Essay On The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian By Sherman Alexie

“If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing” (129). This is just one of many insightful quotes that Arnold Spirit has to say that makes him and Victor Joseph very similar. Sherman Alexie is the American novelist who wrote The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and the film Smoke Signals. Both of the main characters in each of these pieces are modern day Indians who have had a tough upbringing. While Arnold (Diary) and Victor (Smoke) are different in many ways such as how they handle bullies, they are similar in their love of basketball and experiences with alcohol. First, Arnold and Victor both get pushed around in their stories, but they handle the situations differently. Arnold Spirit is described as having large glasses, being very skinny, and having huge hands and
Arnold lives in a reservation where drinking is a common act to everyone. He has an alcoholic father who is gone for weeks at a time on drinking binges. Arnold describes how he has been to many reservation funerals and that a large majority of the people who had died had been alcoholics. Similarly, Victor’s father was also an alcoholic and ended up running away from his problems. When Victor’s father had a party and got hopelessly drunk, he asked his son, “Who’s your favorite Indian?” (Smoke Signals). Disgusted by his father and the drunk Indians around him, Victor replied, “Nobody” (Smoke Signals). As shown here, Arnold and Victor are very similar in their experiences with alcohol. As reviewed in this paper, the characters of Arnold Spirit and Victor Joseph have similarities as well as differences. The boys are different in such ways as how they handle bullies but they are comparable in their love of basketball and their experiences with alcohol. Bestselling author Sherman Alexie has represented two Indian teenagers extremely well in each of their journeys to find their