Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian


The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time indian. New York: Little Brown.

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold (Junior) is a young Native-American boy growing up on a Spokane Indian reservation.  In this coming-of-age novel, Arnold realizes that life as he knows it on the reservation is not the way it should be, and makes a conscious decision to change his stars by transferring to a nearby, all-white school.  He is then ostracized by his friends living on the reservation, including his best friend Rowdy, as well as the white kids at his new school.  Arnold is also faced with multiple other personal conflicts and struggles like the death of family members due to alcohol, his parents’ own alcoholism, his own medical issues, bullying, stereotyping, racism, and poverty, not to mention the normal, natural development teens go through.  In spite of all that, Arnold maintains his determination to change his life and begins to realize that just because things are the way they are, doesn’t mean he has to maintain the cycle—especially since it isn’t right for him.  Ultimately, Arnold begins to come into his own as a budding adult and he does so with humor and grace. 

Because of the themes and conflicts involved, this book lends itself especially to boys and could easily be enjoyed by those from middle grades on up due to the emotional development as outlined by Havighurst.

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