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

Sherman Alexie is a Native American poet, writer, and filmmaker. His mother and father was part of the Coeur d’Alene tribe. Much of his works is based on experiences of his ancestry with different tribes. One of Alexie famous works is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a novel about hope and joy. It is about the Native American from a reservation camp and their struggles of life. It deals with people who have what it takes and who don’t. The protagonist, Arnold Spirit Jr., overcomes many obstacles to be happy. Arnold and everyone else at the reservation was living in an impoverish condition. Most of the people there felt hopeless and had given up their dream, but not Arnold.
Okay, so that's not exactly true. I was actually born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside my skull. But cerebral spinal fluid is just the doctors' fancy way of saying brain grease…. " (Alexie, 1). This tell the reader how Arnold is different and his medical condition. Arnold was diagnosing with hydrocephalic, a very rare condition. Arnold tell readers about his condition, show that it is important to him and how everyone else at the reservation looks at him differently.
Arnold label himself as a “retard”, because of how the other people treated him. “Everybody on the rez calls me a retard about twice a day. They call me retard when they are pantsing me or stuffing my head in the toilet or just smacking me upside the head.” (Alexie,4). Everyone is calling Arnold a retard and bullying him, causes Arnold to have issue with self-esteem. Not only does Arnold was a “loser”, he is also very poor. “I wish I were magical, but I am really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation.” (Alexie, 7). Readers can see that Arnold family is facing poverty. It is almost impossible to see anything positive for Arnold. He uses his cartoon to escape his life, but sometime even cartoon can’t help him get away from poverty, “Okay, so now you know that I'm a cartoonist. And I think I'm pretty good at it, too. But no matter how good I am, my cartoons will never take the
For Junior, basketball gives him hope and improves his self-esteem after he transfers to Reardan. At first, he feels completely out of place from his new classmates, but he gains their respect with his determination and focus on the basketball court. On the reservation, Rowdy is the basketball star; it’s the only thing that he is good at doing. Throughout the novel, Rowdy and Junior communicate through basketball, especially because Rowdy has trouble talking about his feelings. Some of the most important moments in their friendship occur on the basketball court; Rowdy expresses his frustration about Arnold's transfer to Reardan by knocking him out during the game between their