Smoke grenade

Sherman Alexie outlines the struggles of several characters in his novel The Toughest Indian in the World. Many of his protagonists suffer from the same quandary related to their Indian heritage, and all of them go to great and unexpected lengths to cure the dissatisfaction they feel with certain aspects of their lives. The narrator Alexie writes about in his short story by the same name, “The Toughest Indian in the World,” encounters an Indian hitchhiker with whom he attempts to combat the…

What is your best accomplishment? In Sherman Alexie’s story “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” Jackson is the main character in this story who is static and the protagonist. The story is in first-person because it comes from his point of view. Jackson strives to overcome his alcoholism to achieve his goal. He comes across people with similar difficulties and learns how they have given up their goals which encourages him to pursue his. Jackson is a sympathetic character who struggles with an internal…

In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a young boy named Arnold realizes that he needs to leave the reservation to fully succeed. When he gets to the small town of Reardan, it’s difficult at first, but he ends up in a more supportive and friendly environment. Throughout the book, Arnold faces many hardships, but he manages to get through them. Although Arnold faces racism at Reardan, and poverty and depression on the rez, he uses his sense of humor, romanticism, and…

“Superman and Me”, by Sherman Alexie, is a brilliant autobiography. The essay is about how Alexie learned to read from a Superman comic book at the young age of three. He was a Spokane Indian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian reservation in Washington state. The essay consists of the hardship that Indian people went through and how they lived. Not only how all the Indians in his area lived but especially his own family. His family was poor, but his parents always seemed to have a…

In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the protagonist, Arnold Spirit, Junior is a fourteen years old guy who had to leave behind his Indian Reservation to a different atmosphere; where he thinks there are “more chances” of hope than his Indian life. The protagonist faces many obstacles in his life such as: poverty, racism, the alcoholism of his father, insecurity, doubts, bullying, among others. During the novel, Arnold shows through his moves and words, how poor people…

Malcolm X’s “Literacy Behind Bars” and Sherman Alexie’s Ten Little Indians are two completely different works, but both have a similar theme. In “Literacy Behind Bars,” Malcolm X discloses the details of his journey to becoming literate. Meanwhile, in Ten Little Indians, a young Spokane Indian woman by the name of Corliss recalls her quest to find a Spokane Indian poet by the name of Harlan Atwater. Both Corliss and Malcolm X went through their childhood not having complete access to their…

Annotated Bibliography Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little,Brown and Company, 2007, Print. Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is about a boy named Junior and how his family suffers from poverty whilst living in a reservation. After having a conversation with his teacher about how leaving the reservation would be best for him, he confronts his parents about switching to a better school off the rez, who decide…

Twenty two percent of Indians in America are poor, this including junior. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, dealt with very difficult subjects that schools don’t usually address, in which the main character, Junior, suffered. Somehow Junior manages to stay positive through his tough times. In this book, you’ll discover Junior’s journey, as a poor Indian living on the reservation. Living life on the reservation but going to school in Reardon must be very hard for…

Sherman Alexie uses humor as a way to connect his stories with the readers. In one of his interviews the famous writer says "I think being funny breaks down barriers between people"(Nygren 299). It is easy for one to infer that humor is not necessarily added into his stories to make the audience laugh, but to make a sort of crude emphasis to what Sherman Alexie is trying to state with his writings. In other words, one could look at Sherman Alexie's work as ice cream, and at the humor like its…

Living in an Indian reservation, Junior faces many problems because of his abnormalities. Going to a very poor school Junior knows he must find hope somewhere else. Little did Junior know when he threw his geometry book at his teacher how that would change his life and what would follow. With Mr. P’s advice, he decides to leave the Spokane reservation and the problems of alcoholism, poverty, and friends. In the story, The Absolute True Diary of a Part- Time Indian, By Sherman Alexie Junior shows…