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Mark Neumann-Post 1 the absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

I am really enjoying this book so far it seems that junior has a really hard life, but also seems like he doesn’t care what other people think. This book looks pretty gloomy right now, but there are funny parts too which switch the mood out so its not so dark. One part that I found really strange was when Junior got beaten by the Andruss brothers and that they were thirty years old. That part of the book seemed really bad almost unbelievable because I’ve never heard of thirty year olds beating up a 14 year old kid. So far I don’t really get why the book used to be banned, but I guess that later on I will find out. As of right now I think I am building up into the plot more and more and hopefully it will get even funnier.

Mark Neumann-Post 2 The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

There is a pretty big turning point in this part of the book because after Junior throws his geometry book at “Mr.P”. Mr. P goes to Juniors house and confesses that he deserved the book being thrown in his face and also reveals Mary’s(Juniors sitser) secret that she wanted to become a writer he also tells Junior that he deserves better and that the only way he can get anywhere is to get out of the “rez”. This part of the book seems like Junior is finally getting what he deserves that he can get a better life and not be beaten up every time he goes somewhere. Junior chooses to go to a high school some 20 miles away from the reservation and his parents agree, but when he tells his best friend Rowdy he gets angry and punches him. I couldn’t understand why he would do that and now seems like Junior has no one to really be close to which is pretty sad. Later on when Junior starts going to Reardan he gets bullied by the jocks, but not beaten up and then one day he punches the leader and they just back off which astonishes him and me while reading this part. That’s all for this post now I think the story is getting even more interesting.

Mark Neumann-Post 3 The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

From the last post Junior talks about what had happened at school with him beating up the leader of the jocks that bullied him at school and his grandmother explains that maybe he was the alpha male and that by showing that he was tougher gained respect. This was pretty funny looking at it as if the jocks were a pack of wolves and by beating their leader Junior gained respect. Although Junior is now respected by the jocks it still seems like he never gets a rest from getting beaten up. During Halloween Junior gets beaten up by a group of guys and they steal his candy and money that he was going to donate. He is still trying to get a girl named Penelope to like him, and it looks like he is getting close, but still she doesn’t really like him. At the end of the reading for this part Junior becomes friends with the school genius named “Gordy” which is good since he is no longer friends with Rowdy. I still think that there will be some type of conflict with Rowdy and Junior later in the book, I guess I’ll have to find out.

Mark Neumann-Post 4 The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

Junior also known as Arthur I just like to keep calling him Junior, almost has luck in getting back together with his best friend by drawing him a picture and when he sees Rowdy in the window he gets flipped off, but Rowdy doesn’t tear the picture up so it seems that Rowdy is still Junior’s friend and that he is just angry because Junior is not giving up on his future like Rowdy already did which is sort of selfish of him. Another good thing happens to Arthur though. He finally gets to be closer friends with Penelope who admits to being a bulimic the funny thing is she adds “only when I throw up” which is similar to what his dad says when he says “I’m only an alcoholic when I drink.” So far that’s about all that happened I’m guessing that Junior will get closer to Penelope and hopefully Rowdy will become his friend again, but I guess I’ll just have to see.

Mark Neumann-Post 5 The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

A lot has happened from the last post, I also forgot to mention Arthur’s sister Mary who ran away from home and got married is now living happily in a trailer home in Montana. She is also a good writer from what it said about her in the book earlier and is writing a book called “how to run away from your house and find your home” I think that’s a pretty good title and seems like it would be an autobiography since she ran away from home. Anyways there’s a lot the happens in this reading first of all Junior gets on Reardan’s varsity basketball team by beating Roger which was the best one on the team and the first game they have is with Juniors old school and right when they get there they get rocks thrown at them and they get booed at. Worst of all everyone at Juniors old school now hates him he ends up going to the hospital because Rowdy elbows him so hard and another bad thing is that even though the other team fouled him so much they still won because the referees had to calm the school down by letting them win. I thought that this was pretty scary since Junior could have gotten hurt even worse than he did. I hope that something good happens soon in the book it seems like everything’s going bad now.

Mark Neumann-Post 6 The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

Some more sad things happen in this part of the book, it seems like nothing good has been happening to Junior lately and that his future doesn’t look too bright. First of all his dad leaves for a couple of days during Christmas and takes the only money they had to get drunk and returns with only a 5 dollar bill for Junior which I thought was pretty heartbreaking for Junior, not that he only gets 5 dollars, but that his dad had left him and his family for alcohol instead of spending the holiday season with his family. Nonetheless Junior doesn’t hate his father for that he lives to understand that he won’t change his ways any time soon. Then after that Junior’s grandmother dies by a drunk driver and the amazing thing is that over two thousand people show up for her funeral which is pretty amazing and shows how good of a person Juniors grandmother really was, but it seems pretty sad now that Junior really doesn’t have a role model to look after since his grandmother was like a role model for him. That wasn’t the only death though also a friend of Junior’s dad Eugene gets killed and he was also another person that Junior knew well and thought of as a friend. I really don’t know how this book is going to end now, but if it keeps going like this it doesn’t look too well for Junior and looks like this book will have a bad ending.

Mark Neumann-Post 7 The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

There is some happiness in this reading, but it seems like the little happiness that there is gets shut down with sadness. In this reading Junior beats Rowdy’s basketball team, but he feels ashamed for doing it because he knows that they don’t have anything and hates himself for doing that to his old friend. He later emails Rowdy and Rowdy replies like he usually does and Junior is happy which I don’t understand because Rowdy was being pretty mean to Junior and Junior just treats it as if Rowdy were being nice to him, which I guess is Rowdy’s own way of showing his emotions. Then something tragic happens and that something is that Juniors sister marry dies due to her trailer burning down. This is what has been happening for the past chapters and seems like every time Junior gets some happiness it is shut down by some bad thing happening, the other thing is that his sister died because she was drunk and fell asleep and while she slept was burned alive which is a pretty harsh way to die and I can see Junior not knowing what to do anymore. Even after that though Junior shows respect for his sister in that she attempted to follow her dreams even though she didn’t really get to fulfill them. I think that in the end Junior will still get to fulfill his dreams and will have a better life, the life that he deserves to have and not be ashamed of who he is.

Mark Neumann-Post 8 The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian

I was quite surprised to find out that the ending of this book was actually a good one for Junior and that he finally returns to being friends with Rowdy. Rowdy tells Junior that he knew that one day Junior would leave the reservation he also tells him about a book he read about Indians being nomadic and says that no one on the reservation was nomadic except for Junior and says that he would be happy for Junior. I really was surprised at this because I hadn’t expected for Rowdy of all people to go to Junior and basically apologize in his own way of how he acted. In all I really enjoyed this novel I can tell why this book was banned, but honestly I don’t think any book should be banned just because of language or the things that are depicted in the book. I mean if the editors give the book the ok to be sold then why should it be banned from any schools? That’s my point of view on the banning of books and I think that it should stop, but I really did enjoy this book especially the pictures, they gave me ideas about what Junior looked like and how people were around him. I would highly recommend this book to be read.

Mark Neumann-Post 9 Of Mice and Men

To start off I would have to agree with Brian about the themes, right away I can see them one main one being poverty in both they are shown in different ways. Of course in previous book Junior has a house and a family, but in this book it is just two people George and Lennie it also states that Lennie has a mental illness, but nonetheless the poverty is seen. An example would be when George and Lennie have to spend the night outside in and eat beans because they have no many and are in search of a new place to work. Another similarity between this book and the previous one would be that both Lennie and Junior were born with birth defects and each has their own downsides. So far Lennie has a hard time with not killing small animals due to “petting” them a bit too strongly and Junior was just born with a lot of different medical conditions, but that is another similarity I can see between the books so far. So far the book seems interesting I would like to know more about why they are poor and what they are trying to do, but I guess I will figure that out as I read.

Mark Neumann-Post 10 Of Mice and Men

Already after reading this section of the book I can tell that there might be a conflict between a the bosses son Curley and George because it seems that Curley isn’t a nice person and likes to mess with any ranch hands that are bigger than him, which seems like he has a big ego. Another thing that happened that shocked me was that a man named Slim has a dog who had nine puppies and he drowned four of them because they wouldn’t be able to be fed, which on one side I could understand, but really did he have to drown those puppies it seemed pretty sad. Then Slim mentions that he wants to give a puppy to Candy, another worker on the ranch to take care of instead of his old sheep dog that is nearly blind. Lennie is excited that he might have a chance of keeping a puppy. I don’t know if letting Lennie have a puppy would be the best thing to do especially after the incident with the mouse that happened on the way to the ranch. Other than that not much has happened, but so far I really like the way the author has wrote this book it gives a feeling as if the book were written a while back, which I know it was , but some books that try to create that don’t really ever seem like they work. That is all I have for this post and am enjoying the book so far.