Absolutely true diary of a part -time indian

Sharie Brady

English 119

23 February 2011

Graded Draft

Part-Timer

Can ones racial identity change? Is ones sense of “self” shaped by others around you? Minority teenagers living in poverty, in particular, should seek out “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Alexie Sherman, because it encourages the idea that you don’t have to be held back from achieving anything as long as you put your mind to it. Sometimes people struggle with being born into a situation that they do not belong in. Often, people are born into lifestyles that they have no desire for and they have to go through drastic measurements in order to change their lives, I think Alexie does a good job of portraying this in his book.

In the beginning of the book we are introduced to a young Indian boy named Jr. whom we later find out is named Arnold Spirit. He lives on the Spokane Indian reservation which is referred to as the “rez”. Arnold was born very poor and with many health problems. On the other hand, he is very smart and has found a way to “escape” his troubles through drawing comic cartoons. The book describes Arnolds choice of deciding to leave the “rez” and go to an all white school off the “rez”. Although his family supports him, he is referred to as a traitor by the rest of the tribe. “They call me a apple because they think I’m red on the outside and white on the inside”(132). Ironically, he still lives on the reservation. In continuing the book Arnold deals with bullies, alcoholics, death and emotional alienation. He is forced to be two different people, one person when he is at school surrounded by all the white people, and another when he is back home on the “rez”.

I can relate to Arnold as Alexie refers to him as part-time because in the sense he was born into a situation of poverty with no hope of changing his future, unless he is the one who can be brave enough to break the cycle. Part of him is just a poor Indian but the other part of him wants to be so much more. He doesn’t want to be restricted to only what the “rez” has to offer. He has high hopes to become something more. He knows that the only way to achieve that is to go against the way of life of his tribe. I myself come from several generations of poverty in which no one was brave enough to be the one to break the cycle until now.

Throughout the book Arnold struggles with being two different people and I think Alexie does a good job of helping the reader to understand how Arnold tries to change his life. For example, Arnold stands up for himself to the alpha male of the all white school referred to as Reardan. The alpha male, Roger, tells Arnold a racist joke. Instead of just accepting it like he would have done any other time in his life, he punches Roger in the face. Then Arnold says,

“ I felt brave all of a sudden. Yeah, maybe it was just a stupid and immature school yard fight. Or maybe it was the most important moment of my life. Maybe I was telling the world that I was no longer a human target”(65).

Roger later becomes his friend. At this point in the book Arnold has gained the respect of the white students at Reardan. Along with the new found respect, Arnold’s confidence begins to grow. As the story continues, Arnold begins to fit in, he becomes more comfortable with who he is, and in turn, he allows his friends to know who he really is. This is when his part-time self begins to become whole. He begins to realize that he can change his life, and that his goal of being more than just a poor Indian living on the Spokane reservation can be achieved.

Towards the end of the novel Arnold is faced with an abundance of death in his family. He takes onto himself the burden of responsibility by carrying the weight for the death of his sister. She was killed in an accident, but he blamed himself. This is another time when the author does an excellent job of helping the reader to understand the characters part-time self. For example:

“I didn’t kill her. But she only got married so quickly and left the rez because I had left the rez first. She was only living in Montana because I had gone to school in Reardan. She had burned to death because I had decided that I wanted to spend my life with white people.”(211)

Then he gets some guidance from his father and some words of encouragement from his mother and he begins to understand again that he is making this change in his life for the better. He wasn’t the reason she died but he was what inspired her to follow her dreams as well. He realizes that he isn’t just a poor Indian.

“I realized that, sure, I was a Spokane Indian. I was the only one who was brave and crazy enough to leave the rez. I knew that staying on the rez would have killed me. I was going to have a better life out in the white world”(216-217).

With all of the difficult issues that minorities are faced with, and the overwhelming desire to just fit it, it is a relief to read a book that has a positive outcome dealing with that aspect.

Works Cited

Sherman, Alexie. The True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. Print.