The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a heart-breaking coming-of-age story of Arnold Spirit Junior, a 14-year-old who defies his Native American tribe by deciding to go to an all-white school. Suffering from hydrocephalus in his childhood, he grows up to be a teenager with a permanently damaged brain and a stutter. Raised by alcoholic parents in an environment that is far from safe, Arnold surprisingly turns out to be a sensitive and affectionate teenager albeit with a tendency to use black humour.
The conversation he has with Rowdy, his best friend on transferring to Reardan, an all-white school best illustrates this.
“I’m going to Reardan tomorrow.”
“You’re really serious?”
“Rowdy,” I said. “I’m as serious as a tumor.”
The conversation Arnold has with his math teacher proves how deeply entrenched the roots of low self-esteem go in the Native American Indian Community. The people on the reservation go about their lives knowing fully well that there is no hope for them, no escape from a life of poverty and mediocrity.
Arnold later comments:
“Reardan was the opposite of the rez. It was the opposite of my family. It was the opposite of me. I didn’t deserve to be there. I knew it; all of those kids knew it. Indians don’t deserve shit.”
What struck me as particularly distressing is how the Native American Indian people depicted in the novel seem to be disconnected with their own culture. Rowdy’s slow realisation that Native Americans were nomadic proves how ignorant he is of his own heritage.
“So, anyway,” he said. “I was reading this book about old-time Indians, about how we used to be nomadic.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“So I looked up nomadic in the dictionary, and it means people who move around, who keep moving, in search of food and water and grazing land.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Well, the thing is, I don’t think Indians are nomadic anymore. Most Indians, anyway.”
“No, we’re not,” I said.
“I’m not nomadic,” Rowdy said. “Hardly anybody on this rez is nomadic. Except for you.
You’re the nomadic one.”
Arnold uses his skills as a budding cartoonist to make sense of the unfair world around him. Born in the Spokane Indian reservation, where people are either alcoholics or dead, Arnold’s comic strips serve as an outlet for his uniquely weird and imaginative thoughts.
Quite contrary to what one might expect, Arnold’s experience in Reardan, the all-white school is mostly a positive one. His classmates and teachers are supportive and believe in his abilities as a basket ballplayer. But initially as an outsider in a predominantly white school, he has his share of racist encounters and this one is particularly harsh:
“Hey, Chief,” Roger said. “You want to hear a joke?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?”
I felt like Roger had kicked me in the face. That was the most racist thing I’d ever heard in my life.
But Arnold is not completely faultless or above his peers, for him Penelope, his white-skinned semi-girlfriend is a means to be popular in his new school, a white trophy of sorts. He genuinely likes her but he is also drawn to her for everything Penelope represents in his life – popularity, power and prestige.
There are also certain aspects I don’t understand: Do people on the reservation don’t go for work? Can you have TV and video games and still be poor?
The title ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’ highlights Arnold’s newly imposed hybrid identity on joining Reardan — his identity as an Indian in Reardan and as a white-lover in Wellpinit.
Despite the many personal tragedies in his life, Arnold looks to the future with hope. Punctuated with witty comic strips by Ellen Forney, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a heart-warming tale that reminds you of the indomitable power of hope and courage.
Human Oxymoron 