Sunday, December 4, 2016

In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, how was the relationship between Junior and his father?

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior and his father have a strong relationship, although Junior worries about his father's battle with alcohol.  Junior recognizes that his parents are not living the lives they had dreamed, and in an early chapter, Junior draws a picture of who his parents would have been if they had been able to follow their dreams.  Junior's father would have become a musician.  However, the hardships on...

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior and his father have a strong relationship, although Junior worries about his father's battle with alcohol.  Junior recognizes that his parents are not living the lives they had dreamed, and in an early chapter, Junior draws a picture of who his parents would have been if they had been able to follow their dreams.  Junior's father would have become a musician.  However, the hardships on the reservation have created a different path for Junior's parents, and his father resorts to alcohol abuse to cope with the difficulties he faces such as lack of opportunity and low income.  When Junior goes to Reardan, he often worries that his father will get drunk and forget to come pick him up from school (and sometimes he does forget).  Yet despite Junior's concern over his father's alcoholism, Junior and his father remain close mainly because his father supports him and his efforts.  When Junior announces that he wants to go to Reardan for a better education, his father is happy that Junior wants to take this risky step, knowing that many Indians on the reservation will brand him a traitor for leaving the school at Wellpinit.  Junior's father makes the commitment of driving him the 20+ miles to and from school when he is able.  So through this sense of understanding, Junior and his father are able to maintain a strong relationship.

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