elan brown critical essay final draft

8/13/2019 Elan Brown Critical Essay Final Draft

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Elan Brown

Professor Collin Ludlow-Mattson

English 114 First Year Composition

3 November 2013

Fitting In

Every day we can unknowingly change the way we speak or our behavior to match a

certain type of situation we are in. If we are in a working environment we would act more

professionally, behaving in a more polite manner and watching what you say. Behaving that way

would most likely be different from how we act when with friends or family and we do this

change up sometimes without even realizing what we are doing. Gene Dembys How Code-

Switching Explains the World describes how we will use code-switching to match a situation

similar to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indianwhere the main character, Junior,

code-switches at times without even realizing what he is doing so he can fit in.

In Gene Dembys How Code-Switching Explains the World he is arguing that

everyone in their everyday lives unknowingly uses code-switching. He describes code-switching

as when we change the way we talk or when we change our behavior based off of who we are

with. He uses this example, Your mom or your friend or yourpartner calls on the phone and

you answer. And without thinking, you start talking to them in an entirely different voice, so

depending on who or what we are doing we will start to code switch to adapt to that situation.

Every day we use code-switching whether we are on the phone with a friend, or perhaps we are


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speaking with our grandparents, we all involuntarily change our character so that we dont seem

out of place.

The argument Demby is making matters because not all behavior is appropriate for every

situation. Demby points out that, Were hop-scotching between differentcultural and linguistic

spaces and different parts of our own identities, this change may also conflict with your culture

or background. For example in Ta-Nehisi Coates A Culture of Povertyhe describes his near

altercation with a man while in a professional setting because of the way he was brought up, he

was taught not to look like a coward so he almost had a confrontation with the man because for

him if he were to back down he would be considered a punk. Coates code-switched here by

changing from his normal professional behavior to going back to the rules he knew while

growing up. Code-switching can be necessary because responding to that situation with violence

may have led to him losing his job, which is why its important to act according to the setting

you are in. This situation connects to Juniors experience while at his new school, where he had

to change certain things about himself that would be considered normal with his culture on the

reservation.

Gene Dembys How Code-Switching Explains the World and Sherman Alexies The

Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian are both connected by their use of code-switching.

Its also related in how Demby saysthat we often use code-switching unknowingly which relates

to what Junior was doing when he was in certain situations. Dembys piece also connects to The

Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian due toJuniorsculture as a reservation Indian kid

and him switching to an all-white farm school. Demby claims that, you begin to see the way

race, ethnicity and culture plays out all over the place.(How Code-Switching Explains the

World). Many people have to code-switch due to cultural differences just as Junior would have to


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code-switch due to his separate culture from the Reardan students with them not following the

same set of beliefs or rules.

With Sherman Alexies, The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, it is about a

Native American boy, named Junior, living on a reservation, in this novel Alexie is arguing that

changing between two completely different environments, where there is a separate culture from

your own, can end up changing the way you behave with one versus the other in order for you to

fit in. He was a poor Indian switching into a fancier, richer high school, where the fact of him

being Indian already made him stand out and where the studentsminds were already filled with

stereotypes about him. He was switching between two different situations and cultures; his home

on the reservation where he was able to be himself with family and his one friend, and the new

high school where certain things were foreign to him. This was a cultural difference; the people

at his new school wouldnt be behaving the same way as the Indians on the reservation would be

acting such as when he punched Roger, I had followed the rules of fightingBut these white

boys had ignored the rulesthey followed a whole other set of mysterious rules where people

apparently did not get into fistfights.(The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indianpg.65) On

Juniors reservation it is the norm to fight others who talk about you, however in Reardan the

students obviously werent used to fighting. Junior needed to not fight with anyone at school

because they followed a different set of rules and his fighting may have consequences there

whereas on the reservation there were none. He needed to learn how to code-switch to not

attacking people who may say things he doesnt agree withbecause that is not the norm in that

community.

Alexies argument matters because Junior was often in situations where he unknowingly

began code-switching in order to fit in or be understood. On Juniors first day at Reardan he


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changes his speech to be understood, Wellpinit, up on the rez, I mean, the reservation. (The

Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indianpg.61) He does this switch between rez and

reservationwithout realizing in order to avoid any miscommunication or embarrassment by his

peers. He was also uncomfortable in that he was poor while the other students at Reardan were

rich compared to him. While at school he pretended to be a tough guy by standing up to others so

he wouldnt be picked on, however back on the reservation he was constantly picked on due to

his medical conditions and the Indians thinking that he was betraying them by going to a

different school. At his new school he was able to be someone else because the students already

had a preconceived image of him being wild because of his culture. At one point Arnold

followed the rules of the reservation, to basically punch anyone you think is talking about you or

your family, which the Reardan students werent used to. However, on the reservation this was

normal and by standing up for yourself people were a lot less likely you mess with you and by

punching Roger at school, not as many people messed with him, Maybe I had challenged the

alpha dog and was now being rewarded for it.(The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

pg.72).

I agree with Dembys point in that code-switching applies to us culturally. I agree that

code-switching is needed when we are in different places in order for us to further advance and

fit in with the norm. Demby presented two examples of this, when President Obama went out to

eat and when Beyonc was playing pool with friends. In both these situations it would have been

out of place for either of them to act as we usually see them. If President Obama had walked into

the restaurant and acted as if he were about to give a presidential speech the atmosphere in there

would have been strange. Instead he walked in acting like a normal person, as if he wasnt our

president. The same goes for Beyonc, if she had played pool while keeping up her professional


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image with friends it would not have matched the situation. The other point he made was that

once you are aware of the use of code-switching you see it being used everywhere you go.

Sherman Alexie made the point of the difference between cultures and that playing a role in the

things we do. Junior was split between two different cultures, his new all-white school and his

home back on the reservation. While at school he eventually became aware of the differences,

for example, when he fought Roger and he noticed that they didnt have a fighting rule in

Reardan like he did on the reservation.

With Gene Dembys How Code-Switching Explains the World he explains that we are

constantly changing our behavior and the way we speak in order for us to fit into a particular

situation. In Sherman Alexies The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Junior was

placed between two different cultures where he would need to change in order to fit into certain

situations. The point that they made was that code-switching is necessary for us to match a

setting. Junior was from a poor Indian reservation and was encouraged to switch into an all-white

high school where he had to change certain things about his behavior for him to fit in at his new

school. He had to change his speech for him to fit in with classmates and be understood. Since he

was from a different culture he had to change his behavior as well, the things he was used to

would not be considered normal as it would on the reservation. We all code-switch everyday so

that we can fit into a certain situations whether we are at work, on the phone with friends,

speaking with parents or grandparents, we all do this switch in our behavior in order for us not to

stand out anywhere.


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Work Cited

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and

Company. 2007. Print.

Gene Demby How Code-Switching Explains the World Code Switch. npr. April 08, 2013.

Web. Nov. 4, 2013.

Ta-Nehisi Coates A Culture of Poverty The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group.October 20,

2010. Web. Nov. 4, 2013.

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