The Absolutely True Diary Of Part Time Indian Analysis

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.

Junior shows persistence and resilience by getting to school by going to school even when his dad has no gas money. Junior lives in a poor environment and because of this, Junior is not able to go back home comfortably. “But he wasn’t sure if he’d have gas money… Somebody was usually heading

Junior the protagonist of True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is currently struggling with an abundance of issues ranging all the way from a poverty driven home to medical issues he was born into. It seems to me, that all of juniors problems he was born into and unable to change for example he was born into poverty and he was born indian, setting him up for the racism he would soon enough face and he was born with too much cerebral fluid in his brain. That's not to say all of his problems came along with birth and he was just born to be plagued with, but majority of them stemmed from birth.

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.

Arnold/Junior Spirit is a fourteen year old Spokane Indian who lives on a small reservation in Washington state. In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a part-Time Indian, Junior leaves his reservation for a primary white school called Reardan to find hope. He struggles with friendships, family, basketball, school work and identity through the year. His experiences on and off the reservation, are constantly changing his beliefs to become less racist and more positive. For example, Junior begins thinking that hope is barely reachable for him, but ends the book realizing that nothing stops him from having hope except how much he works for it.

Acknowledged in both novels, Junior and Jin’s spontaneous actions leave them both friendless and bruised. In Junior’s case, this meant ditching the reservation’s schooling system and finding one that surpasses the education he was taught. In the spur of the moment, Junior decides to do just that and attend an all-white school in the neighboring town. Getting the courage to tell his best friend, Junior braces himself for Rowdy’s reaction. Denial embedded his friend’s senses; remoteness then trickled its way through his head

In an ironic turn, [he] was now one of the ones in charge of them” (Moore 115). This statement depicts the process of transforming into an authoritative person. From enduring military school, which he hated at first, Wes was able to overcome obstacles which created a turning point in his life. At first, all Wes wanted to do was escape the military and go back to his home, but then with the support of his comrades he overcame feeling out of place and felt a sense of belonging. This resonates with me whenever I am starting something new. At first I am afraid of how everything is going to go, but then when I get adjusted to the situation and do not feel as bad as I did when I get

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.

Junior was embarrassed when him and his friends were hanging out at Denny’s. This experience in the novel affected Junior because he thought if his friends found out he was poor, then his friends wouldn’t want to be his friend anymore. “And after they all found out i was a poor ass Indian, I knew they would be a couple.” This explains that If Penelope would break up with Junior and start dating Roger. This stresses him out, which caused him to have no fun with his friends at Denny's. He overcomes being stressed and embarrassed when Roger gives him a

The upshot of all this is that, Junior’s decision about leaving the Rez and moving to Reardan for a better education was tough. He faced lot of problems; he felt lonely because of losing his best friend, and afraid of death of his tribe and family. Although he suffered from the entire bad things that happened to him, it was the best decision that he had made for his life. “I realized that I might be a lonely Indian boy, but I

Junior first thought of finding hope is when Mr. P, his math teacher at the reservation told him that he needs to go and find hope. Mr.P said “You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther, you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation” (43). What Mr. P is saying tis hat Junior has to leave the reservation to find hope. When Junior told his best friend Rowdy that he is transferring to a different school, Rowdy is very upset. Rowdy yelled “Don’t touch me, you retard fag! My heart broke into fourteen pieces, one for each year that Rowdy and I had been best friend”(52). This is because Rowdy is very sad and mad at the same time and he does not know what to do with his emotions. What he said hurt Junior a lot. Junior believes that they have been best friends for fourteen years! Rowdy calling him name and beating him have not happened before because they are best friend, and it is Rowdy’s job to defend Junior from other kids bullying him. Junior transferring to a new school hurt both Rowdy and Junior and their friendship of fourteen years, but Junior is determine to go to find hope.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is the story of Junior’s journey to discovery of self. Like many teens, he finds himself

The graphic novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, should be required reading for CCHS sophomores because of the profound themes of adventure, community, and tribalism it captures. These themes are germane to all high school students and exploring them would prepare them for the adventures and challenges that await after high school.

The novel's second major setting is Reardan, an affluent, mostly-white town 22 miles away from the reservation in Wellpinit. Reardan is home to the high school where Arnold decides to transfer. Arnold's identity in Reardan is not directly related to his tribe or his family. He is known in Reardan not as "Junior," but as

Proudly, he finished high school at the age of sixteen, but could not follow the footsteps of his older brothers and join the military, because he was too young. Therefore, he decided to continue his studies. The completion of his degree in biology was bittersweet. He was the first and the only one in his family to have graduated from college, however, there were not a lot of opportunities for a young African-American male in 1957, in small town Alabama. After taking few odd jobs, he decided to enlist in the military.