Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Analysis

Friendships are very important. In our book titled: “The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian” Arnold makes a lot of friends like Rowdy, Penelope, and Roger all help him in different ways. Penelope makes him feel like someone cares about him, Roger makes him feel happy, and Rowdy hurts people who will hurt Arnold. All his friend have an effect on Arnold’s physical and mental state for better or for worse.

Despite their differences, they are best friends, and Rowdy always helps Arnold whether he's being beaten or scared of who or when he could be beaten. In Chapter 3, Arnold is afraid of going to the powwow. It's Rowdy's assurance—"Come on, I'll protect you"—that enables Arnold to face his fears. After realizing that Rowdy is there for him and will be there for him, Arnold is able to overcome his fear and go to the powwow. In his first semester at Rearden, Arnold finds an unexpected source of friendship in his know-it-all classmate Gordy, who steps in to stick for Arnold and confirm Arnold's knowledge about petrified wood.

Along with this Arnold has to deal with the death of his grandmother and soon after the death of his sister. Though as a result of this Rowdy and Arnold make up over a game of basketball. Rowdy tells Arnold that he always knew he would leave because like the traditional Indians he is “nomadic”.

Indian. Rowdy is Arnold's best friend. Arnold is very troubled and he is very angry all the time so he takes it out on Arnold. Rowdy’s father is a huge drunk and when he gets drunk, he gets mad and beats Rowdy. So Rowdy has a lot of built up anger inside. It is very similar to Victor and his father in smoke signals. Victor’s dad is a drunk and used to beat up Victor as a child. Victor has all lot of hate in his heart for his dad, because of what he did and he hates him for leaving. Victor and Thomas’s relationship is all lot like Rowdy and Arnold’s relationship. Both Victor and Rowdy beat and yell at both Arnold and Thomas, but still love them as friends. Rowdy would never tell Arnold how much he cherishes him as a friend, but Arnold knows he

Arnold became good friends with a female student named Penelope after he gave her words of encouragement to dealing with her eating disorder. Arnold also became great friends with class genius, Gordy, after he defended Arnold's fact about petrified wood to the Geology teacher. At the reservation, Arnold was treated with resentment and disdain by his fellow tribe members. He was a traitor to his own tribe in their eyes. When Arnold decided to go to Reardan, a predominately all white school, most of his tribe members turned their backs on Arnold, thinking he had abandoned the tribe first.

The American Indian occupies a unique place in the White American imaginary. Indians, one is told, are cordial, wise, poor in the “humble poverty” sort of way, brown, there assist whites with either mystic knowledge or humorous ignorance. Figures such as Squanto, Tonto and Disney’s Pocahontas along with a large smattering of Westerns and cartoonish depictions have created this image of the Native American – an image which rarely translates into the present day. In contrast to this, Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a Native American coming-of-age story centered around the first-person point of view of the Native protagonist Arnold “Junior” Spirit, Jr. and his dual life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his time off the reservation at an all-white public school in the town of Reardan, Washington. The novel revolves around themes like race, identity formation and mortality and details life on Indian reservations as it attempts to give a realistic account of contemporary Native American life, each which shape the novel in unique ways.

At home, no one there really understands him with his disability. “[He] looked goofy on the outside, but it was the inside stuff that was the worst” (Alexie, Sherman The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian). Arnold thinks in ways to others. He is susceptible to seizures, make him unpredictable as well. His parents try to understand him, and support him, but they don’t know how to help him with his disability. They are just lost on what to do. His best friend, Rowdy, understands him better than he feels his parents do, even though it may not be perfectly. “Rowdy is the toughest kid on the rez. He is long and lean and strong like a snake. His heart is as strong and mean as a snake, too. But he is [Arnold’s] best human friend and he cares about [him], so he would always tell [him] the truth” (Alexie, Sherman The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian). Rowdy is always the one who would stand up for Arnold when bullies would come around. Rowdy is a ruthless and tough kid, but is kind and protective to Arnold. Rowdy accepts Arnold for who he is, and runs with it. Arnold really feels like he belongs with Rowdy. That Rowdy accepts him. Arnold’s issues don’t stop them from doing anything. Usually, bullies stop Arnold from doing things.

Throughout the book Arnold encounters many discouraging situations but remains positive. In the book, one of the most sad moments is when Christmas comes around for him and his family. Having been in poverty for many years, his family can never afford presents so his dad spends whatever money they have on alcohol. “Hey, Dad,” I said. “Hey, kid,” he said.

Throughout the book Arnold struggles to find his identity, and Alexie shows that if you want to find your identity you must find where you belong, you need to find the people who love you, and if what you are and what you’re doing right now is what you want. The novel proves people need to find where they belong to truly figure out who they are. Arnold doesn’t feel like he belongs on his reservation, and he wants to leave to find hope. Alexie proves this when his entire school chants “Arnold sucks!”(143) at him.

At first him and Rowdy were very mean to each other when Arnold first tired out for the basketball team. By the end of the book Rowdy and Arnold are equal in basketball and Arnold feels like he is a white person with Rowdy and doesn’t feel excluded.

In the beginning of the novel, Rowdy is usually the one that is protecting Arnold the dangerous parts of his life, and keeping away the negative comments. Arnold doesn’t believe that he has confidence to stand up for himself and relies on Rowdy to stand up for him. At the end of the novel, both Arnold and Rowdy realize that Arnold doesn’t always need to be protected from his dangers. Arnold learns that he can stand up for himself and take care of himself when he sets on a new, uncertain path of his life. When Rowdy and Arnold “played one-on-one for hours” at the end, it is giving light to how Arnold has finally understood what he can achieve and how Rowdy doesn’t have to be the constant protector anymore (230).

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.

This book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, is about a boy called Arnold Spirit aka Junior. He is a Native American that lives in an Indian Reservation. He isn't really satisfied with his life, since he's pretty poor, but he gets along. He doesn't really accept himself, since he has multiple medical problems, and he has been beaten up since he was little. When he starts to gain more friends in this new (American) school, he starts to like and accept himself more than before. In this book, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian" (by Sherman Alexie), the main theme is about Arnold trying to accept himself.

Arnold is a Native American teenager living on a reservation in Spokane. The choice that transforms his life is his decision to go to school off of the reservation. He makes this decision through a conversation with his teacher Mr.P. In this conversation the theme of “One choice can transform you” begins. We see this with a quote

Sherman Alexie book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part – Time Indian” is a comical yet heartbreaking true story of an Indian teenage boy living on the reservation trying to figure out his own identity. Throughout the book the reader can see the identity struggles that the main character Arnold Spirit Jr (Junior) faces. Being on the reservation is both a home and a place Junior is ready to leave. Through Juniors illustrations and……