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October > 10/24: "Slouching"

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message 1: by Ms. Flagg (new)

Ms. Flagg (missflagg) | 11 comments Mod
Today, in class, we briefly discussed what "slouching" is and why people do it. Thinking about Arnold's current "invisible" state at Reardan, why is the title of the chapter "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving"? In what way(s) is he "slouching" through life?

Make sure you follow the reading response checklist:

For a “4”: Did I….
• Write a topic sentence that provided the title, author, and genre of my text?
• Provide context of what is happening in the text, so my reader understands what I’m talking about?
• Being that I don't have the book, summarize a specific incident from the text?
• Thoroughly explain the significance of my quote/how it proves my idea?
• Check for correct punctuation and spelling?


message 2: by Jack (new)

Jack Brill | 12 comments In the fiction novel The Absolutley True Diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie I think that Arnold is slouching in life because he is trying to hide himself from everyone because of his appearence but secretly he wants to stand out in a good way because he want's to be famous. I think the chapter Slouching Toward Thanksgiving is named that because maybe Arnold is hiding from something that is going to happen on Thanksgiving or he is hiding from something and on Thanksgiving he will do something unpredictable.


message 3: by Sara (new)

Sara | 3 comments In Sherman Alexie's fiction novel book The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, I think that the title of the chapter "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving" is called that because Arnold is either going to go through something during Thanksgiving and something might happen to him,Or he might do something. Arnold is probably going to be shy because slouching is when you are tired or sad and he might be sad about Penelope or Rowdy, or one of his family members or something might of happened.


message 4: by Ben (new)

Ben Friedman | 7 comments In the non-fiction novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The main charter Arnold a 14 year old boy growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation has had many problems in his life such as bullying and much more. But Arnold is still dealing with his physical appearances. One reason why I think the chapter tittles may be “Slouching towards Thanksgiving;” is because no matter what he does in life he is always put on the back burning what I mean by that is he is never a main priories for people or anything. One piece of evidence from that text that shows this is in the chapter Halloween when Arnold is in school the class was talking about petrified wood and what it really is. When Arnold told his teacher he become very red in the face and started to yell and scream. But when one of Arnolds class mates told the teacher that Arnold was correct the teacher suddenly calmed down and praised the other child and now Arnold. This literally made Arnold slouch down in his chair. This shows how Arnold is slouching in and through the book and throughout school on a day-to-day basis.


message 5: by Justin (new)

Justin Yu | 10 comments In the realistic fiction novel, The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Arnold is a fourteen year old Native American boy who is currently suffering from the choices he has made. Even in Reardan, he second guesses the teachers and they get proved wrong by Gordy but he gets yelled at for saying something. That is basically one of the reason for "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving." He is slouching and my definition for slouching is hes being looked down on. Other people like bullies as well. This is essentially why the chapter is called "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving"


message 6: by [deleted user] (new)

In the realistic fiction book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist is Arnold which is 14 year old and is a special kid from others. In the book, one of the chapters is called "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving". Arnold is a hopeful student that cares about his future a lot. He is a Native American and others in his community care nothing about education and future so Arnold goes to a rich white school called Reardan for a better education. Arnold is at a school with all whites with only one Indian who's the mascot and so now he is the only Indian student in the school. School at Reardan was different for Arnold. "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving" means moving slowly towards the holiday Thanksgiving. Arnold was a unpopular kid in Reardan, but still keeping up his education good. Still, his social life isn't going so well. At Reardan, kids didn't have the same amount of love to Arnold as they did at Arnold's old Indian school. Arnold does not see the attention that he expected so days seemed slower to Arnold. That is what the chapter title tries to show how Arnold is having a hard time and slouching all day long with trouble. Arnold had the right choice to go to Reardan for good education, but his social life isn't good causing him to "Slouch Towards Thanksgiving"


message 7: by Elva (last edited Oct 24, 2012 06:02PM) (new)

Elva C. | 13 comments In the realistic fiction novel, The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Arnold is a 14 year old Spokane Indian who lives in the rez. Arnold transferred to this school called Rearden which he is the only Native American in the school. In the chapters, there was one chapter called, "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving." Arnold gets bullied a lot and he doesn't get noticed. During geology class, Arnold told the teacher something that made Mr. Dodge very upset, his face was very red. Then, a classmate named Gordy, who is the class genius supported Arnold, saying that he is correct, but Mr. Dodge gave props to him instead of Arnold. In the book, after the class ended, Arnold thanked Gordy for backing him up, instead, Gordy said that he didn't do it to help Arnold but it was for science. This is what "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving" means. Arnold thought that he has made prossess of not being bullied in Rearden an thought that he was being noticed too. He also thought that Gordy was helping him and standing up for him, but instead he didn't. That made Arnold disappointed that Gordy was not even backing him up, but only do it because it was science. This is why the chapter is called, "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving."


message 8: by Monica (last edited Oct 24, 2012 06:11PM) (new)

Monica | 14 comments In the realistic fiction book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist is Arnold Spirit. Arnold, a fourteen year old Indian spent his childhood mostly on the Spokane Reservation, has a really unique adventure so far. Ever since an incident in his reservation school, his geometry teacher Mr.P had told him to go far far away from the rez. Arnold was shocked at first, but soon listened to him. The first place he had in mind was Reardan. Arnold now began his new life with a bunch of white people. In this book, one of the chapters was called "Slouching toward Thanksgiving." I think what this means is that Arnold spent his life at Reardan high school all alone. In the book, in the beginning in this chapter, I think I remember something about him not having anyone to talk to at school. Another example from the book is that in class even the teachers practically ignore Arnold. When Arnold first contradicted Mr.Dodge, his science teacher, he got very mad and practically exploded. No one really helped Arnold except Gordy, the class nerd. But even he doesn't really want to talk to Arnold. I bet until Thanksgiving, Arnold's life is going to heat up right away.


message 9: by Kailey (new)

Kailey | 7 comments In the non-fiction novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The main charter Arnold a 14 year old boy growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation with bullies and friend(s). The chapter "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving" is showing that Arnold feels invisible for a period of time. He only recalls head nods from the "alpha dog." The problem is that Arnold doesn't interact with a lot of people so his social life is decreasing which causes him to "slouch towards thanksgiving."


message 10: by Steven (last edited Oct 24, 2012 06:47PM) (new)

Steven Lin | 8 comments In the realistic fiction book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist is a 14 year old boy named, Arnold. Arnold has been determine to save himself from the rez. He ad to abandon the rez so that he could change his future. In this book, one of the chapters was called "Slouching toward Thanksgiving." I think what this means is that Arnold has been not really making the choices for himself, and hes just "slouching" his way through what he has to do. He's slouching making it seem like he dose not what to do it but he has too. "Slouching toward Thanksgiving." is him slouching, not been noticed toward thanksgiving.


message 11: by Ivan (new)

Ivan (ivanski711) | 7 comments In the realistic fiction book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist/ main character is Arnold Spirit Junior. Arnold is a fourteen year old Indain/ Native american who has spent his cvhild hood in the Spokane Reservation, has been through alot of tuff times and some good ones. Arnold was told by Mr.P to leave the rez and Arnold was confused by what he said, but eventually he listened. Arnold choose to go to Readin which is a white school and he also belives that all the kid ther are racist. In this book ther was a chapter called "Slouching towad Thanskgiving." I belive that this chapters name means that Arnold is spending his time in Readen all alone\, also i belive that this chapter shows that he is beeing ignored in school after him geting his one time punch on this big kid named Roger. When Arnold finaly gets called on in school his teacher gets mad at him because he thinks that Arnold is trying to act smart. Imiller to what monica said, Arnold was help in clas by Gordy, a kid that the teacher always belives in when it come to answering question he is alway correct. But after class Arnold said "thanks for helping me." but Gordy said that he did not do it for him. I belive that Arnolsd relationship with Penelope will grow much stronger before thanks giving comes.


message 12: by Keary (new)

Keary Fulgencio | 3 comments In Sherman Alexie's realistic fiction book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold a fourteen year old Native American growing up on the spokane reservation in Washington state. In the book, one of the chapters is called " Slouching Towards Thanksgiving". I think the title of the chapter is called "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving" because maybe he would not eat as much as the other people in the world on thanksgiving, since he is poor. Arnold is slouching because he has people in Reardan and in his "rez" bullying him so he is probably tired of being bullied so he slouches. another way he is slouching through life is him missing his best friend Rowdy, since they are no longer friends, so Arnold probably misses rowdy because that is the only real friend he had. Arnold also used to probably have Thanksgiving with Rowdy. This shows why the title is called " Slouching Towards Thanksgiving " and what ways is he Slouching through life.


message 13: by Melanie (new)

Melanie M. (MissMello) | 6 comments In Sherman Alexis realistic fiction book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold a 14 year old Native American spent his childhood in the Spokane Reservation. I think the title of the chapter is called "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving" because maybe since he is poor he wont have a good thanksgiving like the white people would in Rearden and he would be lonely so he would kind of slouch towards thanksgiving. I also think maybe the title is called "Slouching towards thanksgiving" Because maybe on thanksgiving he would spend time with Rowdy his bestfriend but now they are not anymore because Arnold is at Rearden.
To add on to from what Monica said yes Gordy is the class nerd from when Mr.Dodge asked Arnold a question he didnt belive him so he asked Gordy the class nerd and Gordy said Arnold was correct. Arnold thought Gordy did it for him but Gordy really didnt he did it for science. I think his only "Friend" Probally would be Penelope and I am predicting that Penelope would invite him to her house or something for Thanksgiving maybe there friendship would grow stronger.


message 14: by Trinity (new)

Trinity Burgos | 12 comments In the realistic fiction novel by Sherman Alexie The Absolute True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian,14 year old Arnold has spent almost his whole life on the rez. I think about the chapter is called ''slouching Towards Thanksgiving''because during this chapter he mostly spends his time a alone. Also usually when he ''slouches'' it's because he feels like he has nobody to talk to. Most of his friends live in the rez which gives him hardly anytime to spent time with them. Which leads him to become depressed. I also think he probably felt guilty about leaving his best friend rowdy because he's the only friend he ever had throughout living in the rez. I also predict sooner or later he's going to have somebody who can relate to him as much as he would expect.


message 15: by Michael (new)

Michael Vu | 9 comments in the realistic fiction book The Absolute True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian by sherman Alexie i think that the reason he called "Slouching Towards Thanksgiving" is becuase in rearden he is very new to the school so maybe hes just trying to lay low and not draw too many problems to him or hes upset due to his best friend hateing him and not feeling like hes a part of the crowd


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