Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Essay
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a book about the struggles that Arnold Spirit Jr. had to endure while living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. With the support of his family, he decided to attend Rearden High School in order to change the path of his life for the better. Along the way, he discovers and loses himself in the process of bettering himself.
Sherman Alexie used his own tribal identity to inspire the events that Arnold Spirit Jr. was experiencing in the book. He spoke about how being an Indian was enough to make people discriminate and hate you by just looking at your red skin. White people believed that Indians were beneath them or not good enough. Penelope’s dad hated the thought of Arnold seeing his daughter. He even went as far as saying that he would disown his daughter if she ever ended up pregnant by him. This shows the negativity associated with an innocent, multicultural, high school relationship. He also does not fully feel a part of either the white or Indian community when he was attending Rearden High School. Arnold says, “I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other. It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job.” (118). Spending most of your time at a school in the white part of town was enough to make the people from the reservation …show more content…
The fact that it dealt with real life issues that were not sugar coated was what made this book so great. I would definitely recommend everyone read it at least once in their lifetime. While the book does mention some harsh realities, it is a part of life that should not be hidden. This book only brings more awareness to the conditions that some Native Americans still live in. It is crazy to think that if I had not read this book, I would not have realized that these atrocities were still occurring in parts of the United
Sherman Alexie used his own tribal identity to inspire the events that Arnold Spirit Jr. was experiencing in the book. He spoke about how being an Indian was enough to make people discriminate and hate you by just looking at your red skin. White people believed that Indians were beneath them or not good enough. Penelope’s dad hated the thought of Arnold seeing his daughter. He even went as far as saying that he would disown his daughter if she ever ended up pregnant by him. This shows the negativity associated with an innocent, multicultural, high school relationship. He also does not fully feel a part of either the white or Indian community when he was attending Rearden High School. Arnold says, “I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other. It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job.” (118). Spending most of your time at a school in the white part of town was enough to make the people from the reservation …show more content…
The fact that it dealt with real life issues that were not sugar coated was what made this book so great. I would definitely recommend everyone read it at least once in their lifetime. While the book does mention some harsh realities, it is a part of life that should not be hidden. This book only brings more awareness to the conditions that some Native Americans still live in. It is crazy to think that if I had not read this book, I would not have realized that these atrocities were still occurring in parts of the United