Like most good stories, The Absolutely True Diary of a
Part-Time Indian has a basic list of fundamental elements: initial circumstances,
conflicts, problems, the climax, tensions, finale, and conclusion. Great
writers like Sherman Alexie add their own unique elements to create one of a
kind works.
Initial Circumstances
Arnold as reservation pariah.
Arnold Spirit, Jr. is a teenage boy with a pretty tough
life. First of all, he lives in poverty on a Spokane Indian Reservation and is
the son of two alcoholics. He's also a hydrocephalic, which means he was born
with water on the brain and is susceptible to seizures. This makes him the
reservation weirdo, and he's regularly beaten up and picked on by almost
everyone. (His sole defender is his best friend, a tough-guy named Rowdy.)
Arnold
is hilarious and talented, and draws cartoons for his amusement and ours. He
hates living in poverty and dreams of something better for himself, maybe as an
important artist. Arnold
is presented as someone who is deeply dissatisfied with his situation in life.
He's impoverished and abused by bullies and hopes his life will change – but,
for the moment, there's not much he can do. (Or so he thinks.)
Conflicts
Arnold
fights back.
Explanation/Discussion: One day in geometry class, Arnold finds his mother's
name written in the front of his geometry book. This means that his school is
so poor that they've been using the same textbooks for at least 30 years.
Absolutely infuriated with the school's lack of resources, Arnold decides to fight back the only way he
knows how. He throws the geometry book at his teacher, Mr. P. Arnold is later
visited by the geometry teacher (now with a broken nose) who tells Arnold that he must leave
the reservation. Mr. P says that everyone else has given up – but that Arnold is a fighter and
cannot ever give up. He must go somewhere else – somewhere where people have
hope.
Problems
Arnold goes to Reardan and becomes a part-time Indian.
Arnold decides that, in order
to get a decent education, he must transfer to the privileged white school 22
miles away in the town of Reardan.
His parents agree, but not everyone on the reservations reacts so kindly. His
best friend Rowdy hauls off and punches him in the face. The rest of the
reservation begins to shun him as well, and treat him as a traitor to his
people. At Reardan, Arnold
has some trouble fitting in, though he attempts to woo Penelope, the lovely
blonde girl, and befriends Gordy, the school's resident genius. He also punches
the school jock, Roger, in the face – and wins his respect.
The push and pull between Reardan and the reservation make Arnold feel like a
part-time Indian. Having a bit of an identity crisis, he tries to figure out
just who he is. Can he reconcile Junior (of the reservation) with Arnold (of Reardan)? Must
he always have a split personality?
The Climax
Arnold plays basketball game against his old high school team and loses. And wins?
Though he's carried by his team on their shoulders, Arnold feels torn in two,
as the team he beat used to be his own. The win against Wellpinit is tinged
with disappointment, as Arnold
realizes that he's been playing on the side of Goliath – not David. Is that who
he really is?
Tensions
Arnold
experiences devastating loses.
Arnold loses a whole bunch of
people who are very close to him: his grandmother is hit by a drunk driver, his
father's best friend Eugene
is killed in an accidental shooting, and his sister dies in a trailer fire.
Confronted with a whole heck of a lot of suffering, Arnold has to learn how to carry on in the
face of such pain, much of it totally senseless and preventable.
During this time, the reservation stops their silent
treatment of Arnold
and rally around him and his family during his grandmother's funeral. In order
to cope with the senselessness of it all, Arnold
learns to embrace life. He makes lists of his favorite books, foods, and bands.
He thinks about all of the things that make him happy and bring him joy.
Finale
Arnold and his family visit the graves of Eugene,
Grandmother Spirit, and Mary. He cries for his people and himself and his
loneliness. He has kind of an epiphany, though. He realizes that he really
doesn't have to see himself as a person split in two. He sees that he is a part
of many different tribes (he is not only an Indian, but a cartoonist, and a
son, and a basketball player, and a bookworm, and so forth). Arnold knows that he is not from Wellpinit or
Reardan, but that he is a multidimensional person. Arnold becomes multi-tribal.
Conclusion
Arnold and Rowdy reconcile.
Over the summer, Rowdy asks Arnold to play a game of one-on-one
basketball. Rowdy has begun to understand and accept Arnold's choice to leave the reservation. He
tells Arnold
about some old-time Indians he read about and how they used to be nomadic –
meaning they moved from one place to another. He thinks Arnold is very much like these nomads. Rowdy tells
Arnold about a dream that he had in which Arnold was standing on the Great Wall
of China. Rowdy tells Arnold
that in the dream he was happy for him. Arnold
cries. Not only has Arnold come to terms with
who he is, but Rowdy is also trying to see and understand Arnold's new sense of self.
Literary Analysis:
First-Person Narrative
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a great addition to any personal library of Young Adult Literature. This critically acclaimed story about a young man is narrated by young mind, himself. In addition, the 1st person narration conveys an in-depth portrayal of the stream of consciousness that is characteristic of many novels in this genre. Not only does that book flow well through the events and thought processes of Junior’s life, but Alexie is not afraid to let his main character be a little crude, a lot honest, and crazy funny. This book accomplishes stream of consciousness in visual aids as well, through the often humorous cartoon sketches that Arnold Spirit (aka Junior) includes throughout the story to give caricatures of his life to the audience.
Arnold’s Art
The constant invitation into his mind through his comics give an account of not only what happens, but how he feels, reacts, thinks, wishes, and hopes about the events in his life.All ages can find joy as well as sophistication of thought within Junior’s drawings, which makes the story highly teachable. But most of all, the fact that this story is semi-autobiographical (Alexie is quoted to have approximated the percentage of true to fiction in this story would be about 78%) will intrigue developing minds because most of these incredibly interesting events actually happened. The questions of friendship, cultural roots, racial identities, and the idea of just being young and awkward are addressed in these pages and cartoons of Arnold Spirit Jr.
MAJOR THEMES
Racial Identities
The content matter of this story deals with the idea of multiple identities: i.e. Junior trying to fit in as a Native American boy in an all-white school. Young people (especially teenagers) often try on numerous identities while trying to formulate one of their own. Junior is not the first protagonist to do this. In the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, (another autobiographical memoir told with the assistance of a black and white cartoon style) Marji tries on many roles from conforming to her society’s racial and religious regulations to extreme political rebel to punk to sophisticated, sexy, intellectual woman. This identity self-realization process is common among books of this genre- it is arguable the most important characteristic as young minds will read stories of people that are not concrete in a single identity- something to which they can relate.
Money
Growing up poor on the reservation affects Junior’s life every single day- he worships the seldom enjoyed Kentucky Fried Chicken and often has to walk or hitchhike the 22 miles to his school in Reardan off the reservation. A product of two (former and current) alcoholic parents, Junior is often ashamed of his home life because of their SES.
“It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. 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.”
-Arnold Spirit Jr
Rebellion
The common theme of rebellion in the Young Adult Literature genre can take various forms: Junior’s older sister Mary, for instance, decides to run off and get married as a statement of her accessibility to freedom of her old life. Junior decides not to attend the school on his own reservations as most children do. He rebels against the status quo and attends a school off the reservation- Reardan: an all-white school. This rebellion is for his own self-benefit, as he strives only to receive a quality education. However, this rebellion as seen as a rejection of his home-reservation roots leading to a sort of self-isolating effect on Junior. The same effect occurs in the popular YA novel The Chocolate War in which the protagonist Jerry Renault chooses to rebel against the Vigils group by not selling chocolates in a school fund-raiser- he becomes a pariah in the school and he is beat up physically and mentally by bullying that pursues. No matter what the form, rebellion is often a crucial theme in driving the plot along in the YA entertainment.
Not Fitting In
When Junior tells his best friend Rowdy that he will transfer schools, Rowdy punches him in the face and calls him a “white-lover”: a glimpse of how accepting his reservation was of the idea. The irony of this part-time Indian transferring schools to an all-white community whose mascot was an Indian was too much for either community to handle. People on the reservation hated him for leaving, and the people at Reardan hated him for coming- even the teachers of his new school were in on the bullying. This desire to fit in, is arguably the most important theme of the genre of YA because it is an innate humanistic desire to be cared for by other humans. Junior’s relationship with his peers in both communities and his relationship especially with Rowdy are particularly interesting in their evolution throughout the story.
Literary Analysis:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a great addition to any personal library of Young Adult Literature. This critically acclaimed story about a young man is narrated by young mind, himself. In addition, the 1st person narration conveys an in-depth portrayal of the stream of consciousness that is characteristic of many novels in this genre. Not only does that book flow well through the events and thought processes of Junior’s life, but Alexie is not afraid to let his main character be a little crude, a lot honest, and crazy funny. This book accomplishes stream of consciousness in visual aids as well, through the often humorous cartoon sketches that Arnold Spirit (aka Junior) includes throughout the story to give caricatures of his life to the audience.
The constant invitation into his mind through his comics give an account of not only what happens, but how he feels, reacts, thinks, wishes, and hopes about the events in his life.All ages can find joy as well as sophistication of thought within Junior’s drawings, which makes the story highly teachable. But most of all, the fact that this story is semi-autobiographical (Alexie is quoted to have approximated the percentage of true to fiction in this story would be about 78%) will intrigue developing minds because most of these incredibly interesting events actually happened. The questions of friendship, cultural roots, racial identities, and the idea of just being young and awkward are addressed in these pages and cartoons of Arnold Spirit Jr.
MAJOR THEMES
Racial Identities
The content matter of this story deals with the idea of multiple identities: i.e. Junior trying to fit in as a Native American boy in an all-white school. Young people (especially teenagers) often try on numerous identities while trying to formulate one of their own. Junior is not the first protagonist to do this. In the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, (another autobiographical memoir told with the assistance of a black and white cartoon style) Marji tries on many roles from conforming to her society’s racial and religious regulations to extreme political rebel to punk to sophisticated, sexy, intellectual woman. This identity self-realization process is common among books of this genre- it is arguable the most important characteristic as young minds will read stories of people that are not concrete in a single identity- something to which they can relate.
Growing up poor on the reservation affects Junior’s life every single day- he worships the seldom enjoyed Kentucky Fried Chicken and often has to walk or hitchhike the 22 miles to his school in Reardan off the reservation. A product of two (former and current) alcoholic parents, Junior is often ashamed of his home life because of their SES.
“It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. 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.”
-Arnold Spirit Jr
Rebellion
The common theme of rebellion in the Young Adult Literature genre can take various forms: Junior’s older sister Mary, for instance, decides to run off and get married as a statement of her accessibility to freedom of her old life. Junior decides not to attend the school on his own reservations as most children do. He rebels against the status quo and attends a school off the reservation- Reardan: an all-white school. This rebellion is for his own self-benefit, as he strives only to receive a quality education. However, this rebellion as seen as a rejection of his home-reservation roots leading to a sort of self-isolating effect on Junior. The same effect occurs in the popular YA novel The Chocolate War in which the protagonist Jerry Renault chooses to rebel against the Vigils group by not selling chocolates in a school fund-raiser- he becomes a pariah in the school and he is beat up physically and mentally by bullying that pursues. No matter what the form, rebellion is often a crucial theme in driving the plot along in the YA entertainment.
Not Fitting InWhen Junior tells his best friend Rowdy that he will transfer schools, Rowdy punches him in the face and calls him a “white-lover”: a glimpse of how accepting his reservation was of the idea. The irony of this part-time Indian transferring schools to an all-white community whose mascot was an Indian was too much for either community to handle. People on the reservation hated him for leaving, and the people at Reardan hated him for coming- even the teachers of his new school were in on the bullying. This desire to fit in, is arguably the most important theme of the genre of YA because it is an innate humanistic desire to be cared for by other humans. Junior’s relationship with his peers in both communities and his relationship especially with Rowdy are particularly interesting in their evolution throughout the story.