As soon as I read "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, the character who gives me the strongest feeling is the Indian boy who has over-sized head, hands and feet, poor eyesight so wears ugly, lopsided glasses since he was three, which made him "looking like a three-year-old Indian grandpa". And also has lisps and stutters usually when he talks. All since he was born with "water on the brain" which is born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull, and the surgery didn't successfully remove all the fluid outside his skull. Poor experience, humor way to say the story of Arnold Spirit Junior.
If you want me to say the first impact of the whole novel, I'd love to say that Spokane reservation's incredible poverty and bad environment. The basic living situation of the reservation makes the people feel hopeless and dreamless. If they do have a dream, it would be easily broken by the poverty, low education or other difficulties. In the novel, Junior's mother's very smart and likes reading a lot which even can be a "human tape recorder", Junior's father plays piano and saxophone and who is also a good singer who sings "like a pro", Mary's Junior's sister who likes writing and for several years she can stayed at her basement room for 20 hours for writing her works, Junior dreamed to be a cartoon artists. All the members of Junior's home got talents, but the only one who's brave enough and successfully stepped out of the reservation and going to attend a white high school twenty-two miles from his home in order to get higher education.
Junior first hated all the things around his bad decision, because that made him got teased and tormented by kids in the reservation who think he's an "apple" which is red on the outside and white on the inside, and the kids in the new high school since once one boy asks "Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?". Every day Junior's biggest problem is getting to the far-off school, because his father is often too drunk to drive him or lacks of money for gas, so he has to thumb a lift. The life he has likes daytime in the white school and nighttime in the reservation makes him a part-time Indian. I'm wondering if he knows who himself is or not, because the two sides' pressures all day long might make people driving crazy. In the other way, he got so many troubles on the way to get succeed on education, such like being an Indian, body shorts and poverty of all over the reservation.
Since I feel more interested in the poverty in India, one of the main topic all book long, I did some researches online about poverty. As the topic that is widespread in India, and we called India as "third of the world's poor". According to the World bank estimates, 80% of India's population lives on less than $2 a day and 41% of India falls below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day. The data shocked me, because their living spends a day are even not more than a cup of coffee. A study by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative using a Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) found that there were 645 million poor living under the MPI in India, 421 million of whom are concentrated in eight north India states of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. What a unbelievable number to even think about.
On the way doing the research, I realizes the percentage of Population Below Poverty Line is decreased year by year, which means different kind of programs works. The government has initiated and sustained those helping programs since independence to help the poor attain self sufficiency in food production and the supply of basic commodities. Some of the programs are intend to help part hardly poor situations' people to get enough food, but they are also developed to be the program can help people get jobs and earn money by themselves. The relieving is just the way to get people out of foodless situations in short time to quickly solve the problems, but not the way can be doing in long-term. From my point of view, the only way to get people out of poverty for good is doing works and trying to get the advantage from their areas, in order to get into the economics circle globally. The final goal is being one important and necessary role in the global economy development to drive India out of the list on "poverty".
Back to the book, Sherman Alexie was using humor to soften the sometimes difficult and emotional stories. The loveable but struggled "Junior" makes readers cannot help but root for. There's one plot in the book which is the most impressed part for me to get into the strongest feel Junior would love to delivered to us. Which is one the first day of high school, Junior received the textbooks from his teacher Mr. P, and he just realized the book he was handling is the one that his mother had been used. And his mother was given birth to Junior by thirty years old, which means the textbook is from at least forty or fifty years ago. Then he was too angry to throw the textbook, and just ended up on the Mr. P. After this, the school suspended Junior, but he got the understanding from Mr. P. They were talking about the reason Junior threw the book and Junior's sister Mary which is the girl spent most of time in their home's basement. Mr. P have been seeing so many bright Spokane Indians, and none of them keeping their dreams and going outside the reservation. He's been losing hopes again and again, which Junior gives him a little bright light about someone will doing better and having better life than all the people in the reservation now. And Mr. P gave Junior suggestions to encourage him going outside to leave the reservation, "You can't give up. You won't give up. You threw that book in my face because somewhere inside, you refuse to give up". After hearing from Mr. P, Junior decided to transfer to Reardan, the rich white people high school. This part of story is telling me a truth about the situation in the reservation. Everyone faces to poverty day by day, but none of them have the guts to fight with it. People are like infected by the "poverty disease", since there's no first recovery example then none of them even think about it. All the people are beaten by poverty, but also the thing inspire and stimulate Junior to go getting higher education for better life. People who are staying in the reservation choose not to strive with their current situation are like paying their lives on building the number of people who suffered under poverty all the life larger and larger.
There are so many difficulties and obstructions from the reservation, his ex-best friend Rowdy, poverty situation, the Reardan's high school and the pressure from the inside of himself on the way he was going to get succeed. As bad as his condition like, as more as positive power from his never give up attitude will send to reader' hearts.
Later on in the story, things getting to be better all the way about Junior. He met the girl named Penelope who is the girl he loved. And he got to be the leader of the varsity basketball team, one time had a competition with the team of his hometown reservation. Junior's opponent is Rowdy, which is the boy mistook him and broke up since Junior transferred to the high school. But there are some more tragedies around Junior's life, all of his family except him were dead from different reasons. Through all of the experiences, Junior got a sense of who he is and where he belongs. The life he caught between two conflicting worlds of loyalty and responsibility are finished, and there's a kind of brighter life out there in the future is waiting for Junior and Penelope.
The sad things happened in Junior's family is kind of a small sign of the people who lives in the reservation's hopes. The death represents the hopeless from my point of view. The sadness is the comparison Sherman gave readers to think of the differences of how different lives look like. But it's also told me the spirit of Junior's, doing the right thing which is got to try all the time for the life we would love to have and enjoy is always the way we should go.
Sometimes waiting just making things more complicated to solve and nothing helped for the current truth. Nowadays, there are still billions of people are suffering by poverty. Outing of food and water is what they are facing now. The things we got from the book is in order to discover the inside power within our body to see what we can do and what we need to do for those people who need us. Sherman Alexie is one of the most excellent writer in my mind as I know, because he successful writing the life of an Part-time Indian, and writing "Junior" this character into our hearts.
