Dairy

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The True Diary of an Absolute Part-Time Indian is an overall great story. The way that Sherman Alexie displays adolescents is a great way for a lot of adolescent to relate to the story. By providing Arnold Spirit (Junior) as a teenage kid facing a lot of problems with alcohol, grief, and dealing with social problems it makes the story even more relateable to adolescents. In fact, these are probably the most common problems adolescents face across the nation today.  
If we take a look at the cover for instance the title, “the Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is enough to make someone interested and we also so that there is a native American and a cowboy on the front. While in the book we see that Arnold faces being torn between two lives. White and Native American he basically has to live a double life. He has to act one way when he is at the rez and another when he is at Reardan. This to me shows a side of adolescents that we all see today. Everyone acts different ways depending on their environment. If you re at home, then you act the way your parents want you to act. If you are at school, you behave just as the school wants you to. If you are hanging with your friends, then you pretty much do what you want as long as you don’t get caught.

Also if we take a look at how the book is written I think it is a great way to keep adolescents reading and interested in continuing to read the book. There are multiple pictures throughout the book that display Arnold's true feelings about the characters, this is how he expresses how he feels about each individual character. Also by having shorter chapter in the book it makes the book easier to read because the student may feel as though their reading at a fast pace. So with having the pictures and short chapters it is a great read for anyone especially adolescents. The book is written like an epic ride through Arnold's life. How he describes his grandmother’s death is so sudden it is almost shocking, but that is what makes the book great. Its freely spoken words make the characters more relatable to adolescents because that’s how they all talk when they think no one is listening. 

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 31, 2016 at 7:39 PM

    Definitely agree that most teens face the same things that Arnold does. Yes, all adolescents go through identity crisis and end up acting one way around certain people and another way around others. It's great that you point that out. Seriously, this book is a good way to get kids interested in reading books!

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