Confidence- Junior’s Biggest Conflict

In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior’s most significant conflict is his lack of self-confidence, because Junior’s way of seeing himself dictates how he acts and negatively affects his story overall. Many other internal and external conflicts, such as his poverty, health, culture, and his relationship with his friends and family feed into his confidence, and as they are all a part of him, it changes how he sees himself. These conflicts often place expectations on him, and his confidence is affected when these expectations are or are not met. For example, Junior’s “all-time [fistfight] record [of] five wins and one hundred and twelve losses” proves the expectation that his health makes Junior weak (62). Junior relies on Rowdy to protect him, so when he is not there, his confidence plummets. He is not able to confront Roger and his gang for a long time because he is “afraid those monsters [are] going to kill [him]” (64). He is letting them continue hurting him and diminish his self-esteem. With more confidence, he could have gone to see Rowdy in person and tried to make up with him sooner. He could have told the kids at Reardan about his true financial status and missed fewer opportunities because of silly lies. Junior’s confidence does grow at Reardan, and he finds an inner strength in himself, but he would not have found the strength without the hardships he endured.