Diary

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What I really appreciated about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was its ability to portray Junior's search for personal identity and acceptance, and juxtapose the adolescent development, experiences, and expectations of Indians on the reservation and whites. Sherman Alexie is able to critically juxtapose the development, expectations, and experiences of Indian and white adolescents through Junior's interactions with both environments. Junior is an Indian boy who excels in reading and other areas of education, and this causes tension between himself and the other Indians on the reservation who expect him to fall in line and fail. He seeks a sense of personal identity and satisfaction he cannot find the reservation so he chooses to enroll in a white school where such talents are celebrated and a pursuit of education is expected. While his academic abilities are in par and tolerated by his white peers at his new school, he is still not fully accepted because of his race. Junior finds himself searching for where he belongs in both environments; he is now a traitor to his reservation and an Indian to those at his new school.  Junior states "I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other.  It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job.  And it didn't pay well at all" (118), and "They call me apple because they think I'm red on the outside and white on the inside" (132). Throughout the book Junior is seen navigating both environments, seeking to understand and perform what is expected of him, and to finally be accepted for who he is, Indian and smart, and someone who wants to succeed in life. It is through Junior's own struggle to navigate both environments that the book is able to paint a picture of how drastically different the adolescent experience is of growing up as an Indian than that it is of growing up as white.  This dichotomy is present throughout the book, and is particularly evident when Junior plays the best basketball game of his life against his former team during their rematch when he states,
I realized my team, the Rearden Indians, was Goliath. (...) Okay, so maybe my white teammates had problems, serious problems, but none of their problems was life threatening. But I looked over at the Wellpinit Redskins, and Rowdy. I knew that seven or eight of those Indians lived with drunken mothers and fathers. I knew that one of those Indians had a father who dealt crack and meth. I knew two of those Indians had fathers in prison. I knew that none of them was going to collect. not one of them. (195).
Through Junior's struggle to find his own identity through his navigation of the vastly different communities of the reservation and his white school, Sherman Alexie is able to create two dichotomies: what is expected of you according to your community, heritage, etc. and who you really are as a person, your own identity, and the different experiences of adolescent growth between drastically different communities, being an Indian on a reservation, and being white, and speak for acceptance and tolerance of others. We all belong to many tribes.

Comments

  1. TashaTOnlineFebruary 1, 2017 at 10:32 AM

    Your post reads very much like an analysis essay. I appreciate the depth of thought and the support you give via text evidence to your reading. I totally agree with your analysis. I do, however, wonder if you see Arnold's experience as relevant to the typical YA reader? Do most adolescents experience this dichotomy? Would, for example, inner city students have something in common with Arnold? And what do you think is Alexie's ultimate intent with the book? He has stated that it is about 70% autobiographical. Do you think he merely wants to illustrate this dichotomy, or is there a more political agenda related to Post-Colonialism? Would any of his Native American readers be offended by his depiction of life on the reservation? I think it's important to view texts through multiple lens, and these are just a few questions that come to mind facilitating other avenues of discussion. Thank you for your response!

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