Bibliography:
Alexie, S.(2007).The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown.
Book Summary
Arnold Spirit, otherwise known as Junior, doesn’t get the best start in life; he was born with “water in his brain”. Even though he survived the surgery that drained this water, he was not left entirely unscathed. He developed too many teeth, he had poor eye sight, he had seizures, his body parts were un-proportional and he had a “stutter and a lisp”. For someone who has such a bad start in life, one would expect him to cave under all the pressure. But Junior draws cartoons to all the time. He draws “because words are too unpredictable”. The cartoons are his way of expressing himself in an otherwise mangled world. Junior knows that life at the rez will not amount to much; the school is still using text books that are at least thirty year old. He decides to transfer to a neighboring school that has a track record of getting most of the kids to college. Unfortunately this is an all white school and being the only Indian in the school, Junior has a hard time fitting in but he doesn’t give up. Everyone at the rez, especially his former best friend Rowdy, thinks he is traitor because he chose to leave the rez and go to an all white school.
My Impression
The author uses a lot of humor to make Junior’s difficult life almost bearable. Junior is ready to overcome the cruel hand given to him by fate. Drawing cartoons is his way of escaping the rez. It metaphorically represents his eventual escape and freedom from this hopeless place that no one ever leaves. It keeps his mind off his problems and provides him with a venue to spread his wings and his imagination. He is free when he draws. When Arnold decides to change schools from the rez to an all white school in the neighboring town, he becomes a misfit in his own community. At his new school, Junior is an odd boy out. He is Indian and the only other Indian in the school is the mascot. The other students make fun of him, call him names, and ignore him at the beginning. The differences between life at the rez and Reardan are highlighted. We follow Junior’s struggle as he tries to balance the good and the bad in both places. The rez is a place of strong family unity and love; kids know each other’s family and parents never miss their children’s games. Reardan on the other hand is a place where “parents are missing in plain sight” even though people are rich and most of his classmates drive their own cars. These differences help the reader to see how much junior has to go through to maintain balance in his life and fit in with kids at both places. After he joins the basketball team, he gains popularity at Reardan and totally loses popularity at home on the rez. In the midst of all this we see a kid who is determined to rise above the limitations imposed on him by society. He has to contend with a falling out with his best friend, his drunkard father, the death of his grandmother, and the death of his father’s best friend. The death of his sister in almost an anticlimax, and yet it helps Junior slowly gain back his friendship with his best friend. The book gives kids a positive message: that it’s possible to rise up from dire situations such as poverty, racial differences, difficult families, loss of loved ones, and broken friendships and make something of their lives. This book is suitable for kids in grades 7-12.
Reviews
Publishers Weekly:
/* Starred Review */ Screenwriter, novelist and poet, Alexie bounds into YA with what might be a Native American equivalent of Angela’s Ashes, a coming-of-age story so well observed that its very rootedness in one specific culture is also what lends it universality, and so emotionally honest that the humor almost always proves painful. Presented as the diary of hydrocephalic 14-year-old cartoonist and Spokane Indian Arnold Spirit Jr., the novel revolves around Junior’s desperate hope of escaping the reservation. As he says of his drawings, “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.” He transfers to a public school 22 miles away in a rich farm town where the only other Indian is the team mascot. Although his parents support his decision, everyone else on the rez sees him as a traitor, an apple (“red on the outside and white on the inside”), while at school most teachers and students project stereotypes onto him: “I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other.” Readers begin to understand Junior’s determination as, over the course of the school year, alcoholism and self-destructive behaviors lead to the deaths of close relatives. Unlike protagonists in many YA novels who reclaim or retain ethnic ties in order to find their true selves, Junior must separate from his tribe in order to preserve his identity. Jazzy syntax and Forney’s witty cartoons examining Indian versus White attire and behavior transmute despair into dark humor; Alexie’s no-holds-barred jokes have the effect of throwing the seriousness of his themes into high relief. Ages 14-up. (Sept.) --Staff (Reviewed August 20, 2007) (Publishers Weekly, vol 254, issue 33, p70)
Use in a Library Setting
Ask the kids to discuss one theme from the book such as friendship, race and identity and how it influences Arnold’s life both at the rez and Reardan.
References/citations.
Book image from Barnes & Noble at:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Absolutely-True-Diary-of-a-Part-Time-Indian/Sherman-Alexie/e/9780316013697?cm_re=RecentlyViewed_Carousel-_-Product3-_-9780316013697_Image