The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2007

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Chapters 19-21

Chapters 22-24

Chapters 25-27

Chapters 28-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Individual Identity and Belonging to a Community

Junior’s struggle over the course of the book to articulate a coherent self is reflected in the title: at times, he feels he is not entirely Indian, but rather a “part-time Indian,” qualifying his identity marker with an adjective. His struggle is not limited to his time at Reardan; even before he leaves the reservation for the White school, he is an outsider in the Wellpinit community because of his birth defects and his intelligence; he cries often; he feels he doesn’t embody the “warrior” spirit that an Indian should. The confusion he feels over struggling to understand who he is and where he fits often leads to isolation, loneliness, and a feeling that there is no one quite like him in the world. The more he asserts his individuality, the more isolated from his community he feels. As Gordy points out, “life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of a community” (132). Junior’s own tribe rejects him because of his individual desires to leave the reservation and possibly become an artist, and part of his quest throughout the book is to reconcile that tension: how can he be a member of his tribe as well as pursue his individual goals? How can he define selfhood in a way that validates all different aspects of his identity?

Ironically, Junior’s struggles to fit in also help him form some of his deepest friendships: with Rowdy on the reservation, and with Gordy and Penelope at Reardan. As Gordy explains, “weird people get banished” as they did in primitive times, but Junior identifies with other “weird people” such as Gordy, shows them compassion, and forms a “tribe of two” (132). In fact, Junior belongs to many different tribes, as he articulates late in the book, and being a member of those many different tribes allow him to see his classmates and friends with empathy, compassion, and understanding (132). Paradoxically, Junior’s individuality differentiates himself from his community, but it also enables him to form new communities.

Junior’s quest to find his identity and to find where he belongs are classic coming of age tropes, where the protagonist seeks to answer the questions “who am I?” and “where do I belong in the world?” The theme of identity reflects in the form of the book itself, and like Junior, the book belongs to many different “tribes,” or genres. Though the book takes the form of a diary most explicitly, the inclusion of cartoons, sketches, and letters, give the book a hybrid form that parallels Junior’s hybrid identity. Junior doesn’t belong to any one tribe, and neither does The Absolutely True Diary. It is “Absolutely True,” but it is also a work of fiction, and it also incorporates elements from Sherman Alexie’s life as a teenager. All these contradictory elements do not negate each other, but they rather work together to make the book what it is: a work of art.

Art, Hope, and the Power of Storytelling

Junior’s most intimate relationships develop around and through stories: he and Rowdy grow close through reading comic books; he and Gordy grow close through discovering “metaphorical boners” in library books. Adults use stories to develop a relationship with Junior, as well. Coach, for instance, swaps story after story with Junior while spending the night with him in the hospital. Junior’s father uses stories to encourages him to join the basketball team, and his stories about Turtle Lake illuminate the mystery and miracle of life as well as humans’ mortality. Storytelling also has significant cultural power for Indians, as Junior mentions when he describes the myths and legends surrounding Turtle Lake. At Grandmother Spirit’s wake, Indians mourn and celebrate her life by telling story after story. Art and storytelling are the lens through which Junior, as well as many different members of his tribe, understand and make sense of the world.

While Junior is the most obvious artist figure in the book, other characters are framed as storytellers and writers. Mary Runs Away wanted to be a romance novelist when she was a freshman in high school, and before her death, she was working on the story of her life, just as Junior is recording his. Given the necessary support and resources, Junior’s father would have been a musician: he sings blues, plays guitar, and even keeps his old saxophone “clean and shiny, like he’s going to join a band at any moment” (13). Junior’s mother is a voracious reader who remembers everything she reads. For these three characters, art and stories serve as a lifeline, keeping them afloat amidst the difficulty of living in poverty and in a racist world.

At the beginning of the novel, Junior asks his parents “who has the most hope?” and his parents respond “white people,” but an alternative response to his question might be artists. While hope does seem tied to white privilege at times, Junior describes his cartoons as “little tiny lifeboats,” and says that Mary’s book is “about hope” (6, 153). When Junior is devastated by the deaths of Grandmother Spirit and Eugene, he responds by “writing and rewriting, drawing and redrawing, and rethinking and revising and reediting” (178). He makes art and re-makes art as a way to grieve, using his cartoons and writing to find joy and hope in the darkest of moments.

Systemic Oppression of American Indians

Junior’s life on the reservation reveals much about how White power structures have left present-day Indians with little, trapped in a cycle of poverty, racism and oppression. Early in the book, Junior mentions the racism and the failure Indian Health Service, a government agency meant to provide medical services to Indians: “Our white dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain” (2). Poverty, often glamorized in literature, seen as ennobling those who live under its umbrella, is given no such treatment: “poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you to be poor” (13). For Junior, poverty is not something to be romanticized, but a very real and inescapable fact of his life, one that traps him and many other Indians in a cycle of pain on the reservation.

Racism takes many forms in the book, from the overt (Roger, Earl) to the subtle (Ted, the white sympathizer; the Indian mascot at the predominantly White school) to the even more subtle (that no one compares Junior to a former great basketball player). Junior doesn’t even know what to make of this nuance: “No matter how good I was, I would always be an Indian. And some folks just found it difficult to compare an Indian to a white guy. It wasn’t racism, not exactly. It was, well. I don’t what it was” (181). Twice, White teachers mock Junior, a critique of the educational system. The very people who are supposed to be protecting Junior from acts of racism and systems of oppression are participating in it.

Junior’s world is never black and white, however, The Absolutely True Diary seeks time and time again to complicate the readers’ understanding of racism and oppression. In several instances, Indian characters, as well as Junior and Gordy, use homophobic language. Junior objectifies Penelope as well as his guidance counselor, revealing a culture of toxic masculinity and misogyny. Often, the racist people that Junior encounters are capable of acts of great kindness. Mr. P implores Junior to leave the reservation, arguably saving his life; Roger drives Junior home over and over again, but also calls him racial slurs. The characters are not absolved of their racist actions by their kindness. Rather, Junior allows these contradictions to stand, and these moral ambiguities are consistent throughout the book.