H Flewin’s Online Journal

In Sherman Alexie’s book ‘the absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian’ the main character Junior is arguably the most important character of the book, Sherman Alexie uses Junior to communicate with the reader about being an outsider. In this essay I am going to talk about how Sherman Alexie presents Junior to be an outsider. Junior is used to show how Sherman grew up. in the book Junior is presented as an outsider many ways. I will talk about 5 major events.

one way in which Junior is presented as an outsider is his battle against his physical problems.he was born with grease on the brain or to much spinal fluid because of this he has all of these underlining problems.One of his problems is that he has ten more teeth than normal. This makes him an outsider because this is suggesting that he is not like ever other person in the he in his village and he is an outsider in his village. also he has a head a big forehead witch in the book is described as a globe this makes him an outsider because he is the only one with a head that big in his village. All of this makes him as an because he is the only one in his village with any of these problems. An example is when junior says “I have a stutter and a lisp. Or maybe I should i say i had a st-st-st-st-stutter and a lisssssththththp.” this show that he has many physical problems and he take his problems seriously but when people are mean to him he dose not take it as seriously as many other people would.

another way in which junior is an outsider is his struggle of living in an Indian reservation despite going to a white in out of the reservation   

How  is discrimination shown in roll of thunder hear my cry.

In this essay I’m going to write about discrimination in Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry written by Mildred D Taylor. Mildred was born in Jackson ,Mississippi. she went to the university of Colorado where she got her degree in art and she grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She shows the life of a black family from the eyes of a girl called Cassie and it shows what white people still thought of black people after the Jim Crow laws came into control (the Jim Crow were stats local law enforcing racial segregation in the  southern United States.) But in the novel the schools are segregated which means the Jim Crow laws do not apply to schools She wrote it in 1976 but it was set in 1930.

The first time discrimination was seen in Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry is when the bus splashes the children. They call Cassia, little-man, Stacy, and Christopher-John “nigger, nigger, mud eater” this shows discrimination; because the white bus drivers splashes Christopher-John people to entertain the white students on the bus. It also shows discrimination because the black community does not have a bus or a mode of transport to use and they also do not have the money to buy any vehicle.

Another example in the book is the segregated schools.  An example is when Cassie says, “the great faith elementary and secondary school biggest black school in the country,” and “Jefferson Davis school country school along white wooden building, behind there was a wide sports field. This show discrimination because the Jim Crow laws states that everyone is equal it also shows discrimination because the white community does not want to go to school with black people who means the white community is very racist. Another example is that the white school has far better facilities than the black school, such as a large sports field.

Another example is when the black people get books that have been used by the Jefferson David country school Cassie says “they give us their old books when they don’t want them no more,” and “in the front of the books it says very new white, poor nigger.” This shows discrimination because they give their old books that they would no longer use and the front of the book says the white people get the book when it is its best and gives the books to the black people when it is its worst, but feel it is fine for black children to use them.

The last discrimination shown is in  Mr Benet’s shop and Mr Benet says “get your little black self back over there and wait some more.” Cassie goes mad and in the book he keeps make them wait more and more and the white people went first, this shows discrimination because he serves white people first and does not serve the black people. This shows that he is very racist and probably does not want black people in his shop.

In conclusion there are lots and lots of racism in the book Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry. there is lots of racism discrimination in the book like when the bus, the schools, the books and the store there is lots of discrimination in roll of thunder hear my cry and shows how hard it would have been in real life as a child. this book was a very int intresting book and I enjoyed it