The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Analysis

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie follows Arnold Spirit Junior, a young native american boy, as he struggles to survive between two different worlds. He must endure his own disability, social ostracism, poverty, and the effects of alcoholism, while also dealing with the loss of people he loves due to the very conditions on his reservation that he is fighting to escape. Arnold must go through many trials and tribulations as he learns to navigate the world on his own and create the life he wants to live. Arnold was born with a condition called Congenital Hydrocephalus, which means that he had too much cerebrospinal fluid inside his skull, he calls it ‘water on the brain’. Due to this, he had to have an operation
He mentions that at one point he went over 18 hours without being able to to eat anything, and and when he finally did eat it was only fast food. Although he only mentions it once, there is no doubt that it is a frequent occurrence in his household. Due to his family's lack of money Arnold must rely upon the governments meager funding given to his reservation for any medical care, this results in him having to get ten teeth pulled at once, because dental work was only funded once a year. Arnolds poverty also affects him once he starts attending Reardon. All the other kids are middle class or wealthy, and his own poverty is embarrassing for Arnold. Everyone at readon thinks that arnold is well off due to government handouts and casinos, but they don't know that the government does not give native americans lots of money, and that gambling money flows into very few hands. It is something that he goes to great lengths in order to hide, including borrowing money and lying. His embarrassment about being poor is so severe that, at one point he became physically sick with anxiety about the fact that he didn't have enough money to pay for food for his date, Penelope. He also talk about how his parents were not able to follow their dreams because they were just never given the chance, his parents were unable to live up to their potential because there just wasn't enough money for them to pursue their dreams. Arnold's family is not just poor, they are the latest in a long line of poverty. His ancestors living on the reservation for generations had all been poor, and it’s easy for him to believe that that's the way it will always be. The perpetual poverty on his reservation, and the native american history of abuse and cultural loss was the ideal environment to foster substance abuse, such as alcoholism, which has even more devastating effects than