Human Grit in Sherman Alexie’s the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The study explore human grit in Sherman Alexie‟s with passion and perseverance in the development of the main character, Arnold Spirit Junior. The novel is seen as the portrait of phenomena of people who has grit in life to survived life and successfulness. This is a narrative qualitative study where the primary data are the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and the secondary data are attained from various books and other relevant source on the internet, such as online journals and the author‟s official website. The study applies the theory of mimetic by Abrams the explanation of art as essentially an imitation of aspects of the universe. The analysis is focused in grit dealing with passion and perseverance. Passion is represented by Junior with loves drawing and writing. He has a big dream to escape poverty and a hard life on the Indian reservation he believes the education can change his life. That‟s why he is enthusiastic about moving to Reardan, even though the school is far away and filled with white children. Perseverance by character Junior through facing many challenges such as being bullied by friends, having to walk far to school, and losing people close to him Junior does not give up. He continues to study hard and continues to try to be better. He is patient and tough in facing of sadness and difficulties, because he wants a better future. It‟s concluded that Alexie in his The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian conveys the importance of grit: Passion and Perseverance in people‟s personality, who despite being born into difficult circumstances and living on the marginality, still dare to pursue dreams and face challenges with and unwavering spirit