Think about how many funerals you've been to in your life. it's probably around 1-6 depending on who you are. imagine going to 42 funerals at the age of fourteen. What do you think your reaction to death would be? would you be sad, would you be numb to death at that point? Do you think you could be as resilient as Junior is in this novel? In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The main character has to deal with the struggles of being the only Indian in an all-white school. He has to overcome death, bullying, confidence struggles and more. Junior’s resilience builds through loss and is affected by both his support systems (in some cases, the lack thereof) and coping mechanisms.
Junior experiences life in different …show more content…
When Junior's grandmother dies, he talks about her gift of tolerance. He then tells the reader that she was hit by a drunk driver. He grieves her death by telling a story and laughing. junior says “and so laughing and crying we said goodbye to my grandmother” (page 166). Junior and his family choose to laugh at Ted instead of getting mad at him. This shows that just because they are sad about their grandmother's death doesn't mean they should be angry. His grandmother's last words were to forgive the drunk driver who killed her. there choosing forgiveness over anger in this situation, like the grandmother would have wanted it. This shows the resilience of the people. When Eugene died, junior got really depressed. He says, “I was so depressed I thought about dropping out of the reardan” (page 173). Junior blames himself for all the death. he thinks it is because he left his tribe. he almost gave up all the work he's put in at reardan, but he doesn't because he knows if he leaves reardan he’ll probably end up like his dad. he wants to be resident and end the cycle. When Mary dies, Junior has a different reaction. He starts to worry about his dad. He says, “I suddenly worried that my father was going to wreck his car on the icy roads.” (page 203). It shows how much death joiners are exposed to the fact that his immediate reaction is to assume his father is going to die on the way to pick him up. It's like his brain is trained to prepare for the worst-case scenario. This shows Junior can be super resilient at one time, but not at
Junior experiences life in different …show more content…
When Junior's grandmother dies, he talks about her gift of tolerance. He then tells the reader that she was hit by a drunk driver. He grieves her death by telling a story and laughing. junior says “and so laughing and crying we said goodbye to my grandmother” (page 166). Junior and his family choose to laugh at Ted instead of getting mad at him. This shows that just because they are sad about their grandmother's death doesn't mean they should be angry. His grandmother's last words were to forgive the drunk driver who killed her. there choosing forgiveness over anger in this situation, like the grandmother would have wanted it. This shows the resilience of the people. When Eugene died, junior got really depressed. He says, “I was so depressed I thought about dropping out of the reardan” (page 173). Junior blames himself for all the death. he thinks it is because he left his tribe. he almost gave up all the work he's put in at reardan, but he doesn't because he knows if he leaves reardan he’ll probably end up like his dad. he wants to be resident and end the cycle. When Mary dies, Junior has a different reaction. He starts to worry about his dad. He says, “I suddenly worried that my father was going to wreck his car on the icy roads.” (page 203). It shows how much death joiners are exposed to the fact that his immediate reaction is to assume his father is going to die on the way to pick him up. It's like his brain is trained to prepare for the worst-case scenario. This shows Junior can be super resilient at one time, but not at