I have been rereading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. In this book, an Indian boy named Junior lives on a reservation, the Spokane Rez. In it are his tales of woe, and how he gets by. His family doesn't have much money, they're dirt poor. He describes it as his parents parents were poor and their parents were poor and on and on until the beginning of poor people.
Junior loves to draw. He doodle all the time, and it's basically how he gets by. He claims that pictures show more than words, since everyone understands a picture no matter what language they speak. If you draw a flower, people will think "flower" in whatever language they speak, unless your flower was really crappy.
What do you like to do, to pass by time, to get through crappy stuff that may happen?
I love to draw too, even though I'm not the best at it. I mostly just doodle and all. Then, people sing or dance. I think dancing is a great way of expressing yourself, well, I guess any form of art is, even drama.
Do you know anyone who has "mental issues"? Well, if you read this book you will. (Dang, I sound like I'm promoting it. Is that what I'm supposed to do, anyway...?) Junior was born with "water on the brain" so the doctors had to cut open his skull and remove it. Scary, huh? He goes on about how in 3rd grade he was a size 11 in shoe size, he lisps and stutters, has a huge head, and how he gets beat up all the time. This made me feel so bad for him, and his parents. I know this sounds mean, maybe, but it must be really hard to raise a child who is so sick, especially if you haven't any money.
This book reminds me of this of Jeanne Wakatsuki's Farewell to Manzanar. In both stories, the families are poor and live in a reservation. However, Farewell to Manzanar is a true story; Jeanne Wakatsuki is the daughter of Japanese parents, and they are suddenly forced into the Manzanar reservation when Pearl Harbor is attacked, simply because they are Japanese. I can't imagine being in a situation like that, can you?
So it's not like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is true...? I wonder, is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian actually a true story, or what? It's really confusing to me since it says it is but... Yeah. What do you think...?
Love & Rockets, Reed.
Oh god. I can barely remember anything about the book but I know that it made me laugh a LOT.
ReplyDeleteWell, since it says "novel" on the cover, I doubt it's true. However, despite that, the book felt somewhat like it portrayed a Native American's life. He encountered many obstacles such as poverty and bullying (I THINK.) and etcetera, it sounds true. I'm not 100% positive on that, though.
This book sounds very similar to the other story you mentioned, "Farewell to Manzanar". This is because many people died in the attack of Pearl Harbor (this is probably why the US government won't help Japan's earthquake relief despite the fact that Americans have done more damage to Japan themselves), and Native Americans were constantly forced into reservations and being killed back then.