The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Author: Sherman Alexie
Original Date of Publication: 2007


Main Characters:
Arnold Spirit, a.k.a. "Junior": Young boy from the Spokane Indian Reservation who plans to change high schools and make a better life for himself.
Rowdy: Young boy who attends Wellpinit High School (on the reservation) and has been Arnold's best friend since childhood.
Grandma Spirit: Arnold's grandma who he describes as the only tolerant Indian left on the reservation.
Mary Spirit: Arnold's sister who also moves away from the reservation later in the book.
Eugene: Arnold's father's best friend who gives Arnold a ride to school on occasion.
Penelope: Arnold's "girlfriend" at Reardon High School.
Roger: One of Arnold's friends and basketball teammates at Reardon High School.
Gordy: A very intelligent student at Reardon High School who befriends Arnold.

Setting
In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, there are two main places.  The first place is the Spokane Indian reservation, and the other place is the high school called Reardan.  These two places are completely different from each other.  The reservation wear Junior lives is full of Indians that live in poverty and drink a lot of alcohol. On the reservation there is a lot of violence and they are discriminative toward white people. Junior decides one day, after talking to his white teacher, that he needs to get off the reservation and attend school somewhere else.  Junior attends Reardan and he is submerged into a community wear it is all white people and he is the only Native American.  At first the kids at the school do not want to be his friend and they pick on him.  However, after he punches the "alpha dog" of the school, he earns some respect.  Reardan has a lot less violence and there are not very many people living in poverty compared to life on the reservation.

Themes

There are several themes in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Friendship is seen throughout the book. As Junior faces the challenges of poverty, moving to a new school where he is the only Native American and the deaths in his family, relationships develop between Penelope, Gordy and Roger. And his friendship is put to the test with Rowdy as Junior makes his decisions.

Hope is another theme that is seen even from the first page. Junior is born with hydrocephalus, and he susceptible to seizures but he fights with it, and with drunks and drug addicts, and with the disapproval of people in the reservation that condemn him as a traitor for leaving the reservation. Junior does not loses his hope for having a better life in the future, despite the circumstances that faze him, and we see hoe that plays out.

Questions and Issues

There are several issues that play major roles in the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  One of the issues is poverty. Junior and his family are very poor and barely have enough means to live day-to-day life. Their poverty becomes an issue when Junior starts attending school in Reardan. Because he is no longer going to school on the reservation, transportation is a major factor. Sometimes Junior has to walk to and/or from school because his family cannot afford gas, or the car is having trouble. Poverty is also an issue when it comes to the type of clothing Junior wears. Junior's clothing is much less expensive than the clothing that the students at Reardan are wearing. Junior even has to carry his books in a trash bag, while the other kids have backpacks. Another issue is bullying. Junior encounters bullying on, and off, the reservation. On the reservation, he is tormented both, before and after, he changed schools. Junior is also bullied by the students at Reardan because he is different than they are. Alcoholism is another large issue in this novel. The culture on the reservation is highly involved in alcoholic activities. Junior talks a great deal about his father being drunk a lot and spending their money on alcohol. Alcohol is also the cause of many deaths on the reservation.