The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
By: Sherman Alexie
2007

The Absolutely True Diary of  a Part Time Indian follows a 14 year old boy named Junior through the many hardships of his life including being a normal teenage boy, being an Indian, trying to find his identity, and loosing many that are dear to him. Junior is starting high school on the "rez" and he is like any normal boy. He likes naked women, he likes basketball, and hes always getting in fights. However, what sets Junior apart is that he has a brain condition that causes him to seizure and he is in constant danger of possibly killing himself. On his first day of school he becomes enraged at how bad his life is on the rex and throws his geometry book which unfortunately hits his teacher. He is suspended and eventually has to talk to the teacher afterwards but he is not yelled at. Rather, he is given advice that could potentially change his life for forever. He is told to get off the rez because if he stays he will die. The teacher doesn't mean this as a threat but rather away of saving his life and smarts. Junior makes the decision to go to the all white school in Rearden to change his life. His best friend Rowdy and tribal members turn against him since he is a "traitor" and this begins Juniors identity crisis. At his new school he struggles to become the cool kid and eventually gets into the cool crowd with his will to fight back and his great basketball skills. He gets the girl, he gets the cool friends, but he is leaving behind his Indian life. After dealing with many deaths in his family Junior reconncects with his family and realizes how important they are to him. Even though sometimes they get drunk way to much they are always there and they love him which is all he can ask for. Junior realizes how much he cares for his fellow people and friends and learns to balance his tradition along with his new found freedom.

I loved this book a lot, and I know many might be a bit skeptical of it due to its large amount of swearing and topics that are discussed. I am actually completely OK with how it was written though. This book I feel is more intended for 14 year old boys and that is how they think. I am pretty sure every 14 year old guy loves naked girls and swearing so when the story is being told that way it is just trying to be authentic as possible. We can really get a great insight into how an Indian boy at this age would act. I thought it was super entertaining and while some of it was super vulgar like Buffaloes being fucked by "niggers" unfortunately that is just how people act and the book is just trying to be accurate. Junior was such a wonderful character to follow because his inspiration was great to see. He always had to struggle to live and I think through this struggle he learned how to be a survivor and get the most out of life. He is a wonderful person regardless of his qwerks and I applaud him for wanting to get out of the reservation and see the world. Only having one perspective for a whole life can be really boring and not allowing yourself to rise above is just terrible. In a way he is break that "glass ceiling:" that holds so many people back. It was great to see his development as a person and as terrible as the deaths were in his life I feel like each one made him stronger. Each one made his feelings stronger for his people too which was the best part. He had a very mature epiphany for a 14 year old. He was so sad that the people in his tribe he cared for so much kept on dieing because of booze. To have that understanding of how bad it is really puts him over the rest because he can grow up and know he doesn't need it because it could ruin his life. The lesson of learning how to balance being an individual versus sticking to tradition was wonderfully done throughout the book. I feel like this would be a great book to get older boys into reading because it is rather funny, but it could also teach them a lesson about caring for family while also being themselves. Instead of isolating from the family they can still be around while also being themselves and making something out of themselves. Although I would not want this book for my grade schoolers I would still love to own it since I thought it was brilliant.

Esperanza Rising

Esperanza Rising
By: Pam Munoz Ryan
Scholastic Press 2000

I read Esperanza Rising when I was in 8th grade and it is so amazing to see how much my mind has changed since then. I really never thought about this book deeply and while I did enjoy the novel I never really took it to heart. Esperanza was a young girl that lived on her families ranch in Mexico and she had everything she could ever want; servants, dolls, and a loving family. She loved her mother and father dearly, but was especially close to her father. Sadly, her father dies and this is when Esperanza's life completely changes around. She can no longer live the life she once lead because of her uncles greed and is forced to move to America. The servants from the ranch accompany them since they can give them a place to stay, but it is no where near the luxury Esperanza once knew. She learns to work in the labor camps along with the rest of the family and learns about the struggles of so many people. Her mother catches Valley Fever and is hospitalized for a majority of the book and during this time Esperanza must learn how to become a mature young woman and accept life for how it is. By the end of the novel Esperanza really gains the knowledge of making the best out of situations and out of life.

This book teaches such an important lesson and I wish so much that I would have noticed it when I was younger. Just like how Esperanza would crochet the mountains and valleys that is how life is, and nothing can change that. Everyone is going to have some sort of hardships in their life, and what makes them a better person is by how hard they climb back up the mountain. There are always going to be valleys in life and you can't simply jump over them, but you can work up the strength to climb back up. I feel like if I were to teach this novel to a group of students I would be sure to point this out to them especially if it was 8th graders. I remember thinking every little thing would be the end of the world, but in actuality I just had to not be afraid of restarting and fixing my mistakes. As an adult reading this book I really take to heart its message. I loved the authors note for the book because it was great to see that this was a real story and Esperanza really did become a strong woman that made the best out of her life. I respected her so much and I feel like using this book in a class would be great so students could see all the work their ancestors did to put them where they are know. I loved Esperanza's character because she was so rich of emotion and she felt so real. I could see her struggles and feel for her and she tried to get used to being a peasant girl. This is another book that really explores the rough patches of America's past that are hardly discussed. I actually did not know that 450,000 Mexican's were sent back to Mexico regardless of their citizenship. It is surprising to see how terrible America was during this certain time period. It was if Americans were scared of anything that was not the same as them. It is almost ironic that America calls it self the "Melting pot" because it seems like it was such a reluctant country to do so.  There are so many lessons to be taught out of this book, both life lessons and social studies and it is such a great learning tool.

I especially liked how throughout the book their was a lot of spanish text and I feel like this would be really great for context clues lessons. Sometimes words were not actually translated but you could tell what they were supposed to be by their sorrounding sentences and to have that skill is very important.  It can give a different perspective to life by showing a Mexican cultures views of America and by keeping it authentic by using their language. The last thing I really enjoyed was how the chapters were named after fruits. Classes could discuss how the fruits were used and how each fruit show a development in Esperanza. It was intresting to see how they counted out the year by the fruits instead of keeping any actual time. I absolutely loved this book even more than I did in 8th grade and I am so glad I read this again for all of the lessons it has taught me are something I will cherish forever.