Reflecting on TATDOAPTI

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Since I have read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian prior to this course, I read it this time while keeping a closer eye on Arnold and how his environment affected him in almost every aspect of his life. Reading it a second time really opened up my eyes to the issues that Native Americans face on a daily basis, like the high unemployment rates or the alcoholism phenomenon. Coming from Native American descent, I had a few connections with the issues faced by Native Americans and similar situations seemed to make more sense to me. My dad's side of the family has a history of alcoholism, which is a huge issue among Native Americans and made me ask questions relating to our family's history to my dad and grandma.

I liked how Alexie portrayed adolescent Arnold in this novel, especially with all of the issues he was forced to face and how he coped with those issues. All of these issues mentioned in the text can also be applied to other adolescents across literature and in the reader's real life, especially in today's society since these issues are so prevalent. Although I am not an adolescent anymore, I still can relate to issues featured in this novel and it makes me think, "hmm.. I'm really not alone in this," and hopefully others can read this novel and think and feel the same. Whenever I read this book, I think about the Bluford High series that were popular during my middle and high school run. Each book in the series featured an adolescent that had some type of issue going on in their life that took a toll on them in some way. I read these books often because they were easy to read and presented a new topic each time. It also gave me a different perspective on adolescence that I had not been exposed to many of those topics because most I could not relate to.

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