Oscar (The dog) because they did not have the money to cure him, “Junior sweetheart,” Mom said. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any money for Oscar.” (pg. 10) After what happened to his best friend Junior realizes how horrible it is to be poor.
Most Indians before never knew there real culture because of people like Mr.P who said that “We were supposed to kill Indian to save the child”. (pg. 35) His job was to make Indian kids give up on being Indian and start act like a white kid. In most places before when an Indian walked inside some place where a lot of people hung out, Indian’s would get the weird looks, and maybe later could end with a fight, and all because of the way Indians are treated.
Junior gets expelled for throwing a book at the teachers face, which than makes him think what can happen if he does not go to school. A week into suspension, Junior was sitting on his front porch when Mr.P walked up his drive way. While Junior sits with Mr.P, he says to Junior “You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.” (pg. 43) After a while Junior switches into an all white school to get a better future. At first when he came to school, he met a lot of new kids. Because of Junior being Indian he was made fun of. Junior herd a joke from a new kid he met, that was really racist, “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?” (pg. 64) Junior could not hold it anymore and punched that kid in the face, after a while Junior started gaining more and more respect, and was one of the most popular kids at school.
Lots of famous artists, draw pictures of things that are seen every day, but some artists draw weird pictures, and not all people can understand what the picture means.
Lots of artists draw pictures that describe some sort of feeling, or maybe something that happened to them and even something they want to do.
Through the whole book, Junior draws pictures that show what people look like, decisions, his feelings, and even some funny ones. A couple of pictures show the way that Junior gets offended, or made fun of. “White/Indian” (pg. 57) this picture shows Junior and his stuff, and the stuff he could have had if he was white. For Example if white “A Bright Future” if Indian “A Vanishing Past”. (pg. 57) After a couple of years, when he is grown, he can be a famous cartoonist if someone will listen to his dreams.
Junior Knows That because he was born on an Indian reserve, he will have lots of difficulties being accepted, but to get through that he draws pictures and even punches a kid in the face once, “So I punched Roger in the face.” (pg. 65)
The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, tells the story of a kid who is all nerdy and has water on the brain, who goes through very hard times but at the very end gets respected. This book is an excellent example of how you can go from being all nerdy and having nothing to someone who gets really respected and have lots of friends.