The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian- Resisting the text

                      In the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, written by Sherman Alexie, a poor, fourteen year old boy named Junior living on an Indian Reservation. Junior, a "budding cartoonist" is born with a variety of medical problems and is constantly picked on by everyone. Junior only has one friend, Rowdy, who has his share of problems. Worried that he will end up living on the reservation for the rest of his life and never fulfill his dreams, much like his parents, Junior makes the decision to attend an all-white school. Although he is constantly judged, and called a traitor, he continues to attend this school because he wants a better life for himself.

                      In this book, I have constantly found myself resisting the text. While reading this book, I want only the best to occur to Junior; for his parents to be friendlier, for his sister to be there for him, for Junior to never get teased or beaten, and for Junior to be a smart and perfect person. Several times, I found myself resisting the text.

                      One part of this book where I found myself ignoring or resisting was when Junior throws a book at an innocent teacher, Mr.P. Junior describes Mr.P as a calm, harmless guy who shows up to school in pajamas and assigns the students little to no homework. In conclusion, Junior speaks kindly of this teacher. One day, Junior opens up a text book and sees his mom's name written in it, meaning that it is the exact textbook his mother used. This makes him angry because it makes him realize how little money the school has to buy new books and that he is using a thirty year old book. I understand that Junior would be mad, but it isn't like Junior to have outbursts and throw books at innocent people's faces. He has put up with a lot of things, such as his father being drunk all the time, his sister running away, his poverty and hunger, his dog and best friend dying and many cruel men beating him up. The worst Junior has done about this is draw mean cartoons. I praise him for dealing with things the right way, and not aggressively taking out his anger on the ones that hurt him. I "resisted" text because Junior hurt an innocent person who had nothing wrong to him and doesn't have the ability fix any him.

                       Another part of the text which I found myself resisting was when Rowdy, Junior's best friend, is about to beat him up Junior because Junior laughed at him for tripping. I felt like I resisted that part because I felt bad for Junior. He has nobody else's shoulder to lean on. Everybody else bullies Junior and I feel like he needs Rowdy. I didn't like to read about his best friend acting like his other intimidators.

                       In conclusion, I resisted the part of the text where Junior has an outburst on an innocent person because it was so unlike him. I also resisted the text when Rowdy is mean to Junior because I feel like Junior has no one else but Rowdy.

                    

Just Listen- Whose Perspective is missing? Why?

     The book, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen is about Annabelle. A teenage girl whose model life seems perfect on the outside but really, she's putting with many issues; her sisters eating disorder, her best friend ignoring her, and her social life disappearing. Despite her beautiful looks, she is barely talked to and usually sits alone at lunch. Although Annabelle is the narrator of this book, her opinion is not often heard. She most commonly says "I guess I have to deal with it" or "I was too young to have an opinion". Annabelle never clearly states her opinion on anything. Her thoughts usually include telling events rather than giving her point of view on anything. I think Sarah Dessen rarely includes the main characters opinion, so that the reader knows she is a rather timid character and usually worried of what others think.

     An example in which Annabelle does not explain her point of view is when she explains a crisis her mother went through when her grandmother died she once again says "I didn't talk to my mom about it. I was too young to really understand." Annabelle was ten at the time, but that shows she usually refrains from giving her opinion. Another example in which she doesn't talk about issues to anyone is when she sees her sister is anorexic. She leaves her sister alone and says "I'd rather not bother her. She's probably just going through a phase". Anabelle definitely wants to talk to her sister and wants to know what is going on, but she ignores the problem, fearing her opinion won't be liked.

    I think Sarah Dessen makes Annabelle a timid character, with a quiet opinion because she wants the reader to pick up clues as to what is making Annabelle such a reserved character. Annabelle lost her best friend due to an issue that Sarah Dessen doesn't mention until the end of the book. I think the author wants us to know that the main character possibly had too strong of an opinion or something of the sort and has now changed.

     In conclusion, Sarah Dessen makes the main character's opinion be the one thats missing so we can pick up clues as to what the problem initially was with her friend. When Annabelle's opinion is left out we know what kind of a character she is.