The book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian and the movie Smoke Signals are similar stories, but very different. Both of the main characters Junior and Victor are Indians that leave the reservation. Death is a huge part of both stories. In Junior’s story Eugene, his grandmother, and his sister all die. In victor’s story his father dies. The themes of the stories are different. In Junior’s story the theme is to never give up. Junior goes to Reardan in the White town to have a chance at a better life. Victor leaves the reservation to retrieve his father’s ashes. The story is more about forgiveness with Victor forgiving his father.
There are a few similarities between the character Junior, the main character in The Absolutely True
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It all comes down to discovering how we can win, even when the odds are against us. A major theme in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is never giving up. Junior starts life with serious brain damage and physical abnormalities. His family is poor. He is Indian, he doesn’t have access to the same level of schools, and health care as the white kids. Junior overcomes all his trials though. He goes to Reardan and gets a good education. The theme in Smoke Signals is forgiveness. Victor’s father, drinks and hits both him and his mother. When Victor is a kid, his father leaves. In the beginning of Smoke Signals, the family receives a phone call that Victor’s father is dead. When Victor talks to his father’s neighbour he finds out how much his father missed him; how he was always talking about him, saying how good Victor was at basketball. Throughout the movie Victor is angry at his father and refuses to forgive him for leaving them, but at the end of the story he realizes how much his father missed them and forgives …show more content…
Both main characters, Victor and Junior, are Indians who leave the reservation. In Junior’s story he leaves the reservation to go to Reardan and get a better education. Victor leaves the reservation to get his father’s ashes. The major themes of the stories are different; the theme of Junior’s story is to never give up. Even though he has brain damage and is struggling with family death he continues going to Reardan and trying to improve himself. The theme of Victor’s story is forgiveness: Victor’s father left him when he was a kid and throughout the movie Victor learns the reasons why his father left and finally forgives him. Death and overcoming hardship is a major part of both stories. In Smoke Signals Victor’s father dies, which is what begins the story and gives Victor a reason to leave the Reservation. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Junior loses family friend Eugene, his grandmother, and his sister, yet manages to survive and even thrive. Both Junior and Victor are victorious in the
In life you have many choices. One of which is deciding whether or not you are going to succeed or fail in life. In other words, choosing to stay hopeful or not. In the “Absolute True Diary of a Part- Time Indian” Junior goes through many situations where hope is needed. The author Sherman Alexie puts Junior as well as other characters in situations to make those hard decisions.
In the Light and the Forest, a story about a white boy, True Son, who lived with the Lenni Lenape tribe for 10 years is forced to go back to his white family due to a treaty. We start off the story with True Son going to meet the white soldiers and head to Pennsylvania while being escorted by Del, who is a soldier and could could speak Delaware. On their way to Pennsylvania, True Son’s Indian cousin Half Arrow walked with him until they got to a river and he had to stay back.
Compare and Contrast Essay Melanie Zwitter Rasmussen College Compare and Contrast Essay The two short stories that will be compared and contrasted in this essay are “Black Mountain, 1977” by Donald Antrim and “Three Generations of Native American Women’s Birth Experience” by Joy Harjo. In “Black Mountain, 1977”, the story is about a grandson and grandfather that keep a relationship even when the grandfather’s daughter doesn’t want them to have a relationship. The grandson would stay with his grandparents and found a way to keep their relationship even with problems that happened.
Another item that is extremely important in both stories is the use and importance of fate. Both characters rely on their fates for assistance and for achieving
6. Have you ever read "The Emporer's Test" or "The Mystery Ingredient". Even though they are both different types of text, it might surprise you how similar and how different these stories are. There are many similarities and differences in these stories that you may not know about. The theme of these stories are very similar.
“Grandpa's Badge of Courage” and “Friends Dilemma”, are two stories about love and respect. They share both similarities and differences. The two have similar themes and textual structures. They share similar messages or themes shown in different ways. First of all, the theme of "Grandpa's Badge of Courage" is love can change an opinion.
Faced with many obstacles from poverty to racial stereotypes, Junior must override them if he is to make his life better than that of fellow Indians. Interestingly, rather than letting the obstacles hold him back Junior understands that his destiny is in his own hands and he must celebrate who he is even if it means fighting. In the end, we see a boy who have managed to overcome all hardships to get to the top, even if it means making tough choices such as changing schools, therefore is could be seen that race and stereotypes only made Junior
The movie Smoke Signals is an liberated film which was directed and co-produced by Chris Eyre and with a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, based on the short story "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" from his book ‘The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven’. Receiving a number of awards, it is highly recognized for its plot on ethnicity. The film enriches awareness of the modern Native American cultural experience. It illuminates the nature of forgiveness in a lesson applicable to all. Smoke Signals is the first movie written, produced and co-directed by Native Americans and as such, it helps viewers to see Native American culture through the eyes of people from that culture.
Miranda Hill’s book Sleeping Funny is a collection of short stories that are brought together through wit of her writing and an unexpected series of events. Specifically, the stories “Apple”, “Petitions to St. Chronic”, “6:19”, and “Digging for Thomas” are relatable for readers and cover harder topics in a light and humours way. Each story is quite different from the next but can be linked together through motifs or character driven hardships. Although the stories are not directly related, “Apple” and “6:19” have a strong connection between themes.
The novel The Lone Ranger and the Fistfight in Tonto and the film Smoke Signals are very similar in many aspects but have some key difference as well. The main differences occur in the situation where the characters had a choice. The first situation is where Victor and Thomas is the book decided to abruptly leave the Trailer in which they were staying while in the film Alexie chose to stay there. This lead to some character development where Alexie shared some of his stories such as the one about the basketball game. Another difference is throughout the film it is shown that Victor and Thomas have a more strained and aggressive relationship this can be seen in the scene when they're in the truck and Thomas yelled at Victor and showed aggression that wasn't seen in the novel; in the novel Thomas and Victor have a more respectful relationship with one another.
The book focuses on a young boy named Arnold Spirit who shows persistence and bravery as he defies all odds and strides towards a happier more successful life than his parents and ancestors before him. Arnold is a bright, inspiring young boy who grows up with little fortune and is destined to continue down the path of a poor, misunderstood Indian. However, his fate changes for the better when a spark lights the fire inside of him to strive to pursue a better, more flourishing life as he makes an extraordinary decision to transfer to an all-white school for a worthier education. However, the drastic change of schools puts a burden on his family to get him to school as well as leads to extreme bullying from not just kids at his new school but also from his fellow Indians in his hometown. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I learned that it doesn 't matter what your situation is and what you are expected to accomplish in your lifetime or what standards have already been set for you because you can be whoever you want to be with hard work, ambition, and confidence.
These actions lead his family to suffering, and Victor loses his dear ones. Walton said to Victor, “feel his own worth, and the greatness of his fall”. His suffering is not without reason. Victor loses not only family, but also those who he cares for, Elizabeth, Justine and William, and best friend Clerval. Each of them are not only dear to him, but also symbolise the good in the world - love, bravery, morality, kindness, and innocence.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and Dances with Wolves are two movies that show the interactions between Americans and Native American tribes. Although they have similar plots, they are very different movies. The movies both portray certain themes, which have similarities and differences. The conflicts that occur during the two films can also be compared. Another subject that had similarities and differences between the two movies were the character traits.
Overcoming a challenge, not giving up, and not being afraid of change are a few themes demonstrated in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Perhaps the most prominent theme derived from the novel is defying the odds, or in other words rising above the expectations of others. Junior Spirit exemplifies this theme throughout the entirety of the book. As Junior is an Indian, he almost expects that he will never leave the reservation, become an alcoholic, and live in poverty like the other Indians on the reservation—only if he sits around and does not endeavor to change his fate. When Junior shares the backstory of his parents, he says that his mother and father came from “poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (11).
There are main themes in every novel some may be obvious while some require research and analysis to find. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, there are many themes such as bullying, racism, drug abuse and alcoholism. Though only a few of those apply directly to Junior, the protagonist, there is one that he is affected by more than any other. This one is isolation.