The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Personal reflection

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Personal reflection
Being unable to get out of a challenging situation can be frustrating. In the same way, reservations in Sherman Alexie’s book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian were intended to be prisons where Indians were required to live in and die eventually. They were establishments of the white people that were put in place with the intention of destroying the Indian culture. Sherman gives a story of Junior – a teenage Native American boy who is struggling with his identity but is also suffering from the problems that come with living in reservations such as, poverty and racism.
Sherman shows how difficult it can be for a minority community such as Native Americans to flee poverty. This minority group believes that they do not have control over poverty; they have just grown to accept it. As a result, they do not attempt to get out of it. When they try to overcome it, they are discouraged by fellow tribesmen. For instance, throughout the novel junior spends his time pursuing a future beyond his impoverished reservation. Junior is advised by his teacher to get out of the reservation but his viewed by as a traitor by his fellow tribesmen. Junior feels stuck in the reservation due to its devastating cycles of poverty. He claims that Native Americans do not realise their dreams as they are enclosed in cocoons of poverty (Alexie 11). Even when there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, the hopes of Native Americans are still crushed.

For instance, when Junior joins Redearn High, he thinks that he has a better chance of achieving his dreams. However, he is viewed as an outsider, and he is racially discriminated because he comes from the reservation.
In this essence, it is evident that the struggles of Native Americans arise from their failure to believe in themselves and to support each other. Native Americans living in the reservations do not even attempt to break the vicious cycle of poverty, and they view junior as a traitor when he tries to break the cycle. One would sympathise with them on the grounds of being unfortunate, but they prove to be obstacles to their own success.

Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. 2007.
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