The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie1. What does Arnold mean when he says, “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.”? What Arnold meant by the above quote was that he sees the worlds as broken dams and floods that represent the death, chaos and poverty around him. Everything around him is broken and damaged like his glasses.
At the age of fourteen he has already been to forty-two funerals and experienced a lot of life’s hardships. The lifeboats represent his cartoons which he sees as his way out the reservation and a way for him to make it in the world.2. How did Rowdy react when he found out that Arnold was transferring to Reardan and why? Rowdy reacted negatively when he found out that Arnold was transferring to Reardan. He got very angry, yelled and believed Arnold was a traitor.
He reacted in the way he did because his best friend was leaving him and they did everything together. Rowdy felt abandoned, he also thought about the reputation people on Rez have towards Reardan. They felt that people at Reardan were better than them. Rowdy feels that Arnold thinks the same way about him3.
Compare and contrast Wellpinit School and Reardan High school. Reardan School is different than Wellpinit in many ways. At wellpinit School Arnold has one friend and he was bullied and teased a lot. At Reardan he was not accepted at first, but later he was accepted by more than one person and has a better social position.
At Wellpinit School the teacher Mr. p was weak in many ways, and the school has no discipline. At Reardan they have many teachers that were stricter for example Mr. Dodge and school has more discipline.The learning materials at Wellpinit School was very old, Arnold was using books that his parents used while they were there.
At Reardan they had more materials that were up to date and Arnold could learn better. Wellpinit School only had one sport which was basketball and Arnold was not on the team. On the rez Arnolds disabilities and physical appearance limited him and he never thought that he had a chance of making the team. At Reardan School they have many sport teams and activities and they did not focus on Arnold’s disabilities and limitations.
He was able to make it on to the basketball team there.4. What is Arnold trying to say when he says, “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor”? When Arnold says, “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance.
No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” I think he is trying to say that once you get in the mindset that you are poor you start to think that there is no way out and there is no way for you to achieve anything in life. Arnold’s parents grew up very poor and were trapped in the circle of poverty because nobody paid attention to their dreams.This is similar to the way Arnold’s sister Mary thinks, she had the ability to make something of herself but, she had this poor mentality. She decided not to achieve her dreams and use her abilities.
Arnold made first step to break the circle poverty in his family by following his dreams to be a cartoonist. By leaving the reservation now he is one step closer of breaking circle of poverty. We don’t know future but he made first step.5. In what ways can you compare your life to Arnold’s? I can compare my life to Arnold’s in some ways for example my parents did not go to college, it is a struggle everyday to provide certain necessities.
We are not in poverty like Arnold but it will be hard for me to get a college education without a lot of money or a scholarship. In a way I have dream like Arnold, I want to be a doctor it may seem impossible but I know I have to work hard to get there.6. Describe the positive and negative sides of Arnold’s personality.
Arnold has a positive and a negative personality. In some ways he is more negative than positive because of his circumstances. This includes living on the reservation and growing up in poverty. He is also negative when it comes to his physical appearance which includes his disability, speech problem, and his crooked glasses. All of this negativity impacts Arnold’s personality which leads him to be bullied and teased. All he see’s is death and destruction.
This leads to the positive side of Arnold’s personality. He is positive when it comes to his cartoons because that is his way out of the reservation, and his ambition to make something better of his self. He surprised himself and everyone when he made the basketball team at Reardan because he is not in a very negative surrounding. When Arnold went to Reardan his personality became more positive and now he has a brighter outlook that leads to more friends.Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt 3. Book vs.
Movie Essay In a short essay, compare the book to its movie version. Demonstrate at least three points of comparison to the movie. For example, address the following: Did the movie do justice to the book? Did the movie provide the visual detail that the book did? Did the movie stay true to the book? Include an evaluation of the book vs. movie (which did you like better and why).
When the novel Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt was made into a movie it was directed by Alan Parker. Even though the director captured some similarities with the book I believed that it missed most parts that the book depicted. It seems like it was hard for the director to bring the book to fulfillment in so much that most the movie was done in narration. The distraction of the narration blocks the work being done by the actors. I think the narration of the movie was unnecessary and I found myself more focused on listening instead of watching.
I’ve already read the book so in watching the movie I didn’t need it to be narrated. Where as in some parts of the book it was hard to understand but the movie was able to bring clarity to it.In the movie the director was able to bring some of the visuals depicted in the book to life. For example he was able to show how the poverty stricken neighborhood, dirty street and sewage were coordinated with the actor’s tattered clothes. However, the director was not able to bring the deprivation and poverty to the actors and actresses playing the roles.
They did not portray people lacking basic food and necessities. In the book Frank McCourt did not have indoor plumbing, food to eat or even access to clean water.So the actors could not capture the poverty stricken appearance of hunger and dirty hair. They did not look dirty and starved like the author described. While the movie was really good, I like reading the book better.
This is because McCourt is able to show his life of poverty and survival in a humorous way. The movies fail to do that because it focuses more on the dark and eerie. I found that the book was light and dark, eerie and beautiful at the same time and because of this we found ourselves more focus on the way he survived in certain situations. Therefore the movie does not stay true to the book.
