Throughout The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, how and why does Junior use sarcasm to cope with trauma and pain?

Junior’s sarcastic and dry sense of humor gives him an authorial distance from his troubles, even though he feels grief deeply. His description of Ted at Grandmother’s funeral, for instance, shows that through mocking the falsely sympathetic rich man when he writes, “Even billionaires have DARK NIGHTS OF THE SOUL,” Junior can take back power. Sarcasm also helps Junior see the situational irony in his friends walking out of social studies class without him, though he was the reason for their protest. Seeing a darkly comic side of things has helped Junior’s people survive; for example, Dad’s Thanksgiving joke that they should be thankful the whites didn’t kill all the Native Americans.