The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Bibliographic Info

Title: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Author: Sherman Alexie

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Publication Date: 2007

ISBN: 978-0316013680

Plot Summary

Arnold Spirit was lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Eastern Washington.  He’s skinny and has seizures and gets beat up a lot.  All around him he sees the chronic health problems and poverty of the people of his tribe.  One day, when he’s handed a geometry book that has his mother’s name inside the cover (as in, it’s that old), Arnold loses it.  He throws the book, which hits his math teacher and leaves the teacher with a broken nose.  Arnold has to get out of the reservation if he’s to hang on to any hope of a decent future.

When he decides to attend the white high school in the nearest town, things start to pick up.  He gets a sort of girlfriend.  He befriends some cool kids and turns out to be a star basketball player.  Though life is seemingly improving, he struggles with never fitting in on more than a surface level, with hiding a lot of personal information, including that he’s completely broke, and worst of all, he lost his best friend Rowdy when he switched schools.

In this coming of age story, Arnold Spirit boldly inserts himself in a strange environment, dealing with all that comes with being the one Indian kid in a white school – the ignorance, the racism.  He also contends with the ongoing issues of being a rez kid, like the early death of his grandmother.  Though she’d never had a drink in her life, she was hit and killed by a drunk driver.

Critical Evaluation

This story is sorrowful, hopeful, and full of self-deprecating humor.  It offers a window into the life of a kid who is fighting for survival.  In order to achieve self-truth, he has to betray his family, friends, and his tribe.  He can’t get what he needs from them, and even though it’s painful, separation is necessary.  Readers can feel for Arnold’s internal conflicts, but laugh along with him through the pain.

Reader’s Annotation

Arnold Spirit was born with water on his brain.  He lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation where he witnesses poverty, violence, and chronic health problems.  To grasp onto hope, he transfers to a white school outside the rez, but through the trials of being the one Indian kid and leaving his friends and family behind, the victories that he achieves in his new school are confused by his feelings of betrayal and shallow, empty relationships with his new friends.

Author Info

Sherman Alexie was born in October 1966.  He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation.  Like his character, Arnold Spirit, he was born with hydrocephaly, or water on the brain.  He had surgery at six months of age to correct the problem.  He was left with side effects, such as seizures, which he experienced throughout childhood.

Just as in the story, Alexie found his mother’s name in a textbook in Wellpinit High School and decided to transfer to a high school off the reservation.  He became a star basketball player and excelled academically.

After high school, Alexie attended Gonzaga University, then transferred to Washington State University, where he fell in love with writing poetry.  Alexie developed a drinking problem in college, but gave up drinking at age 23, after finding out that one of his poems would be published.

Alexie has written screenplays, acted as a public speaker, stand-up comic, and advocate for the preservation of American folk history.  He lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two sons.

Alexie, S. (2010, January). Sherman Alexie. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.fallsapart.com/biography.html

Genre

Realistic Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Native American Studies

Book Talking Ideas

For Arnold Spirit, transferring schools is like moving to a foreign country.

Reading Level

12-17

Challenge Issues

Mild Violence

Words, such as “boner” may be offensive to some

Challenge Responses

Active Listening

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Selection

The book was a gift from a Tribal libraries and archives conference.  I had been meaning to read it.