The Absolutely Positively False Diary of A Full-Time Indian

In my third and last action project for my Forbidden Books class, my peers and I were assigned to read a book. The whole third unit was revolved around "Diversity," which happens to be the name of the unit as well. We discussed how derogatory language can get you in trouble and how effectively it's can influence a person. We also discovered a little bit more about why Diversity can be "dangerous" in some ways. I chose the book, "The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian." I chose This book because it kind of spoke to me, I found the term used in the title, about "part-time," pretty interesting. For this project, we had to take our book and analyze it, using one of the five different interpretations. I chose to interpret my text by defining how the main character of my book is a "gadfly." The book is definitely a wonderful read, and it's really fun to follow the storyline, too! I would recommend it, even though it was hard to interpret.

Deshawn Rivers

Forbidden Books

March 18, 2015

The Absolutely Positively False Diary of A Full-Time Indian

Is someone different because they don’t look the same as you? In that case, what’s the definition of “differen”? Well, then everyone would be different, right? Because everyone doesn’t look the same! If this is true (which it is), then why did people come up with “same”? We have to correctly define “different” in order to abolish discrimination. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time India, takes place in an Indian reservation 21 miles away from Reardan in Washington State. Junior, the protagonist of the story,  is looked at differently just because he looks different than the Whites. He ends up going to school in Reardan which is why much of the story is set there. Junior is a gadfly because he encourages people to look past discrimination and discouragement by utilizing his ability to be both White and Indian.

For one thing, Junior acts as a gadfly by always making his voice heard. By making his voice heard, he bypasses all Indian stereotypes to make an impression on the White people. For example, when Junior started attending Reardan. Reardan is a completely different environment, compared to the rez, where he originally went to school, due to the fact that it is composed of mostly White people. Knowing how Whites treat Indians, Junior continues to want more. Junior bypasses the fact that Indians aren’t supposed to have “hope” and attends Reardan where he will prosper. This goes to show that Junior is about his values and fulfilling his dreams, and he doesn’t let any words hold him back from having his own “hope.” Junior wants what’s best for himself and could care less about what others think, “I want to go to Reardan,” I said again. I couldn’t believe I was saying it. For me, it seemed as real as saying, “I want to fly to the moon.” (Alexie 46)

Another key point is that Junior is full Indian, in contradiction with the title of the novel, which is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The meaning behind the title is that Junior went to depths that no other Indian at his rez would have attempted, and he is no longer “full” Indian since he spends most his time with Whites. The point that the author of the book was trying to make was that Junior is full Indian, but the way he was portrayed is Indian and White. He wanted to have “hope” so much, he had to at least act like a White person a little bit. It’s a statement that is installed in most people’s minds because we are trained to think superiority exists. He even started adapting to the White environment by making friends and doing things like joining the basketball team and taking rides home from people at the White school. An example of how the Whites treat the Indians is when Junior went to the dental office, “And what’s more, our White dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as White people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain” (Alexie 2).

Furthermore, Junior is a gadfly because he showed the Indians and Whites what they didn’t want to see. He went to a school in contradiction with his social background and he made “change” which most publishers or readers may have interpreted as dangerous. Most people may have seen Junior’s actions as “dangerous” because he tried something that no other Indians would have tried. Junior was the one to stop being a bystander. He wasn’t going to live behind some false stereotypes, and I think that he proved the Whites wrong. Although Junior had some harsh realizations, he grew as a person and realized that the Rez is home, despite all the stereotypes. He still did a very courageous thing in attending Reardan and he may have inspired others to be Indian. Junior destroyed Indian stereotypes for lots of people in the story. Although the protagonist is trying to fulfill his dreams and do something different, Junior starts to realizes that there is no place like home, “So what was I doing in racist Reardan, where more than half of every graduating class went to college? Nobody in my family had ever gone near a college” (Alexie 56).

Hoping  people will open their eyes and their minds to stop discrimination against "different" people, no matter their color, size or, shape. Anyone can do what they want when they want. Believe it or not, most people started to think of this book as a threat. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was first censored in Reardan, Washington. This place was also inside of the book, where Junior went to school. It’s pretty unfair and unconstitutional. To be honest, it’s just a book, there’s no intentions of disrespectful content, especially to the government or brainwashing children. Main factors of why the book was censored were because of: sexual content, profanity, racism, homosexuality, “dangerous” content on rebelling.

Consequently, the "interracial" Junior annoyed the other characters with his courage and curiosity. To reiterate; my first topic was how Juniors bypassed stereotypes so people would understand/ and or hear him. My second topic was, Junior is full Indian, contradicting the name of the book. My third topic is that Junior is a Gadfly because he showed the Whites what they didn’t want to see. He agitated Whites and Indians with his craziness, creativity, and drive, just how a gadfly agitates people.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. Chaos: The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. Print.

"Banned Books Discussion." Banned Books. Joseph, 22 June 2009. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.

The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian Censored. Digital image. Flickr. Robert Dumas, 21 Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.

Better Brush Your Teeth; Don't Wanna Get Yellow Fever

For the third Action Project of my Disease class, my peers and I were assigned to choose an epidemic that affected a population. The third unit of Disease is called "World," and that is exactly what we studied. We discussed, throughout the unit, how diseases affect the world; hence the term: epidemic. I chose Yellow Fever, a disease transmitted from Mosquitoes. Specifically, the Yellow Fever outbreak in Barcelona, Spain in 1821. I chose this epidemic because Yellow Fever has always been very interesting to me because there's so many Mosquitoes in the world and one could possibly end your life. This is even more interesting because I got bit by hundreds of them over the last summer. This project was not easy, but as usual, it was super fun to complete!

Below is a visual of some places that were affected by my disease:

What is Yellow Fever? Thanks for asking! Yellow Fever is a disease that you can get from Mosquitoes, normally in Tropical South Africa. The species of the mosquito is: Aedes Aegypti. Yellow Fever is commonly transmitted by the female mosquito. This disease can also affect other species of Mosquitoes. Yellow Fever annually kills 30,000 people a year and infects 200,000 people a year. Yellow Fever was the first ever human virus; discovered on the island of Barbados, in 1647.

Some symptoms of Yellow Fever are harsh fever, lost of appetite, nausea, muscle pains, mostly in back and head. In some cases, the fever keeps coming back or the body pains keep coming back, or your skin begins to turn yellow, which really makes this disease even more fatal. It can also cause kidney problems and hear failure which results in death!

The specific Epidemic I am targeting is the Yellow Fever outbreak in Barcelona, Spain, 1821. The outbreak happened through the docks coming from Cuba, apparently a brick was contagious and it got transported to people within Barcelona. It first started to affect the urban poor suburbs of Barcelona, then made its way to the center of the city. An estimated 20,000/120,000 died from the disease. That's a whole 1/6 of the FULL population of Barcelona at the time!! A quarantine was put into immediate effect, due to this epidemic. It was controlled by an estimated 15,000 soldiers! This quarantine seemed to be one of the main forms of resistance towards the disease and may be he cause of its decline. I would have suggested that the people of Barcelona use ovitraps. Ovitraps are traps that trap the eggs of insects. This idea will not only reduce mosquito populations, but it will reduce pesticides which can be harmful to humans and plants. 

Generally, a disease as fatal as yellow fever and since it can be transmitted by an insect, (mosquito) then it is definitely a potential epidemic or pandemic. So on a R Naught scale, I would say this disease is over 1. This also means that this disease has the potential to spread out of control and does not decline.

In my images you will find some patterns or epidemics I found interesting, relating to my epidemic. I used a software named GapMinder to find some relevant patterns in the way that epidemics affect other places around the same time as mine. GapMinder is a graphing program where it shows you different kinds of statistics for different countries. Something like TV sales and suicide rates. Just random things like these are examples of what you can do on GapMinder. Playing around with it, I learned about how Epidemics affected population and how drought affected population.

In the photos, you will see that I am using the software and on the software, you will see that my main out-liers are China and Indonesia in the first picture. Meaning that there was most activity in those two countries when a drought occurred. Now this is important because the holder of my disease are mosquitoes. I bet you can't guess what mosquitoes eat! They drink water, and without any water, a lot of mosquitoes die. My second image has China and India as out-liers. Now, this set of data represents populations as epidemics were happening. I found it super interesting that India and China stayed really strong in numbers, even though they are hugely populated countries.

References:
"[The "plague" of Barcelona. Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1821]." NCBI. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

"Gapminder." Gapminder. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

Bipolar Disorder: How Does It Feel?

For my second action project of my Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math class (STEAM), me and my peers, after learning a lot about disorders and how they affect people, had to choose our own disorders to research. Bipolar I seemed very interesting to me, it always has been. I think it's actually FASCINATING that the mind can force you into some major mood swings. If your body forces you into anything, then it must be very strong in some way. First off, what I learned about most of these disorders is that they affect some people who you would never even know suffers from that disorder. We were supposed to create an activity that helped our viewers connect with our disorder more. This is what made the project interesting!


For my simulation, I decided to use a paper ball, headphones, and a device that can play audio. Basically, you put in headphones and you will hear a man and a woman speaking through the audio. The woman will be telling you to open the paper ball and the man will be telling you to smash the paper ball. The man will be speaking very aggressively. When you open the paper ball it will say "Smash It." That is my simulation.

Why? (GQ)	What does it feel like to have Bipolar Disorder? What does it feel like to interact with a person living with Bipolar Disorder?	Time =
How?	How will I guide my classmates to experience these feelings? At the end of this lesson, students will have: Found out how it feels to have two personalities Used their inner voice to control their action Transitioned from very angry to very joyful several times Open up a balled up piece of paper with “Smash It” Listened audio screaming at them, whether digital or person	3
What? Agenda & Content	How will I guide my classmates to experience these feelings? Intro Simulation - Which criteria for this disorder need to be highlighted? Debrief Do’s and Don’ts Do’s: Listen to the audio and only the audio. Focus on your object (commonly used as paper ball) Try your hardest to get the full experience Follow Directions Dont’s: Don’t listen to any other audios while performing this simulation Please try your best to understand how my simulation relates to Bipolar I Disorder React to my simulation how you would normally react	5-6
Closure	Reflection (Writing) How might you respond differently to someone living with the disorder you studied?	4
Materials	Headphones Balled up piece of paper Device that can use headphones to play my audio

My brochure for my disease include some interesting facts about Bipolar I Disorder. It is presented below:

Censorship in Greece: 1967-74

For my second project in my class, Forbidden Books, we had to create a slideshow to represent the time period that we chose in class. We also had to choose a specific country to research for our time period. I chose 1967-74, during the dictatorship of the Greek Military. The Greek Military Dictators were also known as the Junta. Junta means a military or political group that takes over countries by force. During my project, I noticed lot of things such as: the Military can be dictating, because I thought they were to serve and protect, but at the time, life was not great for Greeks. Honestly, I think that no censorship is really ever justified because it happened and that can never be changed. People died and lost their jobs and there was chaos. No one can take that back.