Manifesto
Life. Full of experiences, emotions, and feelings.
Everyone deals with their problems on their own way, and under their own terms
but, if your life was to be more gloomy
than joyful, having more problems
instead of solutions, how optimistic would your mind and actions remain through
it all? How would you be able to float and keep swimming in a sea full of
reasons for you to give up on life? Many times, we can be able to encounter the
sensation of doing something out of an inner will, an unknown inner will that,
can be so powerful that for some reason makes us to want to keep on moving
forward without hesitating. In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a
Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie displays the situation in which Arnold
has found himself to be in. He starts to experiment on life, making his own
choices, and just like everybody, facing obstacles on the way and the more he
keeps on going, the more he embraces his decisions the more he lets his
feelings go out of control. Feeling like he’s disillusioning his own race, he
seems to start experiencing new feelings.
Even thought he sounds pessimistic most of the time, he has this deep
inner will inside of him, that makes him keep on going carrying on with life,
not giving up for a second turning all the anger he holds on to into laughter,
which is not commonly among the people to laugh instead of cry, but it’s
certainly healthier than to let yourself being submerged by sorrow.
Since Arnold was born,
the author displays the many difficulties he started to face initiating from
his brain surgery he had when he was six months old. “I was only six months old
and I was supposed to croak during the surgery”. As he grew up, he noticed his
peers from the Rez always mistreated him, witched affected a huge part in his
life.”Do you know what happens to retards on the rez? We get beat up. At least
once a month.” He always had Rowdy, his best friend; on his side yet it was a handful
to have to deal with people who did not like him simply because of his physical
condition or for no apparent reason. Concluding he was not worth it, he was not
able to believe in himself and, due to his past experiences he have already had
with the bullies from the rez, he convinced himself he didn't deserve better.
”I couldn't say it. It wasn't true. I mean, I wanted to have it better but I didn't deserve it. I was the kid who threw books at teachers”. Said Arnold after having an extended talk with Mr. P. his geometry teacher. Perhaps, he made
him change his mind a little, and also have some doubt about it. It was not
until that moment, that night he talked with Mr. P that he started to open up
his mind and decided he wanted a future, still believing to not deserve such
thing, he still wanted it badly enough to make a choice.
The moment Arnold
decided to attend a “white school” in Reardan, was the moment he knew that the
people who also resides in the reservation with him will consider this choice
as a betrayal “Shoot, I figured that my fellow tribal members are going to
torture me” Not the way he saw it thought, his personal opinion about moving
out to that school in particular was to progress. He had ambitions in life and
he also came to realize that he did not want to live his life like most of his
fellows did; wasting their little money they had on alcohol. For Arnold, the
real struggle was just taking its course, barely beginning. All of those years
for him were awful and nobody would like to go through that but, there was
still more to come. More moments awaiting for him, more feelings to feel, more
experiences to live, more things to learn such as the particular way he had to
express his feelings and emotions, and without having any notice he will soon
suffer loss.
When a person lives in
a world full of cruelty and lust, this person will not know better other than
safety first. That is the unconscious action humans will always put first than
anything else. “But it’s safer to stay home. So I mostly hang out alone in my
bedroom and read books and draw cartoons”, Said Arnold, introducing to the
readers how much he likes drawing, and not only he would derive pleasure from
drawing, but also was the unique form of expression he had. In other words, he
had a genuinely unique way to see the world. “I draw because words are too
unpredictable. I draw because words are too limited” His character mostly
portrays a teenage boy who is creative, and does not know how to express his
feelings to others. Sometimes he sounds way too pessimistic for a 14-year-old
boy, but then some other times he shows the optimistic side of him that it
seems, to want to get out of him but, he’s not letting that side of him show,
to come out to the light and so let everyone else see his thinking.
Furthermore, after
Junior started to attend school at Reardan not many things were different than
how they used to be back at the school from the Rez, he would still not have as
many friends, but he was looking forward for a fresh start, attracting positive
vibes he accomplished many great things, great things that were going beyond
his expectations. Building hope on his own, it was like he was sailing on the
sea with a rowing boat, he was sailing towards the big ferry boat called
future. Fear was taking place; Arnold was experiencing what being afraid was,
not only about the bad unknown things that could go wrong, but strangely, also
about the good things such as hope. “Man I was scared of those Reardan kids,
and maybe I was scared of hope, too, but Rowdy absolutely hated all of this”.
He was not being foolish at all, he could acknowledge that his best friend
extremely disliked the idea of him going to that school, to him Rowdy was like
a brother, and losing a brother is one of the most terrifying ideas that could
go through anybody’s mind.
To continue, after
learning how much the people from the rez disliked him, he started to create
more of a bound with his school. He finally was having friends, he even
experienced to be a popular cool kid of a white school, and he was awesome,
dazzling at playing basketball. Although he was still being himself, drawing
those priceless pieces he would always do. Sounds wonderful doesn't it? But
Arnold cared more about his family and how much he loved them, showing off the
great quality every member of his family had. His words were bitter and
negative at times, but how small his ego could be if he was able to manifest so
many great and pure feelings about the people he loved the most. Such love was
giving him the strength to keep up with the good work, to not give up and take
a look at how far he have already gotten on his own. Life brings people to the
right place at its right time, even if you want to remove yourself from a
situation or if you want to add yourself, not even then you can avoid what life
has prepared for you.
Even when somebody had
already thought of losing someone, nobody is really prepared when death comes
knocking on your doorstep. After learning his grandmother, the person who he
described to be wonderful and the most amazing person in the world, and along
his dad’s best friend had left his side, instead of shading tears he shared
laughter. Very strange, but it was in the moment of loss when the optimistic
part of him that was eager to get out of him, that he seemed to had put a leash
on it, well it was getting out, showing off letting himself keep afloat and
looking strange but not letting himself being submerged by pain, sorrow, or
depression. He was hurting in those moments, and who wouldn't? But his inner
self told him not to give up, having a feeling better days were coming. And continue
laughing, not letting his feelings to make him sink. He saw the bigger picture
when climbing the tree with Rowdy, “We could see our entire world. And our
entire world, at the moment, was green and golden and perfect”. After the storm
comes the rainbow.
