Critical Question #5

    *contains spoilers*

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Everything is labeled in groups. If you don't fit in one group, find another. When Junior decides to leave his school on the Rez, everyone hates him. He is purposely leaving their group and joining a new group that has never been kind to Indians. At first Junior is an individual on the Rez because he abandoned them, and at his new school Rearden he is a individual because he is the poor Indian in the middle of a white rich kids. Everyone has to be in a group, and everything has to be a competition.

    When Junior starts being accepted at Rearden, thats when things get worse on the Rez. On the Rez everyone hates him, because he left them. The only ones Junior has are his Parents, his Sister Mary,his Dad's best friend Eugene, and Grandmother. When his Grandmother, Mary, and Eugene all die The Rez briefly allow him back into their group.
                             
                                  We held Grandmother's wake 3 days later...Almost 2000 Indians came, and no   one gave me any crap. I mean I was still the kid who betrayed the tribe. That couldn't be forgiven.  But I was also they kid who lost their grandmother. Which was horrible. So they all waved the white flag, and let me grieve in peace. (Alexie, 159)

This quote shows how big a deal groups are. How big a deal sticking together is. But it also shows us that we can work together, and everything doesn't allows have to be a competition. This quote really defines that. It also shows us that a competition doesn't have to be all the time. That it's ok to take a brake once and awhile.


In the book Junior is on the Rearden basketball team. When he has to go to his old school gym on the Rez, to play his former classmates, friends and family all hell brakes loose. Everyone is booing him. Someone throws a quarter at his head causing him to get stitches. They make him pass out and go to the hospital, because he has a concussion. This shows how on the Rez competition is everything. How sticking with one another is super important. Since Junior transferred schools, he betrayed his own tribe. They pushed him out of their group and into the Rearden group. Except no one really wanted him their at first. He was an individual hidden in a group.

This is a really good book, that takes teamwork to the extreme. Everyone gets categorized in all these groups, inside other larger groups.  Everything has to be a competition. You have to have the right people by your side in order to survive.