Week 6, Post 3

Literary Devices and Poetry


Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time indian. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Metaphor:
"The people at home...a lot of them call me an apple...because they think I'm red on the outside and white on the inside" (Alexie, 2007, pp.131-132).


Junior being called an "apple" is an example of a metaphor. A metaphor is a comparison. Usually, metaphors are used as a literary device to explain an abstract concept by comparing it to something more tangible, or to make something more vivid. In this case, a metaphor is being used at hateful and hurtful language; it goes beyond name-calling because it is heavy with racism. Junior is 100% Indian, but even if he was mixed race, this would still be inappropriate language. Junior interprets being called an "apple" as being called a "traitor." People of his community consider him to be a traitor for seeking better education and opportunity. Junior appreciates why (even though he knows it is not the same); the Indian population was forced by whites to be educated in white schools to learn their white ways and their white history and white language, and Junior leaving the reservation school to learn at a "white school" feels similar to that hurtful past to the members of his Indian community living "on the rez." Junior is being called a traitor even though he knows deep down that he is not. Still, he is willing to accept this hurtful language in order to pursue his dream of a better education and a brighter future full of opportunity.

Have you ever been called a traitor? If not, have you ever felt like a traitor? What was it like? What were the circumstances? Were they anything like Junior's? Did you end up having to leave you community as a result?



Personification:
"And sure, Oscar was only an adopted stray mutt, but he was the only living thing that I could depend on. He was more dependable than my parents, grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and big sister. He taught me more than any teachers. Honestly, Oscar was a better person than any human I had ever known" (Alexie, 2007, p.9).

This statement certainly reveals how important Oscar is to Junior, but more importantly, it reveals how much the people around Junior have let him down. The very people who are supposed to love and support him have fallen short in a big way. This passage explains why Junior needs the challenge of a different school and is willing to be at odds with his community to go to one; he was already at odds with his community.



When Junior says, "Oscar was a better person than any human I had ever known," that is personification, because Oscar is a dog and cannot be a person. To Junior, Oscar taught Junior the things we expect to learn from our family and teachers like being "dependable" and being a "good person" (Alexie, 2007, p.9).

I think Junior would really be able to relate to the following poem, which uses a dog to explain an important part of life. It seems Oscar did that a lot for Junior.


How Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog
Taylor Mali

First of all, it’s a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you’re walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain’t no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?
On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.
Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.
Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.
Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don’t you ever do that again!
Sometimes love just wants to go out for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise. It will run you around the block
and leave you panting, breathless. Pull you in different directions
at once, or wind itself around and around you
until you’re all wound up and you cannot move.
But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.
Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.

This poem by Taylor Mali is a Literary Device, can you spot it? What do you think of his comparison, does it work?Why or why not? What else stands out to you about this poem?

Have you ever had a pet teach you an important life lesson? Describe the experience. Does it compare at all to Junior's experience with Oscar?

More Literary Devices:

Characters, Conflict, Setting, and Symbols 

Sherman Alexie is very clever thoughtful and clever about how he writes his characters and settings as he builds the conflicts. He always stays true to the same theme: a sense of belonging.

The characters Junior and Rowdy have a friendship that struggles when Junior decides to go to Rearden, a school "off the rez." This major conflict--whether or not they will be able to repair their friendship--is symbolic of an even larger conflict involving the two major settings of the book: Rearden and Wellpinit (the reservation). The larger conflict is Junior's dreams and ambitions to have opportunities beyond the reservation while remaining true to his roots as an Indian; finding a way to reconcile his "place" in both of these settings would show a greater reconciliation within himself and his internal struggle (which is reflected by Junior's external struggle with Rowdy and the two different settings). It is amazing that Alexie took the theme of belonging and infused it into his characters, settings, and conflicts. Everything fits beautifully together and sends the same powerful message no matter what aspect you choose to look at: when you know and accept who you are, you belong anywhere.

Apple is no longer negative. It is just a fruit. They may have different skin colors, but they all have the same name and they all belong to the fruit family.