The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Analysis

Self-Esteem Everyone wants to be told they are good looking or special in some way. In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by, Sherman Alexie, the protagonist, Junior, goes through the struggle of finding himself due to getting bullied and picked on about his appearance. People should not let what others say define how they view themselves. Bullying can cause one’s self-esteem to deteriorate. In the book, Junior gets bullied by the kids living on the Spokane reservation. The kids call Junior out on his physical appearance and come up with silly and hurtful jokes about how he looks. For example Junior says, “My head was so big…some of the kids called me orbit” (3). Junior admits that he has an abnormally large head. He knows that he has physical characteristics that that are not always pleasant to look at but he feels he doesn’t need the kids to talk about him and tease him. When people are told repeatedly by others that they are worthless and stupid, they eventually start to tell themselves the same thing. Junior starts to believe what everyone is saying is true. He goes as far as saying “I didn’t deserve to be there. I knew it; all of those kids new it. Indians didn’t deserve shit” (56). Junior faces a lot of struggles being Indian and also getting bullied. He compares
Junior started out as a shy kid who needed his best friend to protect him and be there for him. By the end of the book Junior protects himself. Throughout the book he gains confidence but loses it again due to people repeatedly badgering him with hurtful words, but by the end he gains all that confidence back. Junior says, “I can do it” (189). At the beginning of the book, when he had little to zero confidence he would not have said that. Towards the end of the book he is able to say that and that makes him feel so much better about himself. Confidence plays a key role in boosting ones