Part-Time Indian
In Sherman Alexie’s the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior, the Native American teenager and protagonist, has trouble reconciling his past to his present. When given the opportunity to leave the reservation to pursue a better future, Junior finds that it is hard to leave his past behind. The community on the reservation doesn’t want Junior to move forward to a better and more rewarding future because they feel betrayed by his actions. Junior struggles trying to make a new future for himself while keeping his identity as a “part-time” Indian. Junior decides to leave his old school, Wellpinit, and transfer to Reardan halfway through his freshman year of high school. His old school is located on the reservation or “rez” as Junior abbreviates it, and the majority of the students are Native American. At his new school, Reardan, the students are predominantly “white” causing Junior to face many predicaments. For one, the rez is “twenty-two miles to Reardan” (54), which is another conflict from Juniors past, which then leads for Junior and his family. His family lives an average life for an Indian family living on the rez, but driving their son 22 miles to school is very expensive. “Getting to school was always an adventure”(87), as most days he would have to walk. But a great deal of the time “somebody was usually heading back to the rez, so I’d usually catch a ride.”(87) Reardan is further away in more ways than one. It was very different from everything Junior was used to, including the people. “Reardan was the opposite of the rez. It was the opposite of my family. It was the opposite of me.” (57) Junior is an outcast, both in school and out of school, and he does everything he can to make himself fit in. “We were poor enough to get free lunch, but I didn’t want to be the only Indian and a sad sack who needed charity”(55) He was constantly looking for ways to become a “part-time white kid” at Reardan, but knew he would always be a “part-time