In this class called Forbidden Books, the unit I studied is called Diversity. We learned about why have book been banned and what is a limit for censorship. We learned how to tell a story through censorship. During this unit we read this book called The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian. It was about a 14 year old kid who lives on a rez. His name was Junior he lived with his parents, grandmother, and sister. He needs to leave in order for his dreams to come true. He goes to a white school and at first he does not really fit in but at the end he does. For this AP, we had to find make an essay about this book. On of thing we had to do for this was explain the censorship about this book. The thing I did great at was writing the essay. The thing that I had trouble was thinking about what to write for the paragraphs. I over came that by going through the book and finding quotes that could help me. Overall, I thought that this was a fun project to make and to write the essay. I hope you enjoy my project that I did.
Maryann Yin, The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian,(2016)
Is Junior two people? In the book, The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, Junior is technically two different people because he lives on the rez and studies in the white community. There are two main settings, both are towns in the Pacific Northwest. The first is Wellpinit, which is the hometown of the Spokane Indian Reservation where Junior lives with his mother, father, sister, and grandmother. His family has lived there for generations. The second setting is Reardan a white school that’s 22 miles away from the reservation and Wellpinit. This novel explores the inner conflict that minorities feel when they are forced to go into an all white environment to pursue their dreams.
There are many themes in this book, but I will only be focusing on one. That is Hopes/Dreams/Plans. Junior’s hopes and dreams are to become a famous cartoonist, but for people who live on the rez their dreams don’t really come true. Junior says, “But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are” (18). This means that Junior has to leave in order for his dreams to come true. Junior’s math teacher at the rez school told him that the farther he walks away from the rez the more likely he will find hope. ““I was starting to understand. He was a math teacher. I had to add my hope to somebody else’s hope. I had to multiply hope by hope. “Where is hope?” I asked. “Who has hope?” “Son,” Mr. P said. “You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.” (46).
Junior leaves the rez to attend the white school in order to have his dreams come true. At the new white school Junior has everything that he needs to fulfill his dreams. “But Reardan has one of the best small schools in the state, with a computer room and huge chemistry lab and a drama club and two basketball gyms. The kids in Reardan are the smartest and most athletic kids anywhere. They are the best.” (49).
Another way of Junior giving himself hope to achieve his goal, was when he was supported by his White classmates. When Junior’s sister dies he went to school the next day. The teacher tried to make a joke of him but the whole school walked out of the teacher's classroom. “I walked out of the classroom and felt like dancing and singing. It all gave me hope. It gave me a little bit of joy. And I kept trying to find the little pieces of joy in my life. That’s the only way I managed to make it through all of that death and change. I made a list of the people who had given me the most joy in my life” (171).
There are many reasons that the book was banned. In fact it was one of the most banned books in 2014 according to (Schuab). Some of the reasons were anti-family, cultural insensitivity, and drugs/alcohol/smoking. The people who wanted to ban it used Junior’s words. Junior said that people on the rez got drunk a lot. “And the whole time, everybody would be drinking booze and getting drunk and stupid and sad and mean. Yeah, doesn’t that make sense? How do we honor the drunken death of a young married couple?” (202). When the book was published, many people did not want to read about the troubles minorities faced in an all white school. They thought it offended minorities, especially Indians, and they did not want to confront their own prejudices.
My main points were that Junior had dreams just like every kid, but because of who he was he faced obstacles to making his dreams come true. He had to live two lives and endure hurts that he faced in each life in order to succeed. He had a lot of courage.
