In The Novel The Absolutely True Diary

In the novel The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian, the main character is named Arnold Spirit Jr. He lives on the Spokane reservation (rez) with his family, his best friend Rowdy, and the holder of wisdom Arnold’s grandmother. On the rez everyone calls Arnold; Junior. Junior wants to become something different then his parents. The concept of being different from the rest of his family and friends plays a significant part in Arnold’s life. He does not want to become another nobody on the rez like his parents.

Arnold is given the opportunity to move from the rez school where all his cousins and family have gone before him, or he could go to Rearden a small town all white private school. This was a significant moment for Arnold and his family. Arnold’s family would have to figure out if they could pay for the tuition for Rearden and gas money to drive him back and forth.

The commute from the rez to Rearden every day was twenty-two miles there and twenty-two miles back. Some days Arnold would hitchhike because they had no gas money or his dad was to hung-over to drive him. If the car broke down, he would have to walk to school and sign in thirty minutes late. The worst days were when no one picked up Arnold after school and he would walk the twenty-two miles from Rearden to the rez. During his time at Rearden, he missed a lot of school for numerous reasons. Either there was a funeral, no money in the house, or his mom wanted Arnold to stay home. Occasionally, Arnold would go with his mother to search for his father so they could bring him back to the house.

At Rearden, his new school, Junior felt like a different person. When he first started going people saw him as an alien that did not belong. To fit in with his another classmate he pretend he wasn’t “poor as dirt.”They were racist towards him for the first month of his debut. After awhile they started to accept him.

Roger was one of the most popular boys in school. He was also the first person to bully Arnold when he got to Rearden. Through time, he too began to accept Arnold into the community. There is a very special scene in this novel, this scene explains how Arnold decides to take Penelope to the Winter Formal. This is when Arnold’s secret gets out for being poor. After the dance was over Roger decides to take some of his friends to a twenty-four hour pancake house. Arnold knows he cannot pay for his and Penelope’s meal. Therefore, he decides to order a bunch of food before his grandiose lie. After the meal he starts to get nervous and nauseate he then goes to the bathroom to throw up. This is when Roger hears him and asks if he is okay. Arnold explains to him that he does not have money to pay for the meal, because he forgot his wallet, this was a lie. After the meal, Roger drove them back to the school. This is when Penelope figure out that Arnold is very poor. Roger and Penelope felt very sad for Arnold and this started their strong friendship.

Arnold thought that his year was great at Rearden he became a champion and had new friends that respected him for who he was. However, Arnold still did not know who he was. He knew he was different so were his friends netherless, he wanted to become something more, someone to go down in the books of history. Arnold knew that he had to get away from the rez and Rearden, because he was different. He has known he was different from the first day he was born with a water-clogged brain.