The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

On The Outside Looking In
Being an outsider in a new place is never easy. One has to do twice the work to make friends, and fit in. While reading the novel, I could relate to the character of Arnold Spirit. The obstacles he faced going to a new school, with a different culture reminded me of struggles I faced myself when I started school in America. Trying to “fit in” to a culture foreign of your own is especially hard when you’re a teenager like Arnold, and you haven’t even figured out who you really are yet yourself. Fortunately, time goes on, and we overcome our battles eventually.
They say “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” My very own name used to wound my self-esteem. During my several years at elementary school, I struggled to fit in with all of my classmates and friends. The thing I had the biggest problem with was being Bosnian, and the way my name was spelled. S-E-J-L-A, pronounced “shayla.” Every morning before we’d start class, the whole school would have to listen to the announcements on the loudspeaker made by the principle. They included the pledge of allegiance, the weather, special events for the day/week, and birthdays. That meant that the whole school would hear the principle butcher my name, on my birthday, so the entire world could laugh at me. I used to always go home crying on those days after school and yelling at my mom asking her why I had to be different, and why she couldn’t have given me a “normal” name that was easier to pronounce. Naturally, everyone goes through tough times in life. Eventually, as I got older I learned to be proud of my culture and where I came from, and I finally started to love that my name was different. As a kid or teenager, it isn’t easy being an outsider. People will pick on you every chance they get.
Sherman Alexie portrays Arnold Spirit, or Junior, as a Native American young boy trying to find himself and fit in between two different cultures. Arnold seemed to always feel like a stranger, no matter where he was. “I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other (Alexie, p.118).” On the reservation, he was pressured to be like the rest of the Indians, and at his new high school, he felt pressured to blend in with his white classmates. On the Indian reservation there was very little hope for success to anyone. It was full of alcoholics, violence, poverty, and death.
Arnold was the first to leave the rez in the search for hope elsewhere. He was excited about attending high school until he was given a math book his mom used when she was in high school. This made Junior furious with the reservation. He couldn’t believe that the reservation couldn’t even afford new books for the students. Out of anger, Arnold threw his book at Mr. P. A few days later the two had a heart-to-heart where Mr. told Arnold “The only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up (Alexie, p.42).” So he suggested that Arnold go as far away from the reservation as he could. With the help of Mr. P’s inspirational words, he decided to transfer to an all “white” school called Rearden in the search for “hope”. Illustrated on a cartoon on page 43, there was a sign with an arrow pointing left, and an arrow pointing right. The left one wrote “Rez” and “Home”, while the right one wrote, “Hope” with question marks. Arnold was drawn on the right side looking hesitant and scared for his new journey. Other than his family, everyone from the reservation grew hatred for Arnold for betraying them by trying to get something better somewhere else. Even his best friend Rowdy, who always protected Arnold from harm whenever he could, became angry at him. After all, Arnold was the one good thing in Rowdy’s life, and the one person he didn’t want to lose.
When Arnold first came to Rearden, he stood out right away because he was Native American, and most of the other kids were white. Roger, who was one of the big jocks in high school, and his crew picked on Junior the first day and started calling him racist names. As a kid in high school, this was a total nightmare. Arnold contemplated about what he should do using the reservation “rules”, and he ended up punching Roger in the face. This completely shocked Roger, and he ended up gaining respect for Arnold. Junior was embarrassed about being poor, and he thought all of the kids at school would judge him, and hate him for it. Rearden was twenty-two miles from the reservation, so Arnold had to either walk or hitchhike to school when his father didn’t have enough money for gas to drive him there. He had to wait for all of the kids to leave school before he could start his trek so they wouldn’t see him having to walk home. However, his classmates and friends at the white school accepted him for who he was, and they liked him very quickly. He became friends with a smart kid named Gordy. Junior even managed to get a girlfriend named Penelope, who was popular at the Rearden. Surprisingly to him, he also made the varsity team for basketball team, which he never thought would happen. This high school helped Arnold gain some type of confidence in himself, something he had very little of at his old school. He was not ashamed of where he came from anymore.
Challenges of crossing the boundaries of culture were evident. In Arnold’s case, it was hard to get accustomed to a new school filled with people of a culture he was not used to. He didn’t know what to expect, and he always thought the worst was going to happen. Junior had to work on assimilating himself to fit in better the best way that he could. Along with having problems at school, he had even bigger problems at home. With losing his grandma, sister, and dads best friend all dying due to alcohol-related reasons, he almost lost his mind. For Arnold, his way of dealing with things and making sense of his life was drawing cartoons. He basically drew his thoughts. In the novel, Arnold says “I draw because I want to talk to the world. And I want the world to pay attention to me. I feel important with a pen in my hand. I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important (Alexie, p.6).” The illustration on 57 is significant because it shows how different the appearance of Arnold was compared to his white classmates in his eyes. It was a drawing of Arnold with a line going through the center of his whole body. The left side was showing all of the traits and attire of the white part of Arnold, and the right side was showing the Indian side of him. The top of the “white” side of the cartoon had a boxed subheading that said “ A bright future,” and the Indian side boxed subheading said “A vanishing past.” The “bright future” side included a Ralph Lauren shirt, Times wristwatch on his wrist, a backpack with a cell phone, Tommy Hilfiger khakis, and the latest Air Jordan’s. This half of the hair looked much neater than the other side, and it also didn’t wear glasses. There were also other words boxed like “Positive role models”, and “hope.” The “Indian” side of Arnold had a K-mart t-shirt on, blue jeans from Sears, no watch, a garbage bag book bag, and canvas tennis shoes. The phrases that were boxed said “A family history of diabetes and cancer”, and “Bone-crushing reality.” Arnold felt like he didn’t deserve to be at Rearden because he was Indian. Everyone there was the opposite of him, his family, and the rez. Half of every graduating class went to college, and nobody from his family had even gotten close to a college. Arnold knew he was different, and it was up to him to prove that it didn’t make him inferior to his classmates.
In conclusion, everyone has experienced at least one occasion in their life, where they wanted to fit in with others. Whether it is for a sport, school, job, or any activity, when one feels out of place, it is natural to try and assimilate to the norm in order to avoid conflicts. It’s especially hard changing to a school with a completely different ethic and culture from what one is used to, like Arnold. Nobody likes being the odd one out, like how I felt with my name. However, no matter how hard life gets, we know that it always keeps going, and we eventually overcome every curveball that comes our way. It’s also important to know that it is okay to be different; the world would be so dull if everybody was the same.