In Sherman Alexies book, The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian, Junior, the protagonist, is arguably the most important character. Sherman Alexie uses the character of Junior to express events which Sherman Alexie experienced when he was younger too and to explore the theme of being an outsider. In the book, Junior ism presented as an outsider in many occasions. In this essay, I will write about five major events. One way in which he is presented as an outsider is Sherman Alexie  explaining that he has ”water on his brain” and having extra body parts than others. Another occasion is when he moves out the reservation to find a better school and better future and ends up in a white people school where he’s the only Indian and poorest there.Third occasion demonstrates how he is poor and his situation through poverty. He goes out with his friends to a pancake party and had to lie about not having money but in fact it is because he is poor. Fourth way is not an occasion but a fact. The number of deaths in his hometown Wellpinit represents him as an outsider because in Reardan it is not a normal thing for them to have such number of deaths. Final and last occasion is when he has a basketball match against his hometown Wellpinit and is the only Indian in the team and everyone from Wellpinit treats him as a traitor by booing and throwing things at him.

The reason why the quote “water on my brain” demonstrates that he is an outsider is because it is saying that he is physically different from other people and treat him differently because of this. Another way in which this presents him as an outsider is because he is more smarter than other kids and people bully him because of jealousy.

  • Also the occasion of when he moves out of Wellpinit to go to a better school and future in Reardan represents him as an outsider because it is telling us that he is more smarter than other people and that his school in Wellpinit is not enough for his future. Also like in the previous occasion he is treated differently and gets alienated and bullied. A quote that demonstrates this occasion is when Junior was having a chat with Mr. P about leaving the reservation and Mr. P said ” You can’t give, you won’t give up”. This quote