Part-Time Indian Theme

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the title even catches my attention. I could tell from just looking at the cover page it would be a hit. Junior, he’s faced with several different situations, and most of the time, the outcome always ended terrible. His life was not perfect at all. Junior managed to get through the struggle. Most importantly he never forgot where he came from, no matter how far away from home he was.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a book that depicts cultural differences; the issues of alcohol; and friendships in a harsh, yet humorous way. Junior, the main character of the book, stands out in many ways, both to the reader, and in the book itself. He is courageous, yet also emotional and smart.

In Sherman Alexies novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, the protagonist, Junior, overcomes many obstacles such as stereotypes, poverty and hopelessness.

Moving from a childlike bliss to an awakening of the world's prejudice, the author makes the words take on flesh. The story is made alive as she breathes life into a time that is unpleasant yet not void of hope. "The hush-hush magic time of frills and gifts and congratulations" disappeared when they were told the cold hard `truth' of their fate that some white man had already decided for them.

In the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, the character I’ll be focusing on is Arnold. Chapter after chapter, Arnold has contrastive impressions and temper. From the beginning of the book to the end, Arnold finds himself trapped in obstacles that he has to overcome, as well as developing a crush on a white girl named Penelope. Because of the way Arnold transforms his impressions makes me think of how interesting this character is. In the beginning, Arnold speaks of his life as an Indian on the reservation. As soon as he first stepped foot in Wellpinit High, he met his teacher, Mr.P, in which convinced Arnold to vacate the Rez even after everything Arnold’s been through such as troubles in his life. One quote is “If you stay on this Rez, they’re going to kill you. I’m going to kill you. We’re all going to kill you. You’ve been fighting off that brain surgery, you fought off those seizures. You fought off all the drunks and drug addicts,” (p.g 43)

Traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture; however growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity. In the beginning, the narrator is in the hospital while as his father lies on his death bed, when he than encounters fellow Native Americans. One of these men talks about an elderly Indian Scholar who paradoxically discussed identity, “She had taken nostalgia as her false idol-her thin blanket-and it was murdering her” (6). The nostalgia represents the old Native American ways. The woman can’t seem to let go of the past, which in turn creates confusion for the man to why she can’t let it go because she was lecturing “…separate indigenous literary identity which was ironic considering that she was speaking English in a room full of white professors”(6). The man’s ignorance with the elderly woman’s message creates a further cultural identity struggle. Once more in the hospital, the narrator talks to another Native American man who similarly feels a divide with his culture. “The Indian world is filled with charlatan, men and women who pretend…”

Throughout literature many pieces of work can be compared and contrasted to each other. In “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie discusses the challenges he faced as a young Indian adult, who found his passion of reading at an early age, living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He challenged the stereotype of the young Indian students who were thought to be uneducated while living on a reservation. Likewise, in the excerpt from The Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez shares his similar experience of being a minority and trying to break stereotypes of appearing uneducated. He shares the details of his life growing up learning a different culture and the struggles he faced becoming assimilated into American culture. In these two specific pieces of literature discuss the importance of breaking stereotypes of social and educational American standards and have similar occupational goals; on the other hand the two authors share their different family relationships.

Arnold Spirit finds himself with a split personality, after living what some critics would call a double life. From going to school at Reardan and living and sleeping on the Rez, he puts himself in a state of liminality. No one on the Rez has ever done what Arnold Junior has done before, therefore Junior has guidance to know how to handle how he is feeling, or expect how to be treated when he enters this journey of finding hope. When Junior first decides to leave the Rez to find hope he does not fully realize the full repercussions that it will cause not only him, but the relationships he has with friends and family. His identity slowly gets stripped away from him, when he looses sight of what he left the Rez for, hope, but when he remembers

Arnold Spirit Jr is a courageous character who scarifies his identity to achieve better opportunities in life to reach his dreams. According to the novel, “I want to go to Reardan, I said” Arnold wants to have a better future than most of the Indians on his reservation. Most of the people on the reservation have lost all hope of their dreams, but not Arnold he still has that hope his future would be different. The people on the reservation see their dreams floating further and further away, Arnold can see his dreams coming a closer towards him. In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” the conflict that forces Arnold to make a decision to impact his future is whether he should stay at the reservation and not get the best education

Alexie explains that he has visited many classrooms and received many letters from students who loved the book, explaining that these students have had difficult experiences similar to his own depression, sexual and physical abuse, absent parents, poverty, racism, and learning disabilities. He also explains that he has yet to receive a letter from a child somehow weakened by the domestic violence, drug abuse, racism, poverty, sexuality, and murder contained in his book. To the opposite, kids as young as ten have sent him autobiographical letters written in crayon and markers, completed with drawings inspired by the novel, that are just as dark and terrifying as anything he's ever read, Alexie explains. (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian;Wiki) This novel has been being banned for almost ten years now and it seems like nobody knows about the literary merit in it. The book is described by the publisher Little, Brown as heartbreaking, funny and beautifully written about the experiences of a young Native American who leaves his troubled school on an Indian reservation in Washington state to attend an all-white high school in a nearby farming community.(Huffington Post) Bruce Barcott explains how recently nominated for a National Book Award, that The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a gem of a

16). Arnold perceives himself within his relations with his family and the reservation, thus his self-esteem is directly tied to his place within the two groups. However near the end of the book, Arnold cries for his “fellow tribal members” future in the reservation (Alexie, 2009, p. 216) and acknowledges that he “was the only one who was brave and crazy enough to leave the rez…. The only one with enough arrogance” (Alexie, 2009, p. 217). Although part of his self image is still tied to his tribe, Arnold sees himself as independent from them. He has a sense of who he is from his choice to leave the reservation and the qualities that allowed him to do so. The experiences Arnold encountered along the way such as exclusion, individuals with highly independent self-construals, and the deaths of his led to changes in his self-concept.

Acceptance is a beginning of something new: Something that gives you the strength to achieve something. The Novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and To Kill a Mockingbird Directed by Robert Mulligan both demonstrate an understanding and acknowledgement that acceptance is an important theme in everyday life. Arnold from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a young Indian boy who is living on an Indian reservation transfers to an all-white school (Where he stands out as the only Indian), searching for a happier life, while Boo is an isolated young man who is perceived as psychotic and deranged by those in his neighborhood. Acceptance from the people around them gives comfort and support to both Arnold and Boo, enabling them to achieve what

First, there's Wellpinit, the home of the Spokane Indian Reservation where Arnold lives with his mother, father, sister, and grandmother. The Spirit family have lived on the reservation all of their lives, and Arnold is known there not by his first name, but simply as "Junior." As his name suggests, he's very much connected to – and identified

In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Arnold “Junior” Spirit transfers from his reservation to the all-white school Rearden; there, he confronts “the machine” of racial stereotypes against Native Americans with cartoons and confessions of his reality to his white friends. In the opening chapter of the narrative, Junior compares the world to a “series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats,” articulating the significance of drawing as both hobby and coping mechanism in a reality of discrimination and misfortune (Alexie, 6). In the face of racial stereotypes that silence his voice, Junior’s artistic autonomy empowers him with the ability to tell his own story via the “lifeboats” reaching the hostile outside world of “broken dams and floods.” In this way, his authentic narration defies his surroundings’ racism and allow him to transcend class and race limitations. Furthermore, Junior challenges racial

act within society. In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Junior the