The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a first-person narrative novel by Sherman Alexie, from the perspective of a Native American teenager, Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior," a 14-year-old promising cartoonist. The book is about Junior's life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his decision to go to a nearly all-white public high school away from the reservation. The graphic novel includes 65 comic illustrations that help further the plot.
Although critically acclaimed, The Absolutely True Diary has also been the subject of controversy and has consistently appeared on the annual list of frequently challenged books since 2008, becoming the most frequently challenged book from 2010 to 2019. Controversy stems from how the novel describes alcohol, poverty, bullying, violence, sexuality and bulimia. As a result, a small collective of schools have challenged it, and some schools have blocked the book from distribution in school libraries or inclusion in the curricula.
Plot The book follows fourteen-year-old Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior," living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation near Wellpinit, Washington. The book is an epistolary and chronicles Junior's life from the start of the school year to the beginning of summer. It includes both Junior's written record of his life and his cartoon drawings, some of them comically commenting on his situations, and others more seriously depicting important people in his life.
Born with hydrocephalus, Junior is small for his age and has seizures, poor eyesight, stuttering, and a lisp, making him a frequent bullying target for others on the reservation. Junior's only friend is Rowdy, who is abused at home. Despite his reputation as a bully on the reservation, Rowdy often stands up for Junior and they bond over their shared love of comics. Junior's family is extremely poor and has limited access to opportunities; for example, Junior's father is forced to put down the family dog, Oscar, by shooting him as they cannot afford to see a veterinarian after Oscar gets heat stroke.
On the first day of school, Junior discovers his mother's name written in his textbook. Angered and saddened that the reservation is so poor it cannot afford new textbooks, Junior violently throws the book, inadvertently hitting his teacher, Mr. P, and breaking his nose. While visiting Junior at home, Mr. P convinces him to transfer to another high school, sensing a degree of precociousness in him. Junior elects to attend Reardan, a school in a much wealthier neighborhood with no other Indian students. Despite his family's financial situation, they do what they can to make it possible for him to attend. Rowdy, however, is upset by Junior's decision to transfer, and they gradually begin to cease contact.
Junior develops a crush on popular girl Penelope and befriends straight-A student Gordy. His interactions with the white students give him more perspective on both white culture and his own, and he finds himself torn between pressures to fit in at Reardan and his sense of loyalty to his Indian heritage. He realizes how much stronger his family ties are than those of his white classmates, noticing that many of the white fathers never attend school events. Junior also realizes that the white students have different rules than those he grew up with, evident when he reacts to an insult from the school's star athlete, Roger, by punching him in the face, as would be expected of him on the reservation. To his surprise, Roger never seeks revenge, and in fact only ends up respecting Junior more after the incident. Junior also grows closer to Penelope, which greatly increases his popularity as the 'almost boyfriend' of the most popular girl in the school.
Roger suggests that Junior try out for the basketball team. To Junior's surprise, he makes the varsity team, which pits him against his former school, Wellpinit, and Rowdy, who is Wellpinit's star freshman. When Junior enters the court for his first match, his former schoolmates boo and insult him. Junior suffers some injuries from the game, namely from Rowdy knocking him unconscious, but his coach commends his commitment to the team.
Later on, Junior's grandmother is hit and killed by a drunk driver. After her funeral, a family friend, Eugene, is shot in the face by his friend Bobby while both are intoxicated and fighting over the last sip of alcohol. Later, Reardan wins their second match against Wellpinit. Junior feels triumphant until he sees the look of defeat on the Wellpinit players' faces and remembers the lack of hope he had for his future while growing up on the reservation. Ashamed, he runs to the locker room, vomits, and breaks down sobbing. Later, Junior receives news that his sister and her husband were killed in a fire at their trailer.
The tragedies that afflict Junior and his family, though forcing him to question his future and ponder the darker aspects of reservation culture, reaffirm his love for his family and friends, and he eventually learns to identify as both Indian and American. Rowdy later realizes that Junior is the only nomad on the reservation, which makes him more of a "traditional" Indian than anyone else there. In the end, Junior and Rowdy reconcile while playing basketball and resolve to remain friends no matter where the future takes them.
Background
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is semi-autobiographical. The novel started as a section of Sherman Alexie's family memoir, but after the persistence of a young adult editor, he decided to use it as a basis for his first young adult novel. Sherman Alexie commented, "If I were to guess at the percentage, it would be about seventy-eight percent true." Like Arnold, Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Reservation in Wellpinit with an alcoholic father. He was also born with hydrocephalus, but Alexie did not have any speech impediments. Alexie was also teased for his government-issued, horn-rimmed glasses and nicknamed "The Globe" by fellow students because of his giant head. Another similarity between Alexie and his character Arnold is that Alexie also left the reservation to attend high school at Reardan High, but Alexie chose to go to Reardan to achieve the required credits he needed to go to college. Alexie became the star player of Reardan's basketball team and was the only Indian on the team besides the school's team mascot. The scene where Arnold finds that he is using the same textbook his mother did thirty years before him is drawn from Alexie's own experiences. The only difference between Alexie's life and the novel is that Alexie threw the book against the wall out of anger, and did not hit anyone as Junior did.
In his own writing, Alexie unapologetically describes himself as "kind of mixed up, kind of odd, not traditional. I'm a rez kid who's gone urban, and that's what I write about. I have never pretended to be otherwise."Peterson, Nancy J. (2009). Conversations with Sherman Alexie. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 58. . "A smart Indian is a dangerous person," Alexie states in a personal essay, "[a smart Indian is] widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike."Alexie, Sherman. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me." The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading.Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1997. Print, 130. Junior encapsulates this type of experience when he receives strong censure both from his tribal community and from his peers and teachers at his new school, Reardan. In the personal story, Alexie's continued explanation of his own experience is reflected in Junior's. Alexie recalls, "I fought with my classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers....[W]e were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. ...[W]e were expected to fail in the non-Indian world." Through Junior's success at Reardan and his realizations about life on the reservation, Alexie represents a possibility for the success of Native American children—by defeating the expectation that he is doomed to fail, Junior defeated what he thought he couldn't. Alexie's reflections again demonstrate that Junior's experiences are semi-autobiographical.
Characters Arnold Spirit Jr. AKA Junior Nicknamed Junior, Arnold is a fourteen-year-old boy who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He enjoys playing basketball and drawing cartoons in his free time. Junior and his family, along with the others on the reservation, feel the daily effects of poverty and financial shortcomings—there is often not enough food to eat in their home or enough money to fill the gas tank in the car, forcing him to hitchhike to school or not go at all. He is incredibly smart; he transfers from the school on the reservation to Reardan, where almost all the students are white. Agnes (Adams) Spirit (Junior's Mother) A Spokane Indian, Agnes has lived on the reservation her entire life. She is a bad liar, likes to read books, and is considered to be very smart by her children. She is an ex-alcoholic and is seen as eccentric by Junior: "She's a human tape recorder," Junior explains, "Really, my mom can read the newspaper in fifteen minutes and tell me baseball scores, the location of every war, the latest guy to win the lottery, and the high temperature in Des Moines, Iowa."Alexie, p. 13. Arnold Spirit (Junior's Father) An alcoholic, but very supportive. Even though he sometimes disappears, he tries to take care of his family and he often drives Junior to Reardan. He plays the piano, the guitar, and the saxophone. He could have been a jazz musician, given more time and money. Coach The coach of the basketball team at Reardan High School. Unlike the teachers who are apprehensive of Junior's attendance at Reardan, the coach pays no attention to Junior's race. He is supportive of Junior both on and off the court.Alexie, p. 148. The coach becomes a father figure for Junior in many ways, but also becomes an exemplary friend, helping Junior through difficult times dealing with playing against his home reservation. The novel never gives a name to him, as he is always referred to as coach. Dawn When Arnold Spirit was twelve years old, he loved this girl. She was his first crush. He thought about Dawn when he said to Rowdy that he loved Penelope. Eugene The best friend of Junior's father. "Eugene was a nice guy, and like an uncle to me, but he was drunk all the time,"Alexie, p. 70. Junior reveals. He becomes an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for the tribal ambulance service, and, for a brief time, drives a 1946 Indian Chief Roadmaster. Eugene dies after his close friend Bobby shoots him in the face during a dispute over alcohol. Bobby hangs himself in jail. Gordy Gordy is a student who attends Reardan, wears glasses, and does everything in the name of science. Gordy always speaks in a sophisticated and proper manner throughout the novel. He is one of the smartest students at the school and he eventually becomes Junior's first real friend at Reardan. Gordy also helps Junior with schoolwork and encourages his enjoyment of reading books. Grandmother Spirit Junior's Grandma. She is Junior's source of advice and support until she dies after being hit by a drunk driver while walking on the side of the road on her way home after a powwow. Her dying words were "Forgive him," which meant that she wanted her family to forgive the drunk driver, Gerald, for hitting and killing her. Ironically, she never had a drink in her life. She was also extremely tolerant and loving of all people. Junior's grandma is his favorite person in the world. "My grandmother's last act on earth was a call for forgiveness, love, and tolerance," Junior recalls on page 157.Alexie, p. 157. Mary