Part Time Indian Analysis

Our traditions shape our identity as a person, but we can also break away from our customs to create our own identity. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is about a high school student named Arnold who leaves his life on the reservation in attempts to find success. He struggles with finding his identity in this new environment. Arnold sees himself as having two different halves, Junior the outcast from the reservation and Arnold from the white high-school at Reardan. Throughout the book, Arnold struggles with how different cultures of traditions shape his identity. Within the novel, Arnold describes the traditions of his Native American culture. These traditions create problems as Arnold wants to move away and …show more content…
He describes his first experience at the school. “They stared at me, the Indian boy with the black eye and swollen nose, my going-away gifts from Rowdy. Those white kids couldn't believe their eyes. They stared at me like I was Bigfoot or a UFO. What was I doing at Reardan, whose mascot was an Indian, thereby making me the only other Indian in town?” (Alexie 56). From here, Arnold sees how others view him. He uses a simile to enhance how he feels. He realizes that, he is not some odd Indian, but he is something alien like. Arnold no longer knows who he and struggles with this for weeks, but as the school year progresses he moves away from his old identity of a loser Indian child to a new identity of the star basketball player at Reardan. “And I have to be honest, guys,’ Coach said. ‘We can't beat these guys with our talent. We just aren't good enough. But I think we have bigger hearts. And I think we have a secret weapon.’ I wondered if Coach had maybe hired some Mafia dude to take out Rowdy. ‘We have Arnold Spirit,’ Coach said” (Alexie 187-188). Arnold has found a new identity at the white school. He is no longer a UFO but their secret weapon, an amazing shooter, and someone who can win the game for them. He is no longer Bigfoot but a valuable member of a …show more content…
He battles with his old traditions and creating a new identity. Arnold comes from a background of poor people. “And it's not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It's not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (Alexie 11). Arnold identifies himself as a poor kid because that's what his parents say, and what their parents were saying. He doubts that he can become anything more than poor. “Okay, so now you know that I'm a cartoonist. And I think I'm pretty good at it, too. But no matter how good I am, my cartoons will never take the place of food or money. I wish I could draw a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or a fist full of twenty dollar bills, and perform some magic trick and make it real… but I am really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation” (Alexie 7). Arnold’s background of being poor shapes his identity. He wants to be a good cartoonist, but believes because he is poor he cannot be one. His poorness shapes his identity away from being a cartoonist. Towards the end of the school year, Arnold comes to a big realization that changes is life. “I realized that, sure, I was a Spokane Indian. I belonged to that tribe. But I also belonged to the tribe of American immigrants. And to the