Analysis Of 'The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian'

Imagine yourself with a disease in your head that causes people to make fun of you because you have a big head. Also, picture yourself living in a poor neighborhood where people only think about drinking alcohol and students cannot go beyond high school. Sherman Alexis, a writer from Wellpinit, Washington, wrote a book based on his own life, named The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. In this book, he writes about a child named Arnold who was born with many medical problems. Arnold hopes to have a better future by becoming a cartoonist, so he can help his family. Many people from Wellpinit including Rowdy, his best friend, call Junior a traitor because he moved from his old school to have a better future. As a result of this, Arnold faces a severe form of discrimination at Reardan High School because he was the only Indian person who was studying there. Alexie as Arnold is an interesting character because it teaches us about dealing with challenges and helps to improve a person’s life. Alexie suggests that many people face serious challenges such as lack of education opportunities, alcoholism, the struggle of acceptance, and that the best way to overcome some of them are hope, forgiveness, and earning the trust of friends.

Throughout the story, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Junior goes through many ups and downs. This story is about how Junior, an indian from the Spokane reservation, decides to go to Rearden, the school for non-indians because of how run-down his school is and has trouble fitting in. Some of the ways Junior dealt with those downs include his uncanny sense of humor, his love for his friends, and the want to fit in and prove he’s just as good as everyone else at his new school.

“Nothing about Arnold Friend is genuine, except his violent intentions and his skill at psychological and physical intimidation. By the story’s end, Connie understands that she is not the confident flirt she thought, but a powerless pawn in the hands of a dangerous individual.” (Cormier)

This book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, is about a boy called Arnold Spirit aka Junior. He is a Native American that lives in an Indian Reservation. He isn't really satisfied with his life, since he's pretty poor, but he gets along. He doesn't really accept himself, since he has multiple medical problems, and he has been beaten up since he was little. When he starts to gain more friends in this new (American) school, he starts to like and accept himself more than before. In this book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" (by Sherman Alexie), the main theme is about Arnold trying to accept himself.

He also deals with an Identity-crisis and not able to recognize which should relate to. As he says ''They stared at me, the Indian boy with the black eye and swollen nose, my going-away gifts from Rowdy. Those white kids couldn't believe their eyes. They stared at me like I was Bigfoot or a UFO. What was I doing at Reardan, whose mascot was an Indian, thereby making me the only other Indian in town? (Sherman 27). On his first at the new school, Arnold sees himself not only through his own eyes, but also through the eyes his classmates as well. He realizes that they don't see him as Junior the weirdo Indian, to them, he is something foreign. In this sense, Arnold starts seeing the way he sees himself and the way his classmates sees him.

Mentors are people who provide support, strength, and inspiration. Many people have a mentor in their life that they aspire to be like, and seek out for guidance. Mentors play a big role in many lives, including Junior's from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Some of the biggest mentors for Junior are his parents, his Wellpinit teacher Mr. P and his Rearden basketball coach. If it weren't for these mentors inspiration and support, Junior wouldn't have taken some of the risks he does.

In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold is an seen as different from other tribe members. He constantly has to endure hardships that physically and mentally affect him. When Rowdy asks Arnold to go to the powwow with him,

Arnold Friend does not ever seem like a believable character that one would meet in the real world, even for a second. Although he seems confident a majority of the time, his slip ups in demeanor and actions that do not appeal to normal people assure the reader that his identity is assumed, and that he is actually the devil. His actions are meant to coax Connie but instead

Even after hanging out with a bunch of the American people, Arnold still feels attached to his own heritage. He loves his family and his best friend, Rowdy, and he feels that he needs to make amends with Rowdy. He was really scared that Rowdy would hate him and Junior would need to leave his old Indian self. Later he fixed his problems while playing "one-on-one (basketball) for hours..." (pg. 230) and they "didn't keep score" (pg. 230). Also, Junior cares about his family a lot. When two of them died in a row (his grandmother and sister), he didn't know what to do without them. He also thinks that Indians are forgiving of any kind of eccentricity (until the Americans came). "Gay people were seen as magical, too...Gay people could do anything. They were like Swiss army knives!" (pg. 155). He is pretty accepting of his heritage. He knows that he is Indian going to a white

“Each funeral was a funeral for all of us”: Notions of Race, Identity and Mortality in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

To fit into his new school, Junior decides to go to a basketball tryout, where he successfully makes the Freshman team. Now that his social status is better, Arnold has to get ready to face his old basketball team during a match, which he loses. When the second game against them comes around, he is even more determined to win, because to him it symbolises that he will never give up : “I have to prove [...] Never,ever,ever.” (page 186). He wins the match, gains back his Wellpinit friends, and makes friends at Reardan since he is now considered

The main protagonist, Arnold Spirit (a.k.a Junior), character identity development can be seen throughout the story. Born onto the broken, poverty smitten Indian reserve full of drunks and abusers, Junior deals with the everlasting effects of hydrocephalus. With his medical circumstance, he has to endure many malformations making it so that he is a main target to harassment. The quote, “And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it (Alexie 13)”, shows that Junior gets ethnicity and poverty mixed up. This pernicious train of thought shows how Junior already establishes a

Arnold says that Roger “Was actually nice. He paid me some respect. He paid respect to Eugene and his bike” (Alexie 72). Roger’s respect to Arnold is one of the first signs that Arnold is being accepted into the Rearden society. Arnold learns how to gain respect and how to deal with the people of Rearden in this event. Arnold also says that after Penelope and he became a couple, “[he] suddenly became popular” (Alexie 110). Arnold is almost fully assimilated into Rearden at this point, becoming friends with much of the school. Arnold has learned to embrace his popularity a Rearden and, as a result, has become socially acceptable. These initiation events lead to changes in the way Arnold thinks, which has a direct effect on his future

The best gift you can give anyone is hope, because without it, you don’t have a future to look forward to. The book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie is about a teenage boy go looking for hope in a new environment. He left everything he know to pursue the unknown because he is looking for hope. The biggest step Junior have to take is transferring to Reardan, because this is where he can find hope. In the process Junior lost his best friend;he gains hope, and he is making new friends.

Sherman Alexie book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part – Time Indian” is a comical yet heartbreaking true story of an Indian teenage boy living on the reservation trying to figure out his own identity. Throughout the book the reader can see the identity struggles that the main character Arnold Spirit Jr (Junior) faces. Being on the reservation is both a home and a place Junior is ready to leave. Through Juniors illustrations and……