The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

In unit three of the Forbidden Books course, we focused on diversity in different books. We each had to pick between the books: The Color Purple, Fahrenheit 451, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. The book that I decided to read was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. I chose this book because I read Fahrenheit 451 a couple years ago and I had seen and heard great things about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian for months. For this Action Project, we had to write an analytical essay about our books using one of the four prompts that we were given. The prompt that I choose was: How does one character in your novel transform and make peace with diversity? I chose this topic because throughout the entire book, the protagonist, Junior, has to battle with not being excepted and trying to diversify his surroundings. One of the major challenges I faced while writing this paper was figuring out good transitions into each paragraph. I wanted to keep the reader interested but not give the whole story away at the same time. Another thing I struggled with was picking quotes to use as evidence. There were so many that I could choose from that it was difficult to pick only five of them. One of my achievements during this project was being able to get a good introductory paragraph and a good conclusion paragraph. I am very happy with the way my project turned out.

MF. Photography. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian cover (2015) 

Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses

In the second unit of the Forbidden Books course, we talked about the religious aspect of the censorship of books. We only went on a trip to a mosque in Evanston and that was extremely interesting. We learned about the religion and we got to eat some very good food and got to have a quick tour of the facility. It was very interesting to learn more about the Muslim religion.
The topic I chose for this Action Project was Iran: The Satanic Verses; Written by Salman Rushdie. This book was censored in 1889 for being offensive to the Muslim Holy book and referring to Muhammad as satan. I learned many things from this project. The most important thing being that he was under a death sentence by the Islamic government and had to be protected by the UK government for 4 years. In my opinion, censorship is never justified. People should not be able to control what other people say or do no matter what. Freedom of speech is a right that everyone has and it needs to be respected by everyone. Everyone has a right to speak what is on their mind and they shouldn't have to worry about death, jail time, etc. just for writing something that they wanted.

What Is Beauty?

In the first unit of the forbidden books course, we talked about socrates and we focused on the Socratic method. We learned about Ancient Greece and it's history and culture. Socrates was a philosopher that lived in Ancient Greece from 569 BC- 399 BC. He was put on trial for corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods of the state when he was 70 years old and was sentenced to death by hemlock poison. He came up with the Socratic method which is when you ask questions to delve deeper into the meaning or background of a category or topic.

The topic that I chose was beauty. The question I posed was What is beauty? The answers that I received from my friends and family varied. I did notice that no one ever mentioned someones looks. No one said the names of super models or movie stars. I don't think anyone wanted to seem shallow with their answers so I got answers like "a woman's mind", "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" (original right), and " Beauty is kindness and confidence". People tried to focus on beautiful things on the inside instead of what is on the outside. 

People consider the socratic method dangerous. This is because some people believe that asking too many questions can infuriate people which will cause them to want to harm you. People use this method to understand things more in depth and be able to have more thoughts and ideas about certain topics. They use it to become wiser and smarter about different things. 

Script:

Bastet: Hello! How are you doing today? You look very happy and excited.

Hathor: Hi! I am doing well, I am glad that you noticed, I am very excited today, I was just told that I was named the most beautiful woman alive. I guess I really have true beauty!

Bastet: What do you mean by beauty? What was the decision based on to be named the most beautiful person?

Hathor: Well you know, looks! I mean, that is the only true way to characterize someones beauty. You have to look the part; skinny, tall, nice hair, etc.

Bastet: Yes that is true but could someone who might not have all of the looks still be considered beautiful? For example, if they had lots of confidence and kindness. Is that not a trait that a person that is considered beautiful should have?

Hathor: Yes but in order to be considered truly beautiful, you have to look the part or else you are nothing.

Bastet: But you know how the saying goes: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” If someone has all the “looks” but is mean and has an awful personality, does that still make them beautiful?

Hathor: People are only as beautiful as people say they are, and many people base things on looks.

Bastet: But lets say you may not have all the looks according to other people, does that not make you beautiful? If someone says you are beautiful does that truly make you beautiful? If someone is genuinely kind or anything along those lines, but does not have the right looks, does that not make them beautiful?

Hathor: I guess, but real people and important people only care about the looks, and the looks define the person, not their personality.

Bastet: So people that think that beauty comes in other aspects are not real or important? Looks are the only thing that falls under beauty?

Hathor: I mean…. yeah… I guess… I don’t know….

Bastet: So, sure someone can be beautiful because of their looks but it is not what it is all about. Beauty has a lot of different aspects.

Hathor: I understand now. Beauty is not only about what is on the outside, but also what is on the inside. Other people don’t define your beauty, only you do.

Bastet: Exactly. I am glad you understand now.

Hathor: Thank you for showing me. I will see you soon

Bastet: Congratulations by the way. Goodbye.