The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
is a novel by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Ellen Forney. The book won several awards, and was the first young adult fiction work by Alexie, a stand-up comedian, screenwriter, film producer, and songwriter who has previously written adult novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays. Alexie stated, "I [wrote the book] because so many librarians, teachers, and teenagers kept asking me to write one."
Despite the novel's high acclaim and several achievements, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has also received a lot of objections and has consistently appeared on the annual list of frequently challenged books since 2008. The controversy stems from the novel’s discussion of alcohol, poverty, bullying, violence, sexuality, profanity and slurs related to homosexuality and mental disability. As a result, some schools have banned the book from school libraries or inclusion in curricula.
The Absolutely True Diary is a first-person narrative from the perspective of Native American teenager Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior", a 14-year-old budding cartoonist. The book is a coming of age story, detailing Junior's life on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and his decision to go to an all-white public high school off the reservation. The graphic novel includes 65 comic illustrations that help further the plot.
is a novel by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Ellen Forney. The book won several awards, and was the first young adult fiction work by Alexie, a stand-up comedian, screenwriter, film producer, and songwriter who has previously written adult novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays. Alexie stated, "I [wrote the book] because so many librarians, teachers, and teenagers kept asking me to write one."
Despite the novel's high acclaim and several achievements, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has also received a lot of objections and has consistently appeared on the annual list of frequently challenged books since 2008. The controversy stems from the novel’s discussion of alcohol, poverty, bullying, violence, sexuality, profanity and slurs related to homosexuality and mental disability. As a result, some schools have banned the book from school libraries or inclusion in curricula.
The Absolutely True Diary is a first-person narrative from the perspective of Native American teenager Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior", a 14-year-old budding cartoonist. The book is a coming of age story, detailing Junior's life on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and his decision to go to an all-white public high school off the reservation. The graphic novel includes 65 comic illustrations that help further the plot.
True Diary of a Part Time Indian
First edition cover
AuthorSherman Alexie
IllustratorEllen Forney
Cover artistKirk Benshoff
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreYoung adult fiction
PublisherLittle, Brown and Company
Publication dateSeptember 12, 2007[1]
Media typePrint (hardcover & paperback)
Pages230
ISBN978-0-316-01368-0
OCLC154698238
LC ClassPZ7.A382 Ab 2007The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a novel by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Ellen Forney. The book won several awards, and was the first young adult fiction work by Alexie, a stand-up comedian, screenwriter, film producer, and songwriter who has previously written adult novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays.[2][3] Alexie stated, "I [wrote the book] because so many librarians, teachers, and teenagers kept asking me to write one."[4]
Despite the novel's high acclaim and several achievements, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has also received a lot of objections and has consistently appeared on the annual list of frequently challenged books since 2008.[5] The controversy stems from the novel’s discussion of alcohol, poverty, bullying, violence, sexuality, profanity and slurs related to homosexuality and mental disability. As a result, some schools have banned the book from school libraries or inclusion in curricula.[6]
The Absolutely True Diary is a first-person narrative from the perspective of Native American teenager Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior", a 14-year-old budding cartoonist.[3] The book is a coming of age story, detailing Junior's life on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and his decision to go to an all-white public high school off the reservation. The graphic novel includes 65 comic illustrations that help further the plot.[7]
Contents [show]
Plot[edit]The book follows Junior, a fourteen-year-old boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation near Wellpinit, Washington for a school year. It is told in episodic diary style, moving from the start of the school year to the beginning of summer. It includes both Junior's written record of his life and his cartoon drawings, some of them comically commenting on his situations, and others more seriously depicting important people in his life.
The current Spokane Indian reservationThe Absolutely True Diary begins by introducing Junior's birth defects, including the fact that he was born with hydrocephalus and therefore is small for his age and suffers from seizures, poor eyesight, stuttering, and a lisp. As a result, Junior has always been picked on by other people on the reservation. Junior’s family is extremely poor and have limited access to opportunities. When Junior's dog Oscar gets heat stroke, his father must put him down because they cannot afford to take him to a veterinarian. Junior's only child friend is Rowdy, a classmate who is abused at home and is known as a bully on the reservation. Despite his intimidating role, Rowdy often stands up for Junior and they bond by enjoying kids' comics.
Junior's first day of high school is pivotal to the plot of the novel. When Mr. P, his geometry teacher, passes him his textbook, he sees his mother’s name in it, realizing that the book must be at least 30 years old. Angered and saddened by the fact that the reservation is so poor that it cannot afford new textbooks, Junior violently throws the book, which hits Mr. P's face, breaking his nose. When he visits Junior at home, Mr. P convinces Junior to transfer to Reardan High School, sensing a degree of precociousness in the young teenager. The town of Reardan is far wealthier than Wellpinit—Junior is the only Indian at Reardan besides the team mascot.[3] Although Junior's family is poor, and although the school is 22 miles away and transportation is unreliable, they support him and do what they can to make it possible for him to stay in the new school. Rowdy, however, is upset by Junior's decision to transfer, and the once-best friends have very little contact during the year.
Junior develops a crush on the school's most popular white girl, Penelope, and becomes study friends with an intelligent student named Gordy. His interactions with the white students give him a better perspective both on white culture and his own. He realizes how much stronger his family ties are than those of his white classmates, noticing that many of the white fathers never come to their children's school events. Junior also realizes that the white students have different rules than those he grew up with, which is evident when he reacts to an insult from the school's star athlete, Roger, by punching him in the face. Junior hit him, as he would have been expected to do on the reservation, and he expects Roger to get revenge. But Roger never does; in fact, Roger and his friends show Junior more respect. Junior also gets closer to Penelope, which makes him more popular with the other girls at the school.
Roger suggests that Junior try out for the basketball team, and to Junior's surprise, he makes the varsity team, which pits him against his former school, Wellpinit, and specifically Rowdy, who is Wellpinit's star freshman. Their first match demonstrates to Junior just how angry the reservation people are at him for transferring: when he enters the court, they boo and insult him. During the game, Rowdy elbows Junior in the head and knocks him unconscious. While suffering some injuries from the game, Junior and his coach become closer as Coach tells him that he admires Junior's commitment to the team. Later on, his grandmother, who Junior looks up to the most on the reservation, is hit and killed by a drunk driver. After his grandmother's funeral, a family friend, Eugene, is shot in the face by his friend Bobby after fighting over alcohol. After grieving and reflecting on his loved ones' deaths, Junior plays in his basketball team's second match against Wellpinit. Reardan wins and Junior gets to block Rowdy. Junior feels triumphant until he sees the Wellpinit players' faces after their defeat and remembers the difficulties they face at home and their lack of hope for a future; ashamed, he runs to the locker room, where he vomits and then breaks down in tears. Later, Junior receives news of the death of his sister and her husband who were killed in a fire at their trailer.
In the course of the year, Junior and his family suffered many tragedies, many related to alcohol abuse. These events test Junior's sense of hope for a better future and make him wonder about the darker aspects of reservation culture. Furthermore, the protagonist is torn between the need to fit in his new, all-white school and holding on to his Indian heritage, leading him to face criticism from his own community. Despite these challenges, they also help him see how much his family and his new friends love him, and he learns to see himself as both Indian and American. Meanwhile, Rowdy realizes that Junior is the only nomad on the reservation, which makes him more of a "traditional" Indian than everyone else in town. In the end, Junior and Rowdy reconcile while playing basketball and resolve to correspond no matter where the future takes them.
Background[edit]
Author, Sherman Alexie, at the Texas Book Festival in 2008The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is semi-autobiographical.[8] The novel started as a section of Sherman Alexie's family memoir, but after the persistence of a young adult editor, he decided to use it as a basis for his first young adult novel.[9] Sherman Alexie commented, "If I were to guess at the percentage, it would be about seventy-eight percent true." [10] Like Arnold, Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Reservation in Wellpinit with an alcoholic father.[2][11] He was also born with hydrocephalus, but Alexie did not have any speech impediments.[12]Alexie was also teased for his government-issued, horn-rimmed glasses and nicknamed "The Globe" by fellow students because of his giant head.[2] Another similarity between Alexie and his character Arnold is that Alexie also left the reservation to attend high school at Reardan High, but Alexie chose to go to Reardan to achieve the required credits he needed to go to college.[2] Alexie became the star player of Reardan's basketball team, and was the only Indian on the team besides the school's team mascot.[2] The scene where Arnold finds that he is using the same textbook his mother did thirty years before him is drawn from Alexie's own experiences. The only difference from Alexie's life and the novel is that Alexie threw the book against the wall out of anger, and did not hit anyone like Junior did.[10]
In his own writing, Alexie unapologetically describes himself as "kind of mixed up, kind of odd, not traditional. I'm a rez kid who's gone urban, and that's what I write about. I have never pretended to be otherwise."[13] "A smart Indian is a dangerous person," Alexie states in a personal essay, "[a smart Indian is] widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike." [14] Junior encapsulates this type of experience when he receives strong censure both from his tribal community and from his peers and teachers at his new school, Reardan. In the personal story, Alexie's continued explanation of his own experience is reflected in Junior's.[14] Alexie recalls, "I fought with my classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers….[W]e were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. …[W]e were expected to fail in the non-Indian world." [14] Through Junior's success at Reardan and his realizations about life on the reservation, Alexie represents a possibility for the success of Native American children—by defeating the expectation that he is doomed to fail, Junior crosses social boundaries and defeats unfavorable odds.[14] Alexie's reflections again demonstrate that Junior's experiences are semi-autobiographical.
Characters[edit]Arnold Spirit Jr.
Nicknamed Junior, Arnold is a fourteen-year-old boy who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He enjoys playing basketball and drawing cartoons in his free time. Junior and his family, along with the others on the reservation, feel the daily effects of poverty and financial shortcomings—there is often not enough food to eat in their home or enough money to fill the gas tank in the car, forcing him to hitchhike to school or not go at all. He is incredibly smart; he transfers from the school on the reservation to Reardan, where almost all the students are white.
Agnes Adams (Junior's Mom)
A Spokane Indian, Agnes has lived on the reservation her entire life. She is a bad liar, likes to read books, and is considered to be very smart by her children. She is an ex-alcoholic and is seen as eccentric by Junior: "She's a human tape recorder," Junior explains, "Really, my mom can read the newspaper in fifteen minutes and tell me baseball scores, the location of every war, the latest guy to win the lottery, and the high temperature in Des Moines, Iowa."[a]
Arnold Spirit Sr. (Junior's Dad)
An alcoholic, but very supportive. Even though he sometimes disappears, he tries to take care of his family and he often drives Junior to Reardan. He plays the piano, the guitar and the saxophone. He could have been a jazz musician, if he had had more time and money.[a]
Mr. P
Junior's white geometry teacher at Wellpinit High School. He mentored Mary, Junior's older sister, and wants to help Junior leave the reservation. Mr. P regrets the way he treated his students when he was younger. He had been taught to beat the Indian out of the children. He is short and bald. Incredibly absent minded, he often forgets to come to school, but "he doesn't expect much of [his students]."[b] A major turning point in Diary's plot occurs when Junior throws his math book at Mr. P after a realization about the reservation's poverty.
Rowdy
Rowdy is Junior's best friend.[15] He is "long and lean & strong like a snake."[c] Throughout the novel, Rowdy's father abuses him, which leads to his bully-like behavior. He likes reading comics, such as Archie. The comics help him escape the troubles of the real world. Junior and Rowdy have been the best of friends since they were little, and Rowdy has often taken on the role of Junior's protector. However, as Junior leaves the reservation school, Rowdy feels betrayed by his best friend and turns into Junior's "arch nemesis" during the novel.[15] Even though Rowdy develops a passionate hatred for Junior through the betrayal he felt, they are able to eventually overcome their situation and become friends again by the end of the novel.
Mary
Junior's sister. Mary has long hair and is nicknamed "Mary Runs Away". She likes to write romance stories and is considered by Junior to be "beautiful and strong and funny". She was smart, but did not have the skills to get a job.[d]After high school, she did not go to college or get a job; instead, she moved to Montana with her new husband she met at the reservation casino. Mary and her new husband die of a fire in their trailer-home after a partygoer forgot about a boiling pot of soup. A curtain drifted onto the hot plate and the trailer was quickly engulfed. Junior was told that Mary never woke up because she was too drunk.
Roger
Roger is a jock at Reardan High School. Upon meeting Junior, Roger uses racial slurs to demean him, and Junior then punches him in the face. Contrary to Junior's expectations, Roger then begins to respect Junior, and the two gradually become friends. Furthermore, Roger obtains a role as a kind of advisor and protector of Junior, occasionally helping him monetarily and other times with advice.
Gordy
Gordy is a student who attends Reardan, wears glasses, and does everything in the name of science. Gordy always speaks in a sophisticated and proper manner throughout the novel. He is one of the smartest students at the school and he eventually becomes Junior's first real friend at Reardan. Gordy also helps Junior with schoolwork and encourages his enjoyment of reading books.
Penelope
Junior's crush and good friend from Reardan High. She has blonde hair and Junior thinks that she is very attractive. She enjoys helping others, is bulimic, and has a racist father named Earl. She is popular and plays on the Reardan volleyball team. She is obsessed with leaving the small town behind and traveling the world.
Eugene
The best friend of Junior's father. "Eugene was a nice guy, and like an uncle to me, but he was drunk all the time,"[e]Junior reveals. He becomes an Emergency Medical Technician(EMT) for the tribal ambulance service, and, for a brief time, drives a 1946 Indian Chief Roadmaster. Eugene dies after his close friend Bobby shoots him in the face during a dispute over alcohol. Bobby hangs himself in jail.
Grandmother Spirit
Junior's Grandma. She is Junior's source of advice and support, until she dies after being hit by a drunk driver while walking on the side of the road on her way home after a powwow. Her dying words were "Forgive him," which meant that she wanted her family to forgive the drunk driver, Gerald, for hitting and killing her. Ironically, she never had a drink in her life. She was also extremely tolerant and loving of all people. Junior's grandma is his favorite person in the world. "My grandmother's last act on earth was a call for forgiveness, love, and tolerance," Junior recalls on page 157.[f]
Coach
The coach of the basketball team at Reardan High School. Unlike the teachers who are apprehensive of Junior's attendance at Reardan, the coach pays no attention to Junior's race. He is supportive of Junior both on and off the court.[g] The coach becomes a father figure for Junior in many ways, but also becomes an exemplary friend, helping Junior through difficult times dealing with playing against his home reservation.Themes and Symbolism[edit]Hope and dreams[edit]Throughout the novel, Junior shares his dreams with the readers. In the first chapter, he dreams of becoming a cartoon artist in order to get rich and escape the cycles of poverty and abuse on the reservation. The idea that hope exists off the rez is echoed in later chapters, where Junior finds himself caught between home on the reservation and pursuing his dreams in the outside world. Junior asks his parents, "Who has the most hope?" to which they answer "White people".[h] The rez is characterized by lack of opportunity and poor education, the solution to which appears to lie in the Western world. Hence, the novel explores the theme of hope and dreams through Junior's struggles to find a path to break free of his seemingly doomed fate on the reservation.[16][citation needed]
Bullying[edit]Junior admits to being a target of bullying due to his appearance and medical history (lisp, seizures, water on the brain). He reveals this information in a way that is both comical and sympathetic; he invites readers to share and relate to his experience being bullied. After transferring to Reardan High School, Junior must also deal with being the only poor Native American student in a school full of rich white people, and he must deal with the pressures of keeping up appearances for fear of losing his peers’ social acceptance.
Violence[edit]Junior lives under the constant threat of physical violence. Although he attempts to assuage the threat through his drawings and light-hearted approach to the problem, he is nevertheless subjected to regular beatings by members of the reservation, including the adults. Violence serves as a form of communication in the reservation; Junior believes it is the Native Americans' acknowledgement that they are going nowhere that fuels their violence. Thus, as is true with Rowdy, physical violence is also communicative.
Poverty[edit]Poverty is a theme that is introduced by the main character at the very beginning on the book. Junior knows that his family is poor, just as every other family who lives on the reservation. Junior and his family often go without meals for extended periods of time, and therefore savor the meals that they do get. The death of Oscar, the canine best friend of Junior, is shot by his father because their family can't afford to pay the veterinarian bills. The poverty disparity is also evident when Junior transfers schools to Reardan and notices the difference in quality of clothing between him and his rich, white peers. He even, on occasion, walks to and from school because his family doesn't have the gas or transportation to get him there and home. Ashamed of economic status, Junior does everything in his power to ensure that none of his peers find out that his family is poor, such as making excuses, lying, and borrowing money.
Race[edit]The novel uses humorous narratives and comics to convey the theme of race. It explores racial issues such as stereotyping of Native and White people, the use of indigenous culture as sports mascots, interracial friendships, and cultural tokenization. For example, Junior notes that the only other "Indian" at Reardan was its school mascot, calling attention to the ubiquitous use of indigenous symbols in sports (see "List of sports team names and mascots derived from indigenous peoples"). Although Junior often dichotomizes Whites and Indians, Alexie reveals the stereotyping that occurs while still blurring the lines between races. Junior eventually establishes friendship with many of the White Reardan students, who see past race and accept him for his caring nature, his intelligence, and his basketball talents.
Alcohol abuse[edit]Alcohol abuse is an issue salient to the Spokane reservation.[17] It is directly responsible for the character deaths in the novel and the deaths of most of the Indians on the reservation.[i] The novel highlights the destructive nature of alcohol abuse and its major contribution to the stagnation of progression at the reservation and dysfunction of the family. Junior voices his disapproval for its widespread use and considers it to be directly responsible for much of the disarray in his own family.
The portrayal of alcoholism in the novel is representative of the problem Native Americans have with the use of alcohol. Much of Alexie's desire to explore and address the issue of alcoholism derives from his own experiences with alcohol on the reservation. When asked if he feels the need to address alcoholism as a Native American, he replied "the whole race is filled with alcoholics. For those Indians who try to pretend it's a stereotype, they're in deep, deep denial," and by addressing it that "with the social hope that by writing about it, maybe it'll help people get sober, and it has." [18]
Friendship[edit]The centerpiece of the novel is the friendship between Junior and Rowdy, which frames the novel. In the first chapter, Junior says, "Rowdy might be the most important person in my life. Maybe more important than my family."[j] In the absence of his drunk, emotionally-distant father and eccentric mother, Junior finds solace in Rowdy. But as the novel progresses, Junior begins to make friends at Reardan High and learns just how crucial it is to build new relationships with different people, as they each serve an important role or function in his life.[k]
Writing and literature[edit]Writing and literature play important roles in the lives of Junior, Rowdy, and Mary. Rowdy reads comics as a way to escape from his abusive, dysfunctional home: "He likes to pretend he lives in comic books," Alexie reveals.[l] Similarly, Mary reads and writes romance novels in order to escape (and run away) from her equally harsh reality. In contrast, Junior draws cartoons and writes because it makes him feel important and is his way of communicating with the world. Alexie furthers the distinction between Junior on Mary on page 46—he writes, "My sister is running away to get lost, but I am running away because I want to find something."[19] Alexie's commentary on Junior's perspective (through drawings, dialogue, and Junior's own views on literature) highlights Junior's ambitiousness, curiosity, and drive. In essence, writing, drawing, and reading are activities that are cathartic to Rowdy, Mary, and Junior. These outlets function as coping mechanisms to make the dysfunction, violence, and abuse in the characters' lives more bearable.
Oscar[edit]Oscar is Junior's stray mutt, best friend, and "the only living thing he can depend on."[m] He is euthanized by Junior's father at the beginning of the novel because they are unable to afford to take him to a vet. Oscar is a symbol of the struggles and consequences of being poor. Junior's inability to aid his friend reminds him of the poverty he believes he is destined to inherit.[n] However, Oscar's death is also a turning point for Junior, as it acts as a catalyst for his realization and change.
Basketball[edit]In the novel, basketball is a symbol of improvement. Before his arrival to Reardan, Junior was, by his own words, "a decent player."[o] While at Reardan, Junior improves because of the expectations set by his coach and teammates, and becomes a valuable asset to the team. By the end of the novel, Junior believes he will be able to beat Rowdy someday. The transformation Junior undergoes through the sport is a testament of his will-power and dedication to better himself.
Family[edit]Family takes significance part in this book. Even Junior's family are poor, they always supported him and he mentioned that they are the only people who listen to him. His sister sends letters and gives him hope. His dad, who is alcoholic, saved five dollars for him. Junior knows that it is easy for his father to spend that five dollars on alcohol but the fact that he saved it for him made him feel special. This shows that money is not everything to become happy.
Reception[edit]Reviews[edit]Bruce Barcott of The New York Times said in a 2007 review, "For 15 years now, Sherman Alexie has explored the struggle to survive between the grinding plates of the Indian and white worlds. He's done it through various characters and genres, but The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian may be his best work yet. Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home."[20]
The New York Times opined that this was Alexie's "first foray into the young adult genre, and it took him only one book to master it."[20] The San Francisco Chronicle praised it as "[a] great book full of pain, but luckily, the pain is spiked with joy and humor."[21]
Reviewers also commented on Alexie's treatment of difficult issues. Delia Santos, a publisher for the civilrights.org page, noted, "Alexie fuses words and images to depict the difficult journey many Native Americans face. … Although Junior is a young adult, he must face the reality of living in utter poverty, contend with the discrimination of those outside of the reservation, cope with a community and a family ravaged and often killed by alcoholism, break cultural barriers at an all-White high school, and maintain the perseverance needed to hope and work for a better future."[22][23] Andrew Fersch, a publisher for Vail Daily, commented, "most folks block out most of their teenage memory, [while] Alexie embraced it with humor."[24]
In another review published in November 2016 by Dakota Student website, author Breanna Roen says that she has never seen the way that this book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, conveys so much happiness, love, and grief.[25] Alexie's work in this novel can’t be compared to other Native American books; it is "a whole different ball game," Roen asserts.[25] The review continues to state that the theme regarding identity, home, race, poverty, tradition, friendship, hope and success is seen throughout the entire book, leaving the readers on the edge of their seats and wanting more.[25]Roen says that she could hardly put the book down and is avidly looking for something similar.[25]
In the review, "A Brave Life: The Real Struggles of a Native American Boy make an Uplifting Story" published in The Guardian, author Diane Samuels says that Alexie's book has a "combination of drawings, pithy turns of phrase, candor, tragedy, despair and hope … [that] makes this more than an entertaining read, more than an engaging story about a North American Indian kid who makes it out of a poor, dead-end background without losing his connection with who he is and where he's from."[26] In some areas, Samuels criticizes Alexie's stylistic reliance on the cartoons.[26] However, she continues to say that for the most part, Sherman Alexie has a talent for capturing the details and overview in a well-developed and snappy way.[26] Samuels finishes her review by stating that: "Opening this book is like meeting a friend you'd never make in your actual life and being given a piece of his world, inner and outer. It's humane, authentic and, most of all, it speaks."[26]
In the review "Using The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to Teach About Racial Formation", Miami Universityprofessor Kevin Talbert says that Alexie chose to narrate the story through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Junior to transport his readers into "uncomfortable or incongruent spaces."[27] He continues to say that the novel's writing allows for topics about class and racial struggles to be intertwined with more common adolescent struggles like sexual desires, controlling hormones, and managing relationships with friends and family. Furthermore, Talbert believes that, unlike other Young Adult novels, this book captures issues of race and class in a way that reaches a wider audience.[27] The article also states that Junior's narration in the novel sends a message to society, "that adolescents have important things to say, that being fourteen years old matters."[27]
Critical Interpretation[edit]Dr. Bryan Ripley Crandall, director of the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University, posits in his critical essay "Adding a Disability Perspective When Reading Adolescent Literature: Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" that the book presents a progressive view of disability.[28] Arnold has what he calls "water on the brain", which would correctly be referred to as hydrocephalus. Crandall points out that Arnold is never held back by his disability, but in fact laughs at himself: "With my big feet and pencil body, I looked like a capital L walking down the road."[1] According to Crandall, the illustrations by Ellen Forney, which are meant to be the cartoons that Arnold draws, represent a new way for the disabled narrator to communicate with the readers: they "initiate further interpretations and conversations about how students perceive others who are not like them, especially individuals with disabilities."[28] Arnold's hydrocephaly doesn't prevent him from becoming a basketball star at his new school. His disability fades as a plot device as the book progresses.[1]
David Goldstein, in his paper "Sacred Hoop Dreams: Basketball in the Work of Sherman Alexie", analyses the importance of basketball in the novel. He suggests that it represents "the tensions between traditional lifeways and contemporary social realities."[29] According to Goldstein, Junior/Arnold sees losing at basketball as "losing at life." The Reardan kids are eternal winners because of their victories on the court: "Those kids were magnificent."[1] Goldstein notes how basketball is also a sport of poverty in America — "it costs virtually nothing to play, and so is appropriate for the reservation."[29]
Nerida Weyland's article, "Representations of Happiness in Comedic Young Adult Fiction: Happy Are the Wretched" describes how Junior/Arnold is an example of the complex, not-innocent child often presented in modern young adult literature.[30] As detailed in Alyson Miller's "Unsuited to Age Group: The Scandals of Children's Literature," society has created an "innocence of the idealized child"; Alexie's protagonist is the opposite of this figure.
According to Weyland, Alexie doesn’t play by the rules – the use of humor in the book is directed at established "power hierarchies, dominant social ideologies or topics deemed taboo".[30] Weyland suggests that the outsized effect of this feature of the book is revealed in the controversy its publication caused, as it was banned and challenged in schools all over the country.[30] Weyland states that Alexie's book with Forney's black-comedy illustrations explore themes of "racial tension, domestic violence, and social injustice" in a never-before-done way.[30] As an example, Alexie uses the anecdote of the killing of Junior's dog, Oscar, to expand on the idea of social mobility, or lack thereof – Junior states that he understood why the dog had to be killed rather than taken to the vet, because his parents were poor and they "came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people."[30][31] Weyland notes how readers are likely to be uncomfortable with Junior/Arnold/Alexie making light of topics of such importance (racism, poverty, alcoholism) through the use of dark comedy.[30]
First edition cover
AuthorSherman Alexie
IllustratorEllen Forney
Cover artistKirk Benshoff
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreYoung adult fiction
PublisherLittle, Brown and Company
Publication dateSeptember 12, 2007[1]
Media typePrint (hardcover & paperback)
Pages230
ISBN978-0-316-01368-0
OCLC154698238
LC ClassPZ7.A382 Ab 2007The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a novel by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Ellen Forney. The book won several awards, and was the first young adult fiction work by Alexie, a stand-up comedian, screenwriter, film producer, and songwriter who has previously written adult novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays.[2][3] Alexie stated, "I [wrote the book] because so many librarians, teachers, and teenagers kept asking me to write one."
Despite the novel's high acclaim and several achievements, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has also received a lot of objections and has consistently appeared on the annual list of frequently challenged books since 2008.[5] The controversy stems from the novel’s discussion of alcohol, poverty, bullying, violence, sexuality, profanity and slurs related to homosexuality and mental disability. As a result, some schools have banned the book from school libraries or inclusion in curricula.[6]
The Absolutely True Diary is a first-person narrative from the perspective of Native American teenager Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior", a 14-year-old budding cartoonist.[3] The book is a coming of age story, detailing Junior's life on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and his decision to go to an all-white public high school off the reservation. The graphic novel includes 65 comic illustrations that help further the plot.[7]
Contents [show]
Plot[edit]The book follows Junior, a fourteen-year-old boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation near Wellpinit, Washington for a school year. It is told in episodic diary style, moving from the start of the school year to the beginning of summer. It includes both Junior's written record of his life and his cartoon drawings, some of them comically commenting on his situations, and others more seriously depicting important people in his life.
The current Spokane Indian reservationThe Absolutely True Diary begins by introducing Junior's birth defects, including the fact that he was born with hydrocephalus and therefore is small for his age and suffers from seizures, poor eyesight, stuttering, and a lisp. As a result, Junior has always been picked on by other people on the reservation. Junior’s family is extremely poor and have limited access to opportunities. When Junior's dog Oscar gets heat stroke, his father must put him down because they cannot afford to take him to a veterinarian. Junior's only child friend is Rowdy, a classmate who is abused at home and is known as a bully on the reservation. Despite his intimidating role, Rowdy often stands up for Junior and they bond by enjoying kids' comics.
Junior's first day of high school is pivotal to the plot of the novel. When Mr. P, his geometry teacher, passes him his textbook, he sees his mother’s name in it, realizing that the book must be at least 30 years old. Angered and saddened by the fact that the reservation is so poor that it cannot afford new textbooks, Junior violently throws the book, which hits Mr. P's face, breaking his nose. When he visits Junior at home, Mr. P convinces Junior to transfer to Reardan High School, sensing a degree of precociousness in the young teenager. The town of Reardan is far wealthier than Wellpinit—Junior is the only Indian at Reardan besides the team mascot.[3] Although Junior's family is poor, and although the school is 22 miles away and transportation is unreliable, they support him and do what they can to make it possible for him to stay in the new school. Rowdy, however, is upset by Junior's decision to transfer, and the once-best friends have very little contact during the year.
Junior develops a crush on the school's most popular white girl, Penelope, and becomes study friends with an intelligent student named Gordy. His interactions with the white students give him a better perspective both on white culture and his own. He realizes how much stronger his family ties are than those of his white classmates, noticing that many of the white fathers never come to their children's school events. Junior also realizes that the white students have different rules than those he grew up with, which is evident when he reacts to an insult from the school's star athlete, Roger, by punching him in the face. Junior hit him, as he would have been expected to do on the reservation, and he expects Roger to get revenge. But Roger never does; in fact, Roger and his friends show Junior more respect. Junior also gets closer to Penelope, which makes him more popular with the other girls at the school.
Roger suggests that Junior try out for the basketball team, and to Junior's surprise, he makes the varsity team, which pits him against his former school, Wellpinit, and specifically Rowdy, who is Wellpinit's star freshman. Their first match demonstrates to Junior just how angry the reservation people are at him for transferring: when he enters the court, they boo and insult him. During the game, Rowdy elbows Junior in the head and knocks him unconscious. While suffering some injuries from the game, Junior and his coach become closer as Coach tells him that he admires Junior's commitment to the team. Later on, his grandmother, who Junior looks up to the most on the reservation, is hit and killed by a drunk driver. After his grandmother's funeral, a family friend, Eugene, is shot in the face by his friend Bobby after fighting over alcohol. After grieving and reflecting on his loved ones' deaths, Junior plays in his basketball team's second match against Wellpinit. Reardan wins and Junior gets to block Rowdy. Junior feels triumphant until he sees the Wellpinit players' faces after their defeat and remembers the difficulties they face at home and their lack of hope for a future; ashamed, he runs to the locker room, where he vomits and then breaks down in tears. Later, Junior receives news of the death of his sister and her husband who were killed in a fire at their trailer.
In the course of the year, Junior and his family suffered many tragedies, many related to alcohol abuse. These events test Junior's sense of hope for a better future and make him wonder about the darker aspects of reservation culture. Furthermore, the protagonist is torn between the need to fit in his new, all-white school and holding on to his Indian heritage, leading him to face criticism from his own community. Despite these challenges, they also help him see how much his family and his new friends love him, and he learns to see himself as both Indian and American. Meanwhile, Rowdy realizes that Junior is the only nomad on the reservation, which makes him more of a "traditional" Indian than everyone else in town. In the end, Junior and Rowdy reconcile while playing basketball and resolve to correspond no matter where the future takes them.
Background[edit]
Author, Sherman Alexie, at the Texas Book Festival in 2008The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is semi-autobiographical.[8] The novel started as a section of Sherman Alexie's family memoir, but after the persistence of a young adult editor, he decided to use it as a basis for his first young adult novel.[9] Sherman Alexie commented, "If I were to guess at the percentage, it would be about seventy-eight percent true." [10] Like Arnold, Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Reservation in Wellpinit with an alcoholic father.[2][11] He was also born with hydrocephalus, but Alexie did not have any speech impediments.[12]Alexie was also teased for his government-issued, horn-rimmed glasses and nicknamed "The Globe" by fellow students because of his giant head.[2] Another similarity between Alexie and his character Arnold is that Alexie also left the reservation to attend high school at Reardan High, but Alexie chose to go to Reardan to achieve the required credits he needed to go to college.[2] Alexie became the star player of Reardan's basketball team, and was the only Indian on the team besides the school's team mascot.[2] The scene where Arnold finds that he is using the same textbook his mother did thirty years before him is drawn from Alexie's own experiences. The only difference from Alexie's life and the novel is that Alexie threw the book against the wall out of anger, and did not hit anyone like Junior did.[10]
In his own writing, Alexie unapologetically describes himself as "kind of mixed up, kind of odd, not traditional. I'm a rez kid who's gone urban, and that's what I write about. I have never pretended to be otherwise."[13] "A smart Indian is a dangerous person," Alexie states in a personal essay, "[a smart Indian is] widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike." [14] Junior encapsulates this type of experience when he receives strong censure both from his tribal community and from his peers and teachers at his new school, Reardan. In the personal story, Alexie's continued explanation of his own experience is reflected in Junior's.[14] Alexie recalls, "I fought with my classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers….[W]e were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. …[W]e were expected to fail in the non-Indian world." [14] Through Junior's success at Reardan and his realizations about life on the reservation, Alexie represents a possibility for the success of Native American children—by defeating the expectation that he is doomed to fail, Junior crosses social boundaries and defeats unfavorable odds.[14] Alexie's reflections again demonstrate that Junior's experiences are semi-autobiographical.
Characters[edit]Arnold Spirit Jr.
Nicknamed Junior, Arnold is a fourteen-year-old boy who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He enjoys playing basketball and drawing cartoons in his free time. Junior and his family, along with the others on the reservation, feel the daily effects of poverty and financial shortcomings—there is often not enough food to eat in their home or enough money to fill the gas tank in the car, forcing him to hitchhike to school or not go at all. He is incredibly smart; he transfers from the school on the reservation to Reardan, where almost all the students are white.
Agnes Adams (Junior's Mom)
A Spokane Indian, Agnes has lived on the reservation her entire life. She is a bad liar, likes to read books, and is considered to be very smart by her children. She is an ex-alcoholic and is seen as eccentric by Junior: "She's a human tape recorder," Junior explains, "Really, my mom can read the newspaper in fifteen minutes and tell me baseball scores, the location of every war, the latest guy to win the lottery, and the high temperature in Des Moines, Iowa."[a]
Arnold Spirit Sr. (Junior's Dad)
An alcoholic, but very supportive. Even though he sometimes disappears, he tries to take care of his family and he often drives Junior to Reardan. He plays the piano, the guitar and the saxophone. He could have been a jazz musician, if he had had more time and money.[a]
Mr. P
Junior's white geometry teacher at Wellpinit High School. He mentored Mary, Junior's older sister, and wants to help Junior leave the reservation. Mr. P regrets the way he treated his students when he was younger. He had been taught to beat the Indian out of the children. He is short and bald. Incredibly absent minded, he often forgets to come to school, but "he doesn't expect much of [his students]."[b] A major turning point in Diary's plot occurs when Junior throws his math book at Mr. P after a realization about the reservation's poverty.
Rowdy
Rowdy is Junior's best friend.[15] He is "long and lean & strong like a snake."[c] Throughout the novel, Rowdy's father abuses him, which leads to his bully-like behavior. He likes reading comics, such as Archie. The comics help him escape the troubles of the real world. Junior and Rowdy have been the best of friends since they were little, and Rowdy has often taken on the role of Junior's protector. However, as Junior leaves the reservation school, Rowdy feels betrayed by his best friend and turns into Junior's "arch nemesis" during the novel.[15] Even though Rowdy develops a passionate hatred for Junior through the betrayal he felt, they are able to eventually overcome their situation and become friends again by the end of the novel.
Mary
Junior's sister. Mary has long hair and is nicknamed "Mary Runs Away". She likes to write romance stories and is considered by Junior to be "beautiful and strong and funny". She was smart, but did not have the skills to get a job.[d]After high school, she did not go to college or get a job; instead, she moved to Montana with her new husband she met at the reservation casino. Mary and her new husband die of a fire in their trailer-home after a partygoer forgot about a boiling pot of soup. A curtain drifted onto the hot plate and the trailer was quickly engulfed. Junior was told that Mary never woke up because she was too drunk.
Roger
Roger is a jock at Reardan High School. Upon meeting Junior, Roger uses racial slurs to demean him, and Junior then punches him in the face. Contrary to Junior's expectations, Roger then begins to respect Junior, and the two gradually become friends. Furthermore, Roger obtains a role as a kind of advisor and protector of Junior, occasionally helping him monetarily and other times with advice.
Gordy
Gordy is a student who attends Reardan, wears glasses, and does everything in the name of science. Gordy always speaks in a sophisticated and proper manner throughout the novel. He is one of the smartest students at the school and he eventually becomes Junior's first real friend at Reardan. Gordy also helps Junior with schoolwork and encourages his enjoyment of reading books.
Penelope
Junior's crush and good friend from Reardan High. She has blonde hair and Junior thinks that she is very attractive. She enjoys helping others, is bulimic, and has a racist father named Earl. She is popular and plays on the Reardan volleyball team. She is obsessed with leaving the small town behind and traveling the world.
Eugene
The best friend of Junior's father. "Eugene was a nice guy, and like an uncle to me, but he was drunk all the time,"[e]Junior reveals. He becomes an Emergency Medical Technician(EMT) for the tribal ambulance service, and, for a brief time, drives a 1946 Indian Chief Roadmaster. Eugene dies after his close friend Bobby shoots him in the face during a dispute over alcohol. Bobby hangs himself in jail.
Grandmother Spirit
Junior's Grandma. She is Junior's source of advice and support, until she dies after being hit by a drunk driver while walking on the side of the road on her way home after a powwow. Her dying words were "Forgive him," which meant that she wanted her family to forgive the drunk driver, Gerald, for hitting and killing her. Ironically, she never had a drink in her life. She was also extremely tolerant and loving of all people. Junior's grandma is his favorite person in the world. "My grandmother's last act on earth was a call for forgiveness, love, and tolerance," Junior recalls on page 157.[f]
Coach
The coach of the basketball team at Reardan High School. Unlike the teachers who are apprehensive of Junior's attendance at Reardan, the coach pays no attention to Junior's race. He is supportive of Junior both on and off the court.[g] The coach becomes a father figure for Junior in many ways, but also becomes an exemplary friend, helping Junior through difficult times dealing with playing against his home reservation.Themes and Symbolism[edit]Hope and dreams[edit]Throughout the novel, Junior shares his dreams with the readers. In the first chapter, he dreams of becoming a cartoon artist in order to get rich and escape the cycles of poverty and abuse on the reservation. The idea that hope exists off the rez is echoed in later chapters, where Junior finds himself caught between home on the reservation and pursuing his dreams in the outside world. Junior asks his parents, "Who has the most hope?" to which they answer "White people".[h] The rez is characterized by lack of opportunity and poor education, the solution to which appears to lie in the Western world. Hence, the novel explores the theme of hope and dreams through Junior's struggles to find a path to break free of his seemingly doomed fate on the reservation.[16][citation needed]
Bullying[edit]Junior admits to being a target of bullying due to his appearance and medical history (lisp, seizures, water on the brain). He reveals this information in a way that is both comical and sympathetic; he invites readers to share and relate to his experience being bullied. After transferring to Reardan High School, Junior must also deal with being the only poor Native American student in a school full of rich white people, and he must deal with the pressures of keeping up appearances for fear of losing his peers’ social acceptance.
Violence[edit]Junior lives under the constant threat of physical violence. Although he attempts to assuage the threat through his drawings and light-hearted approach to the problem, he is nevertheless subjected to regular beatings by members of the reservation, including the adults. Violence serves as a form of communication in the reservation; Junior believes it is the Native Americans' acknowledgement that they are going nowhere that fuels their violence. Thus, as is true with Rowdy, physical violence is also communicative.
Poverty[edit]Poverty is a theme that is introduced by the main character at the very beginning on the book. Junior knows that his family is poor, just as every other family who lives on the reservation. Junior and his family often go without meals for extended periods of time, and therefore savor the meals that they do get. The death of Oscar, the canine best friend of Junior, is shot by his father because their family can't afford to pay the veterinarian bills. The poverty disparity is also evident when Junior transfers schools to Reardan and notices the difference in quality of clothing between him and his rich, white peers. He even, on occasion, walks to and from school because his family doesn't have the gas or transportation to get him there and home. Ashamed of economic status, Junior does everything in his power to ensure that none of his peers find out that his family is poor, such as making excuses, lying, and borrowing money.
Race[edit]The novel uses humorous narratives and comics to convey the theme of race. It explores racial issues such as stereotyping of Native and White people, the use of indigenous culture as sports mascots, interracial friendships, and cultural tokenization. For example, Junior notes that the only other "Indian" at Reardan was its school mascot, calling attention to the ubiquitous use of indigenous symbols in sports (see "List of sports team names and mascots derived from indigenous peoples"). Although Junior often dichotomizes Whites and Indians, Alexie reveals the stereotyping that occurs while still blurring the lines between races. Junior eventually establishes friendship with many of the White Reardan students, who see past race and accept him for his caring nature, his intelligence, and his basketball talents.
Alcohol abuse[edit]Alcohol abuse is an issue salient to the Spokane reservation.[17] It is directly responsible for the character deaths in the novel and the deaths of most of the Indians on the reservation.[i] The novel highlights the destructive nature of alcohol abuse and its major contribution to the stagnation of progression at the reservation and dysfunction of the family. Junior voices his disapproval for its widespread use and considers it to be directly responsible for much of the disarray in his own family.
The portrayal of alcoholism in the novel is representative of the problem Native Americans have with the use of alcohol. Much of Alexie's desire to explore and address the issue of alcoholism derives from his own experiences with alcohol on the reservation. When asked if he feels the need to address alcoholism as a Native American, he replied "the whole race is filled with alcoholics. For those Indians who try to pretend it's a stereotype, they're in deep, deep denial," and by addressing it that "with the social hope that by writing about it, maybe it'll help people get sober, and it has." [18]
Friendship[edit]The centerpiece of the novel is the friendship between Junior and Rowdy, which frames the novel. In the first chapter, Junior says, "Rowdy might be the most important person in my life. Maybe more important than my family."[j] In the absence of his drunk, emotionally-distant father and eccentric mother, Junior finds solace in Rowdy. But as the novel progresses, Junior begins to make friends at Reardan High and learns just how crucial it is to build new relationships with different people, as they each serve an important role or function in his life.[k]
Writing and literature[edit]Writing and literature play important roles in the lives of Junior, Rowdy, and Mary. Rowdy reads comics as a way to escape from his abusive, dysfunctional home: "He likes to pretend he lives in comic books," Alexie reveals.[l] Similarly, Mary reads and writes romance novels in order to escape (and run away) from her equally harsh reality. In contrast, Junior draws cartoons and writes because it makes him feel important and is his way of communicating with the world. Alexie furthers the distinction between Junior on Mary on page 46—he writes, "My sister is running away to get lost, but I am running away because I want to find something."[19] Alexie's commentary on Junior's perspective (through drawings, dialogue, and Junior's own views on literature) highlights Junior's ambitiousness, curiosity, and drive. In essence, writing, drawing, and reading are activities that are cathartic to Rowdy, Mary, and Junior. These outlets function as coping mechanisms to make the dysfunction, violence, and abuse in the characters' lives more bearable.
Oscar[edit]Oscar is Junior's stray mutt, best friend, and "the only living thing he can depend on."[m] He is euthanized by Junior's father at the beginning of the novel because they are unable to afford to take him to a vet. Oscar is a symbol of the struggles and consequences of being poor. Junior's inability to aid his friend reminds him of the poverty he believes he is destined to inherit.[n] However, Oscar's death is also a turning point for Junior, as it acts as a catalyst for his realization and change.
Basketball[edit]In the novel, basketball is a symbol of improvement. Before his arrival to Reardan, Junior was, by his own words, "a decent player."[o] While at Reardan, Junior improves because of the expectations set by his coach and teammates, and becomes a valuable asset to the team. By the end of the novel, Junior believes he will be able to beat Rowdy someday. The transformation Junior undergoes through the sport is a testament of his will-power and dedication to better himself.
Family[edit]Family takes significance part in this book. Even Junior's family are poor, they always supported him and he mentioned that they are the only people who listen to him. His sister sends letters and gives him hope. His dad, who is alcoholic, saved five dollars for him. Junior knows that it is easy for his father to spend that five dollars on alcohol but the fact that he saved it for him made him feel special. This shows that money is not everything to become happy.
Reception[edit]Reviews[edit]Bruce Barcott of The New York Times said in a 2007 review, "For 15 years now, Sherman Alexie has explored the struggle to survive between the grinding plates of the Indian and white worlds. He's done it through various characters and genres, but The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian may be his best work yet. Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home."[20]
The New York Times opined that this was Alexie's "first foray into the young adult genre, and it took him only one book to master it."[20] The San Francisco Chronicle praised it as "[a] great book full of pain, but luckily, the pain is spiked with joy and humor."[21]
Reviewers also commented on Alexie's treatment of difficult issues. Delia Santos, a publisher for the civilrights.org page, noted, "Alexie fuses words and images to depict the difficult journey many Native Americans face. … Although Junior is a young adult, he must face the reality of living in utter poverty, contend with the discrimination of those outside of the reservation, cope with a community and a family ravaged and often killed by alcoholism, break cultural barriers at an all-White high school, and maintain the perseverance needed to hope and work for a better future."[22][23] Andrew Fersch, a publisher for Vail Daily, commented, "most folks block out most of their teenage memory, [while] Alexie embraced it with humor."[24]
In another review published in November 2016 by Dakota Student website, author Breanna Roen says that she has never seen the way that this book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, conveys so much happiness, love, and grief.[25] Alexie's work in this novel can’t be compared to other Native American books; it is "a whole different ball game," Roen asserts.[25] The review continues to state that the theme regarding identity, home, race, poverty, tradition, friendship, hope and success is seen throughout the entire book, leaving the readers on the edge of their seats and wanting more.[25]Roen says that she could hardly put the book down and is avidly looking for something similar.[25]
In the review, "A Brave Life: The Real Struggles of a Native American Boy make an Uplifting Story" published in The Guardian, author Diane Samuels says that Alexie's book has a "combination of drawings, pithy turns of phrase, candor, tragedy, despair and hope … [that] makes this more than an entertaining read, more than an engaging story about a North American Indian kid who makes it out of a poor, dead-end background without losing his connection with who he is and where he's from."[26] In some areas, Samuels criticizes Alexie's stylistic reliance on the cartoons.[26] However, she continues to say that for the most part, Sherman Alexie has a talent for capturing the details and overview in a well-developed and snappy way.[26] Samuels finishes her review by stating that: "Opening this book is like meeting a friend you'd never make in your actual life and being given a piece of his world, inner and outer. It's humane, authentic and, most of all, it speaks."[26]
In the review "Using The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to Teach About Racial Formation", Miami Universityprofessor Kevin Talbert says that Alexie chose to narrate the story through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Junior to transport his readers into "uncomfortable or incongruent spaces."[27] He continues to say that the novel's writing allows for topics about class and racial struggles to be intertwined with more common adolescent struggles like sexual desires, controlling hormones, and managing relationships with friends and family. Furthermore, Talbert believes that, unlike other Young Adult novels, this book captures issues of race and class in a way that reaches a wider audience.[27] The article also states that Junior's narration in the novel sends a message to society, "that adolescents have important things to say, that being fourteen years old matters."[27]
Critical Interpretation[edit]Dr. Bryan Ripley Crandall, director of the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University, posits in his critical essay "Adding a Disability Perspective When Reading Adolescent Literature: Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" that the book presents a progressive view of disability.[28] Arnold has what he calls "water on the brain", which would correctly be referred to as hydrocephalus. Crandall points out that Arnold is never held back by his disability, but in fact laughs at himself: "With my big feet and pencil body, I looked like a capital L walking down the road."[1] According to Crandall, the illustrations by Ellen Forney, which are meant to be the cartoons that Arnold draws, represent a new way for the disabled narrator to communicate with the readers: they "initiate further interpretations and conversations about how students perceive others who are not like them, especially individuals with disabilities."[28] Arnold's hydrocephaly doesn't prevent him from becoming a basketball star at his new school. His disability fades as a plot device as the book progresses.[1]
David Goldstein, in his paper "Sacred Hoop Dreams: Basketball in the Work of Sherman Alexie", analyses the importance of basketball in the novel. He suggests that it represents "the tensions between traditional lifeways and contemporary social realities."[29] According to Goldstein, Junior/Arnold sees losing at basketball as "losing at life." The Reardan kids are eternal winners because of their victories on the court: "Those kids were magnificent."[1] Goldstein notes how basketball is also a sport of poverty in America — "it costs virtually nothing to play, and so is appropriate for the reservation."[29]
Nerida Weyland's article, "Representations of Happiness in Comedic Young Adult Fiction: Happy Are the Wretched" describes how Junior/Arnold is an example of the complex, not-innocent child often presented in modern young adult literature.[30] As detailed in Alyson Miller's "Unsuited to Age Group: The Scandals of Children's Literature," society has created an "innocence of the idealized child"; Alexie's protagonist is the opposite of this figure.
According to Weyland, Alexie doesn’t play by the rules – the use of humor in the book is directed at established "power hierarchies, dominant social ideologies or topics deemed taboo".[30] Weyland suggests that the outsized effect of this feature of the book is revealed in the controversy its publication caused, as it was banned and challenged in schools all over the country.[30] Weyland states that Alexie's book with Forney's black-comedy illustrations explore themes of "racial tension, domestic violence, and social injustice" in a never-before-done way.[30] As an example, Alexie uses the anecdote of the killing of Junior's dog, Oscar, to expand on the idea of social mobility, or lack thereof – Junior states that he understood why the dog had to be killed rather than taken to the vet, because his parents were poor and they "came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people."[30][31] Weyland notes how readers are likely to be uncomfortable with Junior/Arnold/Alexie making light of topics of such importance (racism, poverty, alcoholism) through the use of dark comedy.[30]
