The Impact of Art in the Diary of a Part-Indian by Sherman Alexie by Amelia

The art in The Diary of a Part-Time Indian help convey Junior’s inner thoughts and feelings that you can’t always be described using words. The drawing style of the pictures also helps readers understand Junior’s perception of the people or situations that he’s drawing. Throughout the book, readers see all the different types of drawings Junior drew, and realize that all the different amounts of detail in the drawings relate to what he’s drawing. For example, when drawing Eugene, Junior put in a lot of detail, to symbolize how much he meant to him, and how much he’s been in his life that he can draw him in such detail.

Eugene, Junior’s dad’s best friend.

Drawings let viewers see into a person’s mind on how the artist truly sees things. You can try to describe something in words, but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Junior’s pictures along with their captions and notes show you parts of Junior’s life that he might not directly write about, but he does allude to them sometimes. The drawings show us a little bit of what Junior’s life looks like, and the situations he’s put in. We also see some of the main characters, which helps us create a movie in our heads of what’s happening. Personally, I’m very glad that there are drawings in the book, because I like having a clearer picture of what the scene looks like in my head.

Junior draws many different events that he experienced, and they all have different emotions behind them.

Junior when he had first come to all white Rearden high school.

For example, when Junior first started at Rearden, he drew what it felt like for him to walk in, and be the only Indian kid there. Also, it shows all the racism and bullying Junior dealt with. The drawing shows the anger, hatred and distrust that the white kids have towards him, and his fear of what they could do to him. This is a moment of fear for Junior, but he also draws many other emotions, like when he drew himself playing basketball.

Here Junior is confused, about who he is, and what he is perceived and accepted as in both communities. Because of his choice to go to Rearden and get a better education, in his home gym he is not accepted. In the Rearden gym, he is cheered on, but doesn’t fit in truly with any of his teammates. The illustration shows that he sees how other people see him, but he doesn’t really know how he seems himself, or who he really is.

Junior playing basketball on the gym for his reservation school, and Junior playing basketball in the all white Rearden school gym.

“I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny lifeboats.” – Junior, page 6.

Junior’s life has been extremely harsh and difficult, so he uses his drawings as a way to save himself, to keep him from giving into the pain and giving up on everything. He uses them to help understand what’s happening, and process it. He hopes to use them as his ticket to a good life, to be successful and escape the reservation by being an artist. They are his hope, his chance to get away from the loss and hopelessness of the reservation. The art in the book really helps convey Junior’s personality, and gives us a better look inside his world.

Is Sherman Alexie’s Depiction of Alcohol Accurate or Fiction? by Charlotte

In the book the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie one major theme is the impact of alcoholism. This book is about a 14 year old boy named Junior who is living on the Spokane Indian reservation and struggling with his of heritage. Alcoholism affects Junior’s life on the reservation drastically. Many of Junior’s family members and friends have lost their lives to alcoholism related tragedies, Sherman Alexie’s depiction of behaviors of alcoholics and impact drunk driving are two ways that help readers feel sympathy for Junior.

One of the most common behaviors is being in denial. The different types of denial that are seen throughout alcoholics are “What problem,” “I’m not that bad,” “I just want a little bit of relief,” and “I’m not hurting anybody but myself “(3). In the book alcoholics, including junior’s dad are portrayed as like they are drinking away their miseries. For many Indians, life on the reservation is terrible and they want to drink away the pain.

Alcoholics can also have violent behaviors. “His father is drinking hard and throwing hard punches, so Rowdy and his mother are always walking around with bruised and bloody faces.” “My mother and father are drunks, too, but they aren’t mean like that. Not at all.” (Alexie page 18). In this book Sherman uses both types of behaviors in two different characters. 7.2% or 17 million of adults are alcoholics (2). In the book the percentage of alcoholics on the reservation is inaccurate.

Drunk driving is a huge problem in America. It is also a problem in Junior’s community. ”Grandparents are supposed to die first, but they’re supposed to die of old age. They’re supposed to die of a heart attack or stroke or of cancer or of Alzheimer’s. THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO GET RUN OVER AND KILLED BY A DRUNK DRIVER!” (Alexie 158) Many people he knows and his close family members have been killed from drunk driving. 32% of people ages 21 to 24 are drunk drivers (1). In the book drunk driving has occurred many times, in the book drunk driving seems more common than the statistics. On reservations the number of deaths caused by alcohol, including drunk driving is 1 in 10 (4). Sherman Alexie is not accurate based on national statistics.

Based on statistics from MADD (1), NIAAA (2), Floyd P Garett, M.D (3), and NBC Addictions (4) the depiction of behaviors is accurate but the number of alcoholics and drunk drivers is higher. Being an alcoholic is more likely because the people on the reservation are drinking away their problems. Drinking puts your brain in a “different universe”. Many people drink to escape to another universe. Sherman Alexie had very accurate behaviors in his book although, he had more alcoholics which led to drunk driving. Overall Sherman Alexie used behavior and reservation related statistics.

Stereotyping of Native Americans by Ross

Indians have been portrayed as killers and ruthless people in movies. Every movie needs a villain but the way people in the movie business make Indians is very wrong. There are hundreds of stereotypes out there saying that Indians scalp people, kill people, and are vicious and ruthless people with no respect for life but that is what the movie people want you to think and they do this for money.

 

This is an image of an Indian tribe attacking a peaceful wagon train making people think that the Indians are the enemy’s in this. The Indians are using bows, flaming arrows and spears to wipe out this wagon train and for no reason making the Indians the enemy’s in this, making people believe that the Indians are ruthless killers who kill men for sport.

This is an image of an Indian doing a war cry as the Indians supposedly used to do. I think that the movie makers purposely made the Indians have a war cry to make them seem hostile when really the white people where the ones being hostile by coming and making Indians seem crazy.

This image is a tribal chief saying that they should wipe out all White men and after he says that the people in that tribe start attacking that white man to tie him to a post. I bet that the white man will break out and win because in these types of movies the white man always wins.

It is hard to think about growing up in that time where Cowboys and Indians were a big thing and being an Indian would be very hard. There are a lot of stereotypes out there and these were just a few.