The Absolutely True Blog Post of a Full Time Student

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Okay, so I took a Native American Literature course last semester with Doctor Charles, and I absolutely loved it. Over the course of the class, we read around 4 books about Native American culture, history, and identity. Adding onto that, we watched Smoke Signals, a similar story to this book, The Totally True Diary of a Part Time Indian. After finishing Charles' class, I was weary of the subject to be completely honest, and was hesitant to read another book with similar subject matter. Identity crisis, loss of home, and parental struggles were some of the mainstays of the genre, and I was expecting more of the same. But I was completely surprised by this book, and it was the first time I picked up and finished a book within two days in such a while.

I would say that I definitely agree with Sherman Alexei's portrayal of adolescence in this book. The character of Junior has got to be one of the most creative yet relatable characters in recent fiction that I've ever read. He can appeal to the plight of minorities, nerds, social outcasts, only children, bullied children, and many more. Juggling all of these character traits seemed to be no problem with Alexei at the helm of this book, as Junior never acts out of character, always seems to be himself, and has such a clear voice that his narrative sounds realistic enough to be nonfiction.

I can easily relate this book to the movie Smoke Signals, of which the screenplay was written by Alexei as well. This movie was also a coming of age tale, with the main characters Thomas and Victor going on both a physical journey as well as a mental one. If I were to teach this in my own high school classroom, I would accompany Diary with a showing of Smoke Signals as well. The central themes of Diary are about Junior coming to terms with both his heritage and his aspirations of the future, and they converge with how he thinks that the two are polar opposites. Even though this isn't the case, a large percentage of the book is centered around Junior finding his identity, constantly stuck as unwanted in his Spokane reservation and the Indian Savage that people think he is in Reardan High School. He was an apple, red on the outside and white on the inside, and as such didn't fit into either culture.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 30, 2016 at 9:44 AM

    Joey, I find it funny that you say it is the first time you finished a book in two days in so long because for me, it's one of the few books that I've actually wanted to finish within two days. I agree that Sherman did a good job also at the way he portrayed adolescence, as well as getting inside the head of a 14 year old. I like the way you use the metaphor at the end of your post and call Junior an apple, and I agree that it defines who he was. I have never heard of the movie Smoke Signals but I will definitely look into watching it. My question for you though is which would you say you like the most, Smoke Signals or the book?

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  2. AnonymousAugust 30, 2016 at 5:31 PM

    I know exactly what you mean by not wanting to delve into another similar topic, especially if you dedicated an entire class to it. When I was a Marine Biology major, my concentration was in Jellyfish population and behavior and I wrote countless papers on everything jellyfish. From their anatomy to their worldwide migration patterns, I could pretty much spit out anything you could ever want to know about jellyfish. But it's always refreshing when you can get out into the real world and see the same story from a different perspective. I believe that you experienced this when reading the book. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is filled with so many hooks that it is almost impossible to set the book down. I finished the whole thing in a night!
    I've also heard a lot about the move Smoke Signals. After reading this book, I'd like to believe that I would find this movie interesting. Thanks for your thoughts and inputs on it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 1, 2016 at 7:12 PM

    I also took Native American Literature. Honestly I was looking forward to another novel on the subject but I was taken by surprise. A lot of the content is the same as what you would find in one of the books from that class but the perspective was completely fresh.

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