Holden’s Basketball Experience: 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.

In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, other than attending Reardan, Arnold Spirit made his most important choice in trying out for the Reardan basketball team. This is evident when Arnold states this: “I almost didn't t try out for the Reardan basketball team. I just figured I wasn't good enough to make even the C squad. And I didn't want to get cut from the team. I didn't think I could live through that humiliation” (Alexie 135). This quote is important because Arnold proves to himself that he can and will be successful. When he made the team, he did not just prove to himself that he can be successful, but he showed the members on the reservation that it is possible to be successful no matter where someone is from.

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 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.

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

Arnold felt “half Indian” in one place and this always made him “fe[el] like a stranger”. In another place he felt like he was “half white” he felt as if he was too Indian for Reardan because “more than half” “graduat[ed]” and moved on to “college “ where as Arnold’s family hadn’t even “gone near a college”, he also felt too white for Wellpinit as he attended a white school in a white town. We see that he feels as if he belongs in neither place, thus will lead to Arnold self limiting, and stopping him from making the right decision and taking a step forward to his goals.Sherman Alexie shows us the affects in not belonging and proves to us the value of

Secondly, we have Roger, who is a good friend who at one point in the book lends Arnold some money. At first Roger seems like a total jerk with his buffalo quote, but the very next day after Arnold punches Roger in the face, giving him a bloody nose, Roger has a lot of respect for him. In the previous chapter Arnold’s grandma tells him that Roger was just testing the waters with Arnold and trying to see what kind of person he is. After Arnold’s interaction with Roger the next day, Arnold says on page 11 “He was actually nice. He paid me some respect” then only a few words he says

It is natural for every person that he finds himself in a conflicting situation where he thinks that he has no identity. In such a situation of crisis, he asserts himself through different means though it may be a bitter truth or he himself gets insult in response. Arnold in The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian faces the same situation, but he does not leave the truth. Whatever he has encountered in rez or at Reardan, he has plainly told it in a very simple language that it seems touching obscenity and crossing the limits of decency. That is why the novel faced bans in different states after it was published. However, the struggle Arnold waged in order to make himself recognized is heroic one despite realization that he belongs to the underdogs and there is no hope. His struggle is rather a hope against hope, yet he knew that "life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community" (132) in which case he belonged to Indians, a Sokane Community in which he was raised. When the novel opens, he starts with his mental disabilities how he suffered from "cerebral spinal fluid" (2). Despite suffering these diseases, having developed several disabilities, acute consciousness of his own deformed body, unsupportive background, poverty, Indian legacy of stubborn and dullard nature, he not only becomes truthful but also

In this book there is this kid that is really into basketball and last season he was that best on the team and in the league. Then this year there is a new kid named chase and he is bigger and he is also the more versatile player he’s stronger and better because he is bigger. Then for the first scrimmage of the year they had to play against each other. It was a hard fought game for it all till the end when Ben got tired and didn’t push as hard as he could. Also Ben got mad at Chase because Chase talks all this stuff on the court and Ben don't like when he does do that. So when Chase was saying all this stuff about Ben and it made him mad and it got into his head and it messed up his game. So after the game Ben went home and hit the court that is right across the road from his house and he was out there all night trying to

Arnold’s character seems to be drawn to younger people, mainly for girls. The conclusion of this statement is that he tries to make himself look like a younger man. The narrator points out, “Connie liked the way he dressed, which was the way all of them dressed; tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist and showed how lean he was, and white pullover shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders.” The Misfit on the other hand seems to spot and point out certain people throughout the story. When he selects the casualties Misfit seems to choose crowd that went against his views of morals. One of the examples is when the Misfit notices that grandmother is not a great “lady” as she claims herself to be, this can be seen as the reason why he murdered her at the end of the “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The Misfit backs it up by saying, “She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”, he hints if she is not acting the way she is, he would of never murdered the family as well as grandmother. The significant highlight of the story is once the religious relations are brought up in the story, giving the distinct conclusion that Arnold is being compared to the Devil and The Misfit is compared to

When Arnold only guessed that he couldn’t and wouldn’t make it on the basketball team because he was that bad, this idea was completely turned upside down! He was the best shooter on the entire team. He realized that he “became a good player” in behalf of that “it had something to do with confidence.” He desired to “live up to expectations” (180). Arnold himself stated that his success on the basketball team allowed him to flourish as an individual whereas he wasn’t as horrible as he originally thought. He gained respect from his peers and it gave him hope to keep going. With his determination and focus on the court, slowly but surely was he able to become more self-assured. Likewise, although Arnold shows courage in the face of hopelessness, he wanted to persevere till the end. He never wanted to give up because on most days he was “terrified of falling. But I wasn’t scared of gravity that day” (220). He had the boldness to say that he was basically able to conquer anything and that he set aside all fear. To sum it all, Arnold was able to gradually view himself as important in the eyes of others rather than a garbage bag that could be stomped on throughout the novel. This is significant because it shaped him not to live by the previous definitions he put on himself and by

Looking out the window in the car, I feel the butterflies in my stomach. Tommy and I have been talking about this almost all year and it’s finally time for John Becker Basketball Camp. We pull up, and I walk into the gym, it’s packed. Feeling of intimidation and nervousness rush through me, I know I have to get rid of them though because it’s time to play.

Bet made an understandable decision in institutionalizing Arnold, but it can be seen that the consequences of giving Arnold up may sometimes outweigh the benefits. At age 9, Arnold’s autism was becoming too difficult for Bet to manage. When Bet had to put his jacket on to leave, “he started moaning and rocking and shaking his head”. As a single mom, she had to spend her day taking care of Arnold, and at the same time, she worked long hours to support him and herself financially. Despite her vast efforts she wasn’t able to make enough money to care for him. Even getting him necessities such as a winter jacket “has set her back half a week’s salary.” She barely had enough money to support Arnold in the simplest of needs, so it’s understandable

In the beginning of the story, Arnold Spirit also known as Junior explained what was wrong with him. Explained that he was born with “water on the brain”. Even after surgery, he would have been affected with serious brain damage and had a potential of dying. But he didn’t. You could say he was abnormal. He was talking about all his problems, he stutters and has a lisp when he talks. He talks about him get treated differently, even from a doctor who is white as it says in chapter 1. These are the reasons why Junior gets bullied, he’s Indian (brown skin color) and he stutters and has a lisp. Oscar, Junior’s dog was his best friend. Junior loved him more than anyone. But one day he was shot, by Junior’s dad because Oscar was sick and they couldn’t afford to bring him to the vet. Junior was

The novel also talks about themes of racism, prejudice, and poverty in several ways. Arnold grew up on the Native American reservation in Spokane and personally seen his people suffering from alcoholism,