Regarding The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

When reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I most often felt disappointed and upset at the grave and ongoing injustice committed against Native American populations in the United States.  Alexie’s blunt and sincere narrative captures the hardships of life for Indians on reservations in regards to addiction, violence, and a lack of educational and career opportunities.  That Native Americans are not afforded the same opportunities as white people today is one of America’s greatest continuing failures to native populations.

Being a white woman born in the United States, I have never been the target of racial injustice, and, as a result, it is difficult for me to make a connection to Arnold’s experiences as a person of color in a majority white school.  However, I can relate to Arnold’s experience of having to change how he acts among different groups of people.  I am a lesbian, and I’ve lived in South Carolina my entire life.  As a result, I’ve learned to keep my sexuality hidden among certain groups so as to not be the target of homophobia and violence based on my sexuality.  Among my closest friends, who are also members of the LGBT community, I act very differently than I do among those I know to be homophobic.  With some people, I am fully out and proud of my sexuality.  With others, I know that it is unsafe to be a queer woman, and thus, I remain closeted.  In this regard, I understand Arnold’s struggle to swap between his life on the reservation and his life in Reardan.  Not only did Arnold have to change his habits and personality when transferring to Reardan, he had to change his name.  Of course, Arnold was always his legal name, but he was always “Junior” to those on the reservation.  None of these aspects of Arnold’s life were accepted in Reardan, so he had to adjust, just as he had to alter how he acted on the reservation.  In essence, Arnold was living two entirely different lives, which for many queer teenagers around the world, is also the case.  Within The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Alexie perfectly portrays the difficulty of these double lives.

One of my favorite books is a coming of age novel by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.  This book, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, is incredibly similar to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and it covers many of the overarching themes from Alexie’s work.  Aristotle and Dante covers racial and ethnic identity and family relationships as Diary does, however, the key difference is Aristotle and Dante’s focus on sexuality.  The title characters from Sáenz’ work are Mexican-American teenage boys growing up in 1987.  Ari is dark skinned and is fluent in Spanish.  Dante is light skinned and can barely speak Spanish.  Because of this, Dante struggles with his identity as a Mexican-American, just as Arnold questions whether he is being a “bad” Indian by leaving the reservation.  Both novels are well written and powerful, and although they cover very similar themes, they are incredibly unique.  While both novels are accurate representations of the experiences of adolescents, those experiences are very different, and this is reflected in the tones of Aristotle and Dante and The Absolutely True Diary.  In Alexie’s work, the protagonist’s voice is very typical of a fourteen-year-old boy.  It’s corny, sarcastic, and dramatic.  In The Absolutely True Diary, it can be inferred that Arnold uses the diary as a coping mechanism, and, as such, it is comical and amusing, while still addressing the most traumatic points in Arnold’s life.  Aristotle and Dante, on the other hand, highlights the experiences of a narrator who is wise beyond his years, yet still struggles with common aspects of adolescence.  Aristotle, the narrator of Sáez’ work, has a profound and insightful outlook on life, and although the immaturity of a fifteen-year-old still shines through, Ari is far more philosophical than Arnold is in Diary.  Because of this, both works show how different the adolescent experience can be, and how there is no “set” way in which teenagers behave.  Due to the similar subject matter, Aristotle and Dante and The Absolutely True Diary are excellent works to compare the differences in the adolescent experience.

Overall, I very much enjoyed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  Alexie built Arnold’s world masterfully, and it helped that he could base Arnold’s experiences on his own.  The Absolutely True Diary is certainly an accurate portrayal of adolescence, yet not of all adolescents.  Although there was a great deal of subject matter within The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian that I could not personally relate to, I empathized with Arnold regarding his experience living two entirely different lives.  While I did take issue with certain points in The Absolutely True Diary (for instance, the normalization of using “faggot” as an insult by heterosexual people), overall Alexie did a wonderful job of highlighting the struggles faced by Native Americans on reservations.  It is an excellent narrative that demonstrates the need for ongoing reform and reparations for Native American populations in the United States, and it is a powerful reminder that racial injustice is incredibly prevalent in America.

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