The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Response- Sharissa Aho

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, was a wonderful surprise to me. Most people read this book in high school or middle school, but I did not. Reading this for the first time, I was amazed by how real this book was. Not only was Alexie talking about some of his life, but he also brought up many valid points about being in the transitional years. Even though I read this book out of high school, there are some timeless themes that can apply to anyone's life. Alexie brought up topics like, death, identity discovery, and racism, along with some taboo topics like masturbation. All of these topics are apart of life and should be talked about.

In his book, Alexie has several quotes that can be read without context and still be applied to life. One of my favorite quotes from the book was, "He [Arnold's dad] may not have loved me perfectly, but he loved me as well as he could" (Alexie 189). I really do not know why this quote grabbed my attention, but it did. Maybe it's the fact that not matter how messed up Arnold's father was, he still made it to all of his games, and loved him the best that he could. I feel like this could apply to a lot of people, as sad as that is.

Alexie was very clever with his words. Even though this is an adolescents book, it still applies to everyone's life. Whether it is people struggling with death, finding out who they are (which can still happen later in life), dealing with racism, or even addiction or mental diseases. This books would be hard to teach at times, due to the explicit language, but it does not sugar-coat anything, which is an actual representation of life. Not everything is going to be censored especially when students get older, so it is best to talk about these things at a younger age so they are not lost when/if they experience them. There is a lot to be learned from this book, and I think I might even read it again because of how much important words and ideas are stuffed into it.


Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 14, 2017 at 9:45 AM

    I love how you added, that although it is an adolescent book this book can certainly be applied to anyone. While I was bogging about Speak, I thought to myself that these two kids went through death(Arnold) and rape(Melinda). That is more then many adults go through in their lifetime. I am thankful that I haven't experience none of the above. Both books shows us the perseverance of these both kids, no matter what they faced at the end they seemed "ok". This book can be a great read for young and old.

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