Post-colonialism and Identity

By Ally Dunlap -
In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, Alexie includes many issues on the Reservation. One of the issues is loss of identity. Along with this, he includes the effects of post-colonialism.

Arnold grew up on the Reservation. Therefore, that was all that he had ever known before he started attending Reardan. Before Arnold starts to attend Reardan, one of his teachers, Mr. P, says to Arnold, "We were supposed to make you give up being Indian. Your songs and stories and language and dancing. Everything. We weren't trying to kill Indian people. We were trying to kill Indian culture" (Alexie 35). Arnold is surrounded by people on the reservation that are complacent. Complacency is contagious, and I am a strong believer that an environment shapes a person. Even though Arnold is surrounded by people who are complacent, he still has the courage to go to a new school off of the reservation and continues to unknowingly search for his identity.

Another big issue is post-colonialism. Arnold thinks to himself and says, "We Indians have LOST EVERYTHING. We lost our native land, we lost our languages, we lost our songs and dances. We lost each other. We only know how to lose and be lost" (Alexie 173). This is a sad reality; a sad reality that many people must deal with on a daily basis in real life. Post-colonialism is something that many may not speak of, but it is something that greatly impacts people. As seen in the book, this may also be another reason for the complacency of the individuals on the Rez. They may be discouraged and have lost hope. They may feel ashamed of their culture because that is what they have been taught or told to do, but diversity should be celebrated, and this is something that the people on the Rez are not told.

These two issues were very prevalent in the novel, and Alexie portrays the loss of identity and post-colonialism by creating characters like Arnold who struggled with these challenges and milestones during his adolescence.

Attached is one of my favorite drawings from the book. I think this comic is the perfect complement to my blog post because in the picture, Arnold is deciding which path to take.
http://deathbytsundoku.com/the-absolutely-true-story-of-a-part-time-indian/

Comments

  1. Carter McGillSeptember 8, 2019 at 7:24 AM

    I love how you point out the loss of identity due to post-colonialism. This is a huge issues that surrounds post-colonialism because of how in impacts Native Americans as a whole. Most of them were stripped of their culture which in turn, ruins the person they once were. This causes a lot of problems because it not only affects them but starts to affect the new generations to come as well. One of the strong points you had in your post was the fact that the environment can make or break a person. This book shows us that the environment on the reservation is extremely complacent as you stated, and makes the reservation a place were people tend to get stuck at for the rest of their lives. This is why it makes it hard on Arnold because he's so conflicted on if he should stay on the reservation or risk it all, and go to the new school to open up more opportunities for his life.

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