Analysis Of The Movie ' The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian `` By Sherman Alexie

“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)

Arnold Friend is an ironic name for this character because he isn’t Connie’s friend, she doesn’t even know him. And if you say the name out loud, it sounds like “are no friend” He proves that he can’t be a friend in the first place, he left his so-called friend in the car and talked to him like he meant nothing to him.

First, it is clear that Arnold is like the Big Bad Wolf in “The Three Little Pigs”. At one point, this is shown when he threatens to break into Connie’s home, and says, “I mean, anybody can break through a screen door and glass and wood and iron or anything else if he needs to, especially Arnold Friend,” (24). Arnold declares he can break through a door after Connie tries to lock the door to prevent Arnold from coming inside. This makes it seem like a threat, and that even locking the door, which is supposed to be safe, still can’t stop Arnold Friend. Essentially, it makes him seem very dangerous or crafty, like the Wolf. In the “Three Little Pigs”, when each pig locks themselves inside their home, the Big Bad Wolf declares that he

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.

Before we can analyze Connie’s interaction with Arnold Friend, we must first look at how immaturity affects her behavior on a daily basis. Since she is only able to focus on her social status, Connie often acts vain. She is consistently glancing back at her reflection to make sure is still pretty. She wants to remain young and beautiful, two qualities that are important to her. This demonstrates her immaturity by illustrating how she is afraid to become an adult. As Connie turns to check her appearance in every mirror, she is looking back into the past rather than the future. She is

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

Arnold Friend plays the perfect role for an archetypical devil character. The minute he pulls up to Connie’s house, he acts as if the two had known each other for some time and him showing up at random was something that happened all the time. At first, Connie is somewhat flattered by his compliments and smooth way of talking, until he starts to get more persistent on her coming outside. Just when she starts to get scared, “his smile assured her that everything was fine.” (pg 4, Oates) Arnold uses his charisma to ease Connie’s nerves, and it actually seems to work for a little

Arnold Friend or “an old fiend”, is a deceiving manipulative older male who could be your father and has his sidekick who is even older, Arnold stuffs his boots, has a picture of himself sprayed painted on the side of his car that looks like a pumpkin, who openly admits that he’s coming for you and that he stalks you, he’s essentially a sociopath who flirts by threatening you and your family. Arnold aims in on the frailty and aspirations of those around him in particular Connie's romantic fantasies, he utilizes

109), because he's an "absolute stranger" to Reardan, and also, Penelope's dad is racist. Still, they become close friends and start dating. He also makes friends with Roger (surprisingly), since Roger is a friend of Penelope. When Junior made the basketball team, they become closer. Roger even gave Junior a ride home after a basketball game. Arnold also becomes a friend of a geek, Gordy. They were both "outcasts", and they understood how it felt to not fit in. After making all these friends, he feels that he is starting to fit in with the white people.

Arnold has shown himself as a very dangerous predator. “Aside from his dress and mannerisms, which eventually strike Connie as 'wrong', Friend is described as having a ‘nose long and hawk-like, sniffing as if she were a great treat he was going to gobble up.’ His ‘teeth were big and white’ just like the wolf in the cautionary tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ Charles Perrault's version of this fairy tale ends with the moral ‘Children, especially attractive, well bred young women, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf.”(qtd. In Caldwell) Connie tries to call the police but she cannot and ends up trying to call for her mother but she is home alone. She was shaking and cannot dial the phone. One possibility is that this is a dream and she is seeing what will happen to her if she continues the path that she is on. In a dream you are not in control. You try to observe what is happening and see if you can understand what is going on. Arnold tells her what to do and she does it without any hesitation. She just obeys and does what he tells her to do. So she puts down the phone.

Arnold has a positive and a negative personality. In some ways he is more negative than positive because of his circumstances. This includes living on the reservation and growing up in poverty. He is also negative when it comes to his physical appearance which includes his disability, speech problem, and his crooked glasses. All of this negativity impacts Arnold’s personality which leads him to be bullied and teased. All he see’s is death and destruction. This leads to the positive side of Arnold’s personality. He is positive when it comes to his cartoons because that is his way out of the reservation, and his ambition to make something better of his self. He surprised himself and everyone when he made the basketball team at Reardan because he is not in a very negative surrounding. When Arnold went to Reardan his personality became more positive and now he has a brighter outlook that leads to more friends.

Independence was the ideal way he began to find his identity and strength. Within the first few weeks of being at a new school, Arnold had threw a punch on his own. Back on the rez, his old best

Until she is confronted and controlled by the demon that is Arnold Friend, she thinks she understand adult life. Arnold comes into the story to symbolize her dark side. His smirks and persuasive attitude eventually lure her into his control. Even though he

Arnold Friend is introduced to Connie's life, he is aggressive dominant, and masculine. He was what society sees a man to be. He had this cocky confidence in his voice, and Connie was intrigued on how he was. Friend had this smirk and his look was overpowering with metallic sunglasses. Arnold Friend represents male dominance and power, he is always overpowering and controlling.

Another topic of importance to the book is collective identity. Matsumoto and Juang (2013) describe identity as “the way individuals understand themselves and are recognized,” while collective identity is more specifically about people’s association with “social categories” (p. 357). Identity is considered fluid as it can change depending on the situation, its players, and each individual’s point of view (Matsumoto & Juang, 2013, pp.357-358). This explains how Arnold’s identity appears to morph throughout the book . For instance, Arnold’s early identification as a poor Indian kid juxtaposes Arnold’s later feelings of