Overcoming Adversity in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

Adversity is a difficult situation that happened in our lives. Problems can be large or small, they present themselves to us throughout our whole existence, and it dependent each people who overcoming adversity. For example, in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Junior showed great determination in overcoming his adversity. Junior is chasing hope and aspiration for his future and going to Reardan is the first step he took. However, deaths are also one of his adversities in his life, as well as racism and discrimination. Yet, Junior managed to show great determination despite the misfortune that happened in his life.

Arnold never loses hope and aspiration, and his desire to get out of the cycle of poverty urged him to go to Reardan as his first step towards achieving his goal. Junior left the Rez and had the support and inspiration from his parents to move school and get a better education because he believed that staying at the Rez will get him nowhere. On the contrary, His tribe did not like the idea of him transferring to another school and had to sacrifice his friendship with his best friend 'Rowdy' His tribe, and his best friend interpreted it as a betrayal to the tribe. Nonetheless, Junior still has the support from his family, so the feeling of betrayal didn't stop him from chasing his goals.

One of Junior’s adversities is death. He is confronted with the death of his loved ones over and over. Junior loses his grandmother and his sister due to a fire, as well as his father’s best friend, who is like an uncle to him. Death is quite common on the reservation as well, as Junior counts that he has been on over 40 funerals. The constant presence of death leads Junior to a slight loss of hope. But despite all of this sorrow, Arnold must learn to carry on and put all the negativity on the side.

Racism and discrimination are also one of Junior’s adversity in life. Arnold observes the effect of racism in the reservation and how discrimination has broken down Indians sense of self-worth to the point where they started to believe that they deserve to be treated as a low-class citizen. In Reardan, Junior has been called by racist nicknames judging by the fact that he was an Indian going on an all-white school. Being discriminated made junior feel so low about himself and made himself to think about how it affects one's feelings.

To conclude the essay, Junior is someone to be admired! He showed great determination in overcoming adversity. He is chasing hope and aspirations. He manages to overcome the death of his loved ones, as well as racism and discrimination. Determination is simply Junior's main weapon and he is using that 'weapon' to achieve his dreams.