Arnold Spirit for the win

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              The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie was very well written and extremely fitting for an Adolescence Literature classroom. He uses many structural elements and techniques to develop the story well, and also managed to bring about many important topics among people of all ages. Alexie used cartoons, and teenage language to relate to younger audiences. As well as a plot line that contains very chaotic and over embellished stories, like many teenagers and would see their lives. At 14 years old, the most important thing is whether or not you get your crush to like you, and Arnold has that spirit.  
                Personally, I really like the fact that this book spoke about many of the hardships, and often overlooked problems within society as it relates to Indians. He talks about how poor they are, the alcoholism, the loneliness and the hopelessness of being kept in a bubble away from everybody else. By doing this, he is challenging people who are ignorant about the situation to see it from the views of a child. He also makes that child stand out but still remain extremely relatable.
                One of my other favorite thing about the author is the way he structured the piece. He made a great stylistic choice by making the book follow a school year, because many kids follow the school schedule more than the usual 12-month schedule. He also did not speak much about Native American culture and events in the piece except for the pow wows at the beginning. However, he made up for it in the end by choosing to say so much about the story of the horse who would not die, and the Grandmother’s funeral. At that point when he reveals so much about his culture, it truly shows that he is no longer feeling ashamed of where he comes from.

                Many questions and topics came to mind for me while reading this piece. Firstly, I was shocked to see that he mentioned Christianity so much because many Indian cultures are typically aboriginal. It also seemed like many of his disabilities disappeared after the first couple of chapters. While I do understand that he was meant to be relatable despite his disabilities, I was shocked that Roger, and Penelope never questioned him about his lisps, or any of his other disadvantages. I feel that putting those parts in the story would have made it more authentic. The moral of the story seems to be that adolescents should be brave in the face of adversity and hardships in life despite prejudice people, or violence around them. That is something that I think anyone of any age group can learn from. 

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 30, 2016 at 9:51 AM

    Manette, I also like the fact that the book spoke on the hardships and problems in society. I think that some authors are sometimes afraid to touch on that subject, so when they do, I enjoy it. I like the point you make about how the story follows a school year, and I totally agree that it makes the story even more relate-able to YA readers. I also noticed that his disabilities where never much a factor besides in the beginning of the story, however for me, I assumed that Sherman did this on purpose to show how Junior felt as though he was so abnormal on the inside and out, but in reality he could still do everything the same and his disabilities did not brake him as a person.

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  2. Lucy McElroyAugust 30, 2016 at 5:07 PM

    I didn't consider how the school year structure of the book is so relative to adolescents until reading your post. Thank you for bringing up such an interesting point. I also think that in doing so, Alexie allows a young reader to put themselves in Arnold's shoes that much more, since it's their daily life and routine. Great ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 1, 2016 at 7:07 PM

    I had some fond flashbacks of reading the original Harry Potter book because some of the chapters were titled after holidays in both it and Diary.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownSeptember 1, 2016 at 7:08 PM

    I had some fond flashbacks of reading the original Harry Potter book because some of the chapters were titled after holidays in both it and Diary.

    ReplyDelete

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