Sample Papers on Sherman Alexie novel

Read the sample papers I put on the blog under "sample papers on Alexie book"; select the best of the three papers, comment on what works in the paper and what could be better; you are evaluating and critiquing the paper. (There are only three final drafts below.)

How interesting the paper is

How understandable the paper is

How convincing the paper is

How well-developed and supported the various topic sentences are

Sample Paper 1 

The “Stupid Horse”

English 102

February 14^th 2013

MW 12:00 – 2:10pm

How does a person come to terms with what has happened in their life to try to prevent them from their goals?  What does a person do to understand why they were put in a certain position in the first place?  People analyze.  Life is full of obstacles that a person has to overcome.  Analyzing life as it happens is really the only method you can use to keep yourself above water.  This is the method Junior uses in the story “The True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Alexie Sherman.  He is thrown challenges throughout his first year in high school while trying to accomplish his goal.  At fourteen years old, Junior just feels that no matter what he does, he will fail.  All he wants in life is to become someone other than his fellow Indians, but at the same time he doesn’t want to feel that he is disappointing his own race.  Junior finally comes to an understanding about what he wants.  A story his father told him about a horse helps Junior come to terms with his life and what he can expect to happen in the end of his quest to achieve more than what was normally expected of his tribe.

            Junior analyzes his life by focusing on different parts of his father’s story.  He says that his father had told him that “when he was a kid he watch a horse drown in Turtle Lake and disappear.  ‘Some of the others say it was a giant turtle that grabbed the horse’” (223).  The Turtle Lake would represent the reservation where Junior lives and the horse would then be Junior.  It symbolizes how Junior feels the reservation drowning him.  By staying in the reservation he will never prosper like he dreams and will be stuck to live on the reservation with the burden of disappointment.  Mr. P, the geometry teacher of Wellpinit High, expressed the importance of Junior leaving the reservation.  He then told Junior about Mary, Junior’s sister.  He explained how Mary was such a promising student and she dreamed of writing romantic novels.  “Mary was a bright and shining star.  And then she faded year by year until you could barely see her anymore” (40).  Mary had faded away due to living on the reservation and coming to terms with the fact that she would never prosper.  She had no hope of succeeding because there was no opportunity in their community.  Mr. P finally told Junior that “the only thing you kids [on the rez] are being taught is how to give up” (42).  Junior finally realized that he was being drowned in Turtle Lake.  He was giving up his hopes in dreams by being stuck in that place.  If he didn’t leave soon, he would be gone forever and no way of turning back. “You are going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation” (43).

                  The story continues with the horse reappearing on the shore of another body of water.  “A few weeks later, Stupid Horse’s body washed up on the shore of Benjamin’s Lake, ten miles away from Turtle Lake” (223).  The reappearance of Stupid Horse was the result of Junior’s decision to go to Reardan High School, a school full of rich white people off the reservation.  Reardan was roughly 20 miles away from Wellpinit High but by switching high schools gave Junior the chance to succeed in his quest to become more than just a reservation Indian.   When Junior told his parents of his need to go to Reardan, they “quickly agreed with [his] plans.  They wanted a better life for my sister and me” (46).  His mother than expressed how he would “be the first one to leave the rez this way. The Indians around here [were] going to be angry with [him]” (47).  After explaining to his family his decision, he goes on to tell his best friend Rowdy his decision.  Junior came straight out and told him, “I have to go. I’m going to die if I don’t leave” (52).  Rowdy did not understand and was mad at Junior.  Junior then realized that “[his] best friend had become [his] worst enemy” (53).  There was no turning back.  He would continue on his conquest friendless and hated by many.  The horse then became legendary and memorable because he had done something no one would understand or do themselves.  He was different.

                  The people on the reservation soon justified the reappearance of Stupid Horse as a practical joke.  “A bunch of guys threw the dead horse into the back of the truck, drove it to the dump, and burned it” (223).  Indians on the reservation couldn’t cope with the idea of things happening with no justification.  They burned the horse to show how much they despised the horse for its actions.  Junior was soon burned by Indians’ on the reservation.  His mother was correct when saying that he would not be their favorite person because he was different and had become an individual rather than just an Indian on the reservation.   On Halloween, Junior decided to trick or treat in the reservation to raise money for the poor.  Unfortunately, he was beat up by some disguised Indians because he was considered a traitor.  He also was punished by “people who just called [him] names and slammed the door in [his] face” (79).  He then explains that their actions were for them to “remind me that I was a traitor” (79).  The residences on the reservation continued to torture Junior during the first basketball against Wellpinit.  The Indians proceeded on chanting “Ar-nold sucks! Ar-nold sucks! Ar-nold sucks” (143)!  This really made Junior think.  Not only were his tribe members upset with him and felt betrayed, but they were calling him a name he was never called by them.  He felt like he was no longer apart of the reservation family.  The reservation burned him from their lives just like they burned the horse.

                  Even though the tribe burned the horse, they were surprised of what occurred next.  “A few weeks after they burned the body, a bunch of kids were swimming in Turtle Lake when it caught on fire… It burned for a few hours… People stayed away for a few days then went to take a look at the damage… Stupid Horse washed up on shore again” (223,224).  Even though the people on the reservation had burned Junior and felt he was nothing more than a traitor, he was able to overcome the “fire” and not let it affect his dreams.  He continued to attend Reardan and prosper.  The distance between the reservation and Reardan was an example of how Junior was not going to let anything burn him or his dreams.  He was untouchable.   “Getting to school was always an adventure” (87).  Junior resorted to lucking out on rides, hitchhiking, or the most occasional, walking.  He was dedicated on going to school, no matter what it took.  Even after dealing with three deaths in a row, he was not trying to be anywhere else but school.  “I fled my house, and went to school” (212).  He was untouchable, just like the unburned horse.

                  Finally it was all over.  “Only after a few weeks did the Stupid Horse finally let go.  His skin and flesh melted away.  The maggots and coyotes ate their fill.  Then the horse was just bones…  After a few more weeks, the skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones.  And the water and the wind dragged them away” (224).  Junior was done with his conflictions that arouse in his head throughout the years.  He understood who he was and what he truly wanted.  He came to terms with what people had done and said.  He then understood why attending a new school and feeling as though he had betrayed people affected him so deeply.  “I cried because so many of my fellow tribal members were slowly killing themselves and I wanted them to live” (216).  They were all going to die on the reservation just as their ancestors did.  He on the other hand was going to be somebody.  He was going to accomplish his dreams.  “I wept because I was the only one who was brave and crazy enough to leave the rez.  I was the only one with enough arrogance” (217).  He was going places.  He was the only one who had enough hope to do something.

                  Junior only found true reassurance in his life decision when his friend Rowdy had come back into his life.  Rowdy gave Junior a little insight.  “I’m not nomadic... Hardly anyone on this rez is nomadic.  Except for you. You’re the nomadic one” (229).  Rowdy had finally realized that Junior was not being selfish, he was no traitor, but he was an Indian who desired more than the normal life of a reservation Indian.  Junior asked Rowdy, “Will we still know each other when we’re old men” (230)?  Rowdy did not have an exact answer but they both knew it was a question that would be answered later in life.  Junior was that horse.  When the horse was only bones and disappeared in the wind and water, Junior had finally felt relief. He finally knew what he was doing was the right thing to do.  Rowdy was the reason he was waiting to fully let his new life take over.  Now that Rowdy gave his permission to Junior, he was ready to soar toward his dreams.  He was ready to get his life started in a big way.

                  The story of the horse is probably the most significant part of the book.  It shows how one boy can change his fate with just the little hint of hope.  The story expresses how Junior felt about the events that occurred in the past year.  It also helped Junior analyze what had happened.  He then learned how to come to terms with his life.  He finally accepted all of the events and was ready to move on with his life.  He was ready to take the leap and accomplish more than anyone would believe he could accomplish.  He was not just a reservation Indian.  He was not just a poor Indian with nothing to hope for.  He was an Indian with a plan and a future.  He was an Indian who figured out how to keep his life and mind balanced.  Junior was an Indian who would soon have it all figured out and travel to places unknown.  He was the horse that soon got set free to go be the nomad he was born to be.

Sample Paper 2

Stories of Survival

Instructor DeWit

            In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie displays several ways of keeping his characters afloat through the struggles they experience. His writing displays the thoughts and feelings of the characters, and probably himself as well when he was going through the same thing. The story he tells makes it clear that it would be very easy for someone in that situation to crack under the pressure of this lifestyle, or in this case, become submerged by it and drown. Many things happen to the character in his story that probably happened to him as well that could have left him drowning and yet he kept afloat and survived. He did this by handling the situation properly and keeping his head above water. In his stories, Sherman Alexie shows how he survived by facing his problems and making changes necessary to come out on top.

            Initially, Alexie's character Arnold Spirit starts out in a situation where his destiny is essentially to drown. All of his family and peers are living a life of destruction where they are sure to drown if they haven't already. Arnold is headed down the same path until his teacher brings it to his attention that he's headed nowhere but that it's possible for change. Arnold may or may not have realized that on his own eventually but at that point he listens to his teacher and realizes what's going on. He knows that everyone from his reservation is hopeless and he knows that he has no hope either. He's always known. And even as he goes on with his story and makes changes in his life, he always remembers the situation he was born into. In a way, this helps him get through his problems. When people are in a tough situation and they feel grief, anger, fear, lostness, and pain, it's a common thing to ignore their problems. Some people run from their problems and go their whole lives without facing them, and it leaves a horrible impression on them. Repressing problems or emotions is a common thing to do in this situation and people can easily drown in their own problems or emotions if they don't deal with them. Arnold, on the other hand, always stays aware of his problems. He's always aware of them and of everything that happens to him. And he manages to make that a positive thing unlike Victor in Smoke Signals who, even in acknowledging his situation, is still drowning in it. Arnold takes his problems with him everywhere he goes and uses them as motivation to keep going and to make something better out of himself. He always has the knowledge of his background and home life in the back of his head when living his life and making decisions and it's that knowledge that drives him to make better choices. To not just be another Indian kid from the reservation, but to be Arnold. It's Arnold's acknowledgment of them that keeps him afloat. Even though his problems still exist, he isn't weighed down by them when he thinks about them. He has always accepted his fate. Even when he started trying to change it. He has never forgotten his problems. They are a constant reminder to him throughout the story why he does what he does. This helps him get through them.

            One thing that is prevalent in both Alexie's writing as well as his stories in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Smoke Signals is storytelling. Alexie does it, Arnold does it, and Thomas does it. When Alexie tells stories within his stories, he is usually telling stories of lighter moments to help get through darker ones. When Arnold does it, he's looking back at better memories. When Thomas does it, it's almost like a coping technique – and in one instance it's even a form of currency. All of these uses of storytelling help them get by and make it through the tough times. Arnold's stories are usually of happier memories that help him feel better when things are going badly. It seems to help him to reminisce, even if it also makes him realize that things are no longer the same, like the time when he told about how he went to Turtle Lake with Rowdy when they were just boys and they ended up climbing that tall tree. Somehow thinking of that story made him feel better, even though he had been missing Rowdy to death just before it. Thinking of the time that he rose above everything holding him down in his reservation was a god thing. And Thomas told stories to turn average memories into amazing ones. He told all sorts of stories about Victor's dad and how amazing he was, and yet Victor said none of it was true. And although it may have just been because of how bitter he felt about his dad at the time, he made his father seem to be someone awful. And yet Thomas had so many great stories to tell about him. They may have been exaggerated by his wild imagination or they may have been how Thomas actually felt. Either way, it made Thomas very happy to tell the stories and think back about how great Victor's dad was. This helped Thomas stay afloat during the tough time of retrieving Victor's father's things and the harsh journey they had to go through to get them. In a way, telling stories is a coping technique for all of them.  Relating back to what Baldwin said, this may be their way of articulating what is happening around them and inside of them so they don't get submerged by it.  As previously stated, repressing something can leave people with a heavy burden. Even if it's not quite the truth, this is Arnold's and Victor's way of acknowledging what is going on around them and thinking about it and making sense of it and talking about it. This is how they keep their heads above water.

            Because he is aware of his problems, it is easy for him to face them when he needs to. It's not clear whether or not he would have been able to without the help of his teacher, but thanks to his teacher he is able to face his problems. And it may not be easy for him to do, either. The Indians on his reservation have never seemed to have hope, and the whites have always seemed to have it. His fellow Indians are born into a repeating cycle of poverty and hopelessness and failure. They understand this right away, so it's hard for them to step out of this expectation and try to find it on their own. The whites have always had it better, possibly since they're not a minority like the Indians. Or possibly because they're better off. But seeing this helps encourage Arnold to try to find his own, so he makes some changes in life. He doesn't want to become white but he wants to be where the whites are, thinking that maybe more privileges would give him hope. So he tries. This helps him rise above and once again, stay afloat.

            So Arnold's next way of surviving is by making that change. He doesn't change who he is, he just changes what he does. He doesn't try to become white, he just tries to find something the white people have always had. He's still the same old nerdy, poor Indian boy from the reservation, but he makes a simple change with a huge result. If he had let things continue to go the way they were headed, down the path of destruction, he would have been submerged by his own lack of hope and drowned in his own lostness. But a simple talk with his teacher reminded him that it's not too late for change. And so he changed. Arnold Spirit made the simple change to switch schools. Although it wasn't actually as simple as it sounded to adjust to the new school, it made a world of a difference to him and to his hope. And finding hope was better than floating. Finding hope was swimming. After making that change, he was no longer submerged and he was no longer floating idly, either. He was swimming to the shore to rescue himself.

            Another important tool for Arnold to keep afloat is basketball. It helped him keep busy at his new school and it helped him make friends and it even helped raise his confidence in a way. He always liked doing it for fun. It reminded him of people he liked, like his dad and Rowdy. But once he found out that he had his own talent in basketball, he felt powerful. He was a freshman and the best shooter on the varsity team. That made him feel really good about himself. It even gave him hope of playing on a college team in the future. So again, he swam. It helped him again when he beat Rowdy and the Wellpinit Redskins. Even if he wasn't completely happy about it, he earned himself respect and friends and popularity by doing something he was good at. Even if he broke Rowdy's heart doing it, he also may have earned his respect in a way. The same way that he earned Roger's respect by punching him in the face during his first day at Reardan. Beating Rowdy may have won him back. After all, it was basketball that brought them back together. And so once again, with his friend, he could float.

            In contrast to the idea of floating in the company of his closest friend, being without that friend throughout the course of the story helped as well. Rowdy was his best friend and yet that friendship only existed in Arnold's memories. Being able to look back on it, even if he didn't have it anymore, reminded him of one of the few good things he's had and helped him stay afloat. His newer, not-as-good friends actually helped him as well. They weren't Rowdy, the one person closer than family who could help Arnold get through everything, but without them his entire experience at Reardan may not have been as life-changing. He started out at Reardan just as hopeless as at home, only he felt even worse because he no longer had Rowdy. But despite being without Rowdy, he still managed to move along and make other friends and manage another life. That's something he never expected when he first made the decision to “abandon” his home and friends and family. Having these friends proved that he could take care of himself. Having been leaning on Rowdy his whole life for help or support, here Arnold learned that he could get by without him. He had to learn to float by himself and he did.

            All in all, there are many things that can be done to stay afloat in a situation like this. Arnold chose ones that worked for him, like never ignoring his problems. For some people it's one of the hardest things to do but for Arnold, it was the easiest. He made just enough changes to come out the same Indian he started as, but a little happier and a little more hopeful. All of these things helped him survive and they probably helped Sherman Alexie himself survive the same way. He told his own story through Arnold and it probably helped him get by just like it helped Arnold and Thomas to tell their stories.

                 

Sample Paper 3

The Path of A Child 

If a child needs its parents to guide them through life, to help them understand who they are and right from wrong, how does a child manage when they are forced to grow up in a world without parents? How do they learn how to come to terms with life when they don’t really know the truth about what to expect out of life if your parents, the ones you are so dependent on, aren’t around to guide you? James Baldwin said, “You have got to consent to become a social animal in order to discover and to enlarge what goes on in this world.” But how do you do this on your own? Knowing who you truly are comes at a cost. No one is perfect. We all come from colorful pasts. Some of those pasts we might want to keep to ourselves. But the truth is, the past is what makes us who we are today. There are things that may have happened in your pasts that you don’t like, that you try to ignore, but it happened and all you can do now is learn from it and go forward.  You may begin to look at yourself in a negative light, worry about how others view you, and create “another” you to cope. Another, more acceptable you, a fabricated version of your true self. Alexie makes a point in both The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and in Smoke Signals to guide his audience on how to go about finding yourself, through the eyes of a child. Since children are so innocent, they are the perfect vessels. Children have the benefit of not experiencing the scars that life leave over time, but being a child also means constantly looking for acceptance of others including accepting of ones self. A child tends to create someone that others see as acceptable, but revert to their “original” self when they are alone, as they search for their true identity. As we struggle to claim our identity and are matched with issues of understanding our double-consciousness we resolve to merge into a more accurate, truer self and move into self-consciousness.

“I want the world to pay attention to me. (Alexie, 6)” On some level, its what we all want. The world to notice us. To know that we exist. Arnold wants the world to notice that he is not only an Indian, but as someone who comes from many tribes. He wants to be respected, not ignored or walked over. He wants to be able to follow his dreams without ridicule. Arnold received attention from the people on the reservation; he even received attention from the people at Reardon, but not the type of attention he wanted. He wanted more. He just hadn’t figured out what it was. He knew that he didn’t want to end up throwing away his dreams like his sister, being stuck in his parent’s basement. So changing schools to change his image, to change his outcome, to not get stuck, is what he decided to do. Instead of drawing his escape from the reservation, he made it a reality, even if it meant lying about being poor. Arnold had seen himself as half white and half Indian. The drawing of himself symbolized how he seen himself, and how others seen him. What better example to wrap around the idea of what double consciousness is than to draw a picture of yourself? Drawing a picture of two halves of yourself… one half representing who you think you are, the other half representing who others think you are. Is it important that you know who you are and how others think you are? Is it important to understand where you came from to understand why you think what you think?

            “I woke up on the reservation as an Indian, and somewhere on the road to Reardan, I became something less than an Indian. And once I arrived at Reardan, I became something less than less than Indian. (Alexie, 83)” Once who you are has been erased, who are you? Who have you become? It becomes the driving force for your existence. Trying everything you can to fit in… even trying to get a white girl to fall in love with you. “How do I make a beautiful white girl fall in love with me? (Alexie, 81)” Getting Penelope’s attention, her acceptance was the first step. And once Penelope let her guard down, and let Arnold in, she realized he wasn’t that bad. Once Arnold had Penelope’s support, her friendship, things started to change. He knew that their friendship was artificial. But he did notice that he was being treated differently. How Penelope viewed him changed others perceptions of him as well. Which meant that he had to keep up appearances. He couldn’t just, be himself. He couldn’t let anyone know the real him. The broke him. The hungry him. The walking to school him…  “Since the kids and parents at Reardan thought I had a lot of money, I did nothing to change their minds… (Alexie 148)”, and it wasn’t until he felt he could absolutely trust Penelope, that he finally told her the truth. It was then that his broke Indian self, began to merge with the facade he had created; the rich, “white”, version of himself. Arnold still had one more thing to come to terms with though. His relationship with Rowdy had been fractured. Rowdy was his best friend, but Rowdy felt betrayed. He didn’t understand why he left and he didn’t want to.  Rowdy had some troubles of his own. His constant struggle within himself caused him to take the anger that was let out on him, on everyone else. Rowdy blamed Arnold for a lot, but the thing he blamed him for that hurt the most, was the death of his sister. “Your sister is dead because you left us. You killed her. (Alexie, 211).  He didn’t want to hear the good intentions that Arnold had when he decided to leave the reservation. He didn’t care that Arnold left so that he could follow his dreams. All he felt was that his best friend abandoned him. Leaving him alone to deal with his messed up life alone. Rowdy was the only one who understood him. And now, he didn’t even have that understanding.

Living life with all of these questions is what gives you character. Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Going through life blindly isn’t living. Life is about having questions and asking questions. Making sure that you have a full understanding about what life is about. How to learn from it? Otherwise, life is pointless. Questions about your life and the subsequent answers help shape who you will become. But sometimes asking questions can leave you just as vulnerable during you walk through life, as you were the day you were born, when you are alone and the only time you could get anyone’s attention was when you screamed at the top of your lungs. Going through all of life’s “stuff”, knowing your history provides you with the tools and is what makes you and what will make you who you are.

“I wept because I was the only one who was brave and crazy enough to leave the rez. I was the only one with enough arrogance (Alexie, 217).” Arnold’s experiences with his teacher, with the basketball team, with the constant death in his life, led him to where he is now. Arnold is finally able to understand that life isn’t about what others think, but what you think of yourself that’s important. “I realized that I might be a lonely Indian boy, but I was not alone in my loneliness…. And because I was going to have a better life out in the white world;” A world that he no longer had to be afraid of. White people were not the enemy. They were the gateway to his dreams. He came to terms with the opportunities that were presented to him. His parents had afforded him the opportunity to have a better life. A life where he didn’t have to worry about dying anymore. A life where he didn’t have to worry about having a drunken party being the reason he left his dreams behind, the reason why he was stuck on the rez.

“Just as I would always love and miss my reservation and my tribe. I hoped and prayed that they would someday forgive me for leaving them. I hoped and prayed that I would someday forgive myself for leaving them.” As a child, you are not aware of who you are on the inside or the outside. You are just looking for validation. The need to be validated by others, “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others…” is something that we will always struggle with. In Sherman Alexie’s stories, he uses his characters to tackle some of the issues that happen as a child. We constantly struggle with finding acceptance from others. But more importantly acceptance of ourselves. Children in their own right are open books. They do what they want, they don’t worry about consequences, and they don’t worry about the burden of being an adult with adult problems, with adult responsibility. When a child struggles with their since of self, they find artistic ways to search for self. Arnold tries to claim his identity first through his drawings. It gives him a way to escape. A way to avoid having to be this awkward Indian boy that belongs to the “Black Eye of the Month club”.  He grows into a young man who creates images of himself that others can relate to. And then he finds someone that can give him the acceptance he craves for. But as life goes on and those he cares about pass on, he learns that it isn’t what’s on the outside that’s important. It is only as one has finally grown into their own, accepted life as it is and come to terms with all that has happened that you realize “the measure of ones dignity depends on one measure of themselves” and that the only opinion that matters is your own.