Individual Text Feature: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

            This novel encapsulates a lot about young adult literature because it combines easy-to-read language and humour into a lifelong lesson. The life that Sherman Alexie wants to convey talks about the struggles that he as a native American faces, and how he was able to cope with not only his own disabilities at birth and as a kid, but also as a member of a reservation, which he affectionately calls “the rez.” The reason why Alexie sees himself as so hopeless is not only because he was born with too much “brain grease,” but also because he had to be born as a Native American on a reservation to boot. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian gives adolescents a story about an awkward kid in school while simultaneously showing the struggles of Indian life on and off a reservation.

            The beginning of the novel introduces Arnold Spirit Junior as the protagonist and we immediately get plunged into his trials and tribulations as a fourteen-year-old boy on a Spokane Indian reservation. Arnold feels as though there is no one in the world that cares about him, and that he is worth less than nothing. He is an awkward looking teenager with “ten extra teeth” and a lisp due to his deformities at birth, and is constantly called a “retard” by all the kids at school. He gets beat up “at least once a month” and can only see his drawing of cartoons as an escape from the hard life he lives. Immediately, we are plunged into a tragic story about a boy and his dog, and the novel paints a much darker picture than it has already. Oscar, Junior’s dog, is incredibly sick and his family is too poor to take him to a vet. Oscar was a stray that Junior took in, and he sees him as his best friend who understands him more than anyone else on the rez. Junior’s father sees the suffering animal as just that, a suffering animal, and decides it must be put out of it’s misery. Junior begs and pleads that he would pay his parents back if they could take him to a vet, but as the novel chillingly states, “a bullet only costs about two cents, and anyone can afford that.”

 After the heart-wrenching loss of Arnold’s dog, we get introduced to Rowdy as a character. Rowdy is Arnold’s friend from birth and Arnold considers him one of the toughest Indians on the rez, saying that he “fought everybody” and had been “born mean.” Rowdy and Arnold both play basketball together, and they are planning on trying out for the varsity team. Rowdy and Arnold share a strong friendship throughout the novel, and Rowdy takes the role of protector when it comes to Arnold. Arnold “betrays” Rowdy by going to Reardan and leaving the rez school. Rowdy is hurt, and as physical violence is his strong suit, he punches Arnold out of anger, frustration, and sadness when he gets the news. When Arnold goes to Reardan, Rowdy does not speak to Arnold much, and they reconcile their friendship on the basketball court where they promise to never lose contact no matter what the future holds for either of them

Another aspect of adolescent literature that is focused on in this novel is masturbation. Arnold has a brief section about what things get him sexually excited and has a shameless description as to what makes him horny and why. He also justifies masturbating by saying that “everybody does it and everybody likes it” and “God wouldn’t have given us thumbs if he didn’t want us to masturbate.” So far, Arnold has covered both the feeling of awkward loneliness, masturbation, and strong friendships, all very important topics in the field of adolescent literature.

Poverty continues to be a motif in this novel, and another example is a scene where Arnold is getting his geometry books from his teacher, Mr. P. Arnold says he is a self-proclaimed “book kisser,” but as he opens the cover, he sees the name Agnes Adams written in the front cover. Agnes Adams is his mother’s maiden name, so Arnold realizes that they are so poor, the reservation schools are teaching them from the same books that their parents used in school. This prompted Arnold to throw his book at the front of the class, but ended with him hitting Mr. P in the face and being suspended from school. Mr. P and Arnold have a heart-to-heart about forgiving each other and about Arnold’s sister Mary Runs Away and how she wanted to write romance novels. Arnold says “there is always time to change your life” and this is a reoccurring point in the novel.

Transitioning to Reardan, we see Arnold introduce Penelope, a blue-eyed white girl who he thinks is the most beautiful woman on Earth. So the concept of talking to girls is shown through Arnold’s interaction with Penelope, another important aspect of adolescent literature, more specifically targeted at adolescent boys. Gordy, the other friend Arnold makes, is an intelligent kid, the “book-smart” kind, and Roger, the school’s resident jock, eventually grows to respect Arnold after a brief fisticuffs where Arnold lays him out after Roger make a racist joke. Arnold believed that violence was the solution when someone insulted you to your face, because that was the rules on the rez, which he lists in the novel. This “culture clash” is a clear indicator that the difference between Indian reservation life and white culture will be a main focus of this novel.  Another angle that these interactions takes is a glimpse into white culture as an Indian who has never experienced it.

The novel takes concepts all too familiar to the adolescent reader such as sex, love, courage, and helplessness, and bundles them all under the guise of the life of one Indian kid. The easy-to-read language and the visual representations of the language in the form of cartoon drawings lends itself well to the organization and the fluidity of the novel’s story. The topic of alcoholism is also incredibly present throughout the novel such as when Arnold’s grandmother is killed by a drunk driver, and when his sister dies in a mobile home fire after they had been drinking. The different factors and life lessons that are at play throughout the novel place this in the category as one of the top adolescent novels of our time.