Absolutely True Diary Of Part Time Indian Analysis

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How hard would it be for you, if you had to leave your school and everyone you knew, to go to a place where you were different and stood out. In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Arnold a 9th grader stands up for his culture and takes on a higher academic education. But for him to do this, he needs to leave the reservation and go to a rich white school. Even though some of his friends and family think he is betraying their tribe, this is an incentive for him, he's showing everyone that he can stand up for himself and that he can be successful in life. Arnold shows courage for going to Reardon because …show more content…
He can’t count on taking the car everyday though because his dad is a drunk and his mom is too busy. Sometimes the car doesn’t have enough gas or they don’t have enough money to pay for it, so most of the time he has to hitchhike to school, or walk, it’s about 22 miles from school to his home. During his first week, he meets this white, smart, popular girl, Penelope; who he falls in love with immediately. But Arnold is nobody at this school and worse he is from the reservation. Most of the kids don’t even talk to him and some of them make fun of him and tell mean jokes about Indians. One time this jocky kid, Roger and his friends go to far and Arnold stands up for himself by punching Roger. “I felt like Roger had kicked me in the face. That was the most racist thing I’d ever heard in my life,” (Pg 64). This changed how everyone at Reardan treated him, mostly they are afraid of him, but Arnold is still confused because white people seem to behave very differently than people at the reservation. ““What are the Rules?” “What Rules?” …. I felt like someone had shoved me into a rocket ship and blasted me to a new planet. I was a freaky alien and there was absolutely no way to get home,” (Pg 66). Over the course of the year Arnold and Penelope become friends and that seems to change other people’s opinions of him as well, and even he and Roger become friends. There is a formal dance at their school, and Arnold is …show more content…
And it’s true that once Arnold stands up for himself he is able to make friends and except for the difficulty in getting to school and a few racist teachers, he is happy and successful there. His sister would of been better off too, but instead she didn’t believe in herself and no one pushed her. Arnold’s sister gets married at a very young age and moves to Montana because that seems like the only way to get away but she ends up dying in a fire because she is too drunk. Arnold accepts this and starts to understand his sister better. “I mean she was amazing. It was courageous of her to leave the basement and move to Montana. She went searching for her dreams and she she didn’t find them, but she made the attempt,” (Pg 216). The teacher that encouraged him was a white man from the reservation and had a lot of guilt about all the bad things done to Indians and his part in it, so he pushes Arnold to leave. But it was because Arnold believed in himself and wanted to be successful, that he walked 22 miles to school everyday. He also went against his parents, and gave up his best friend. He didn’t care what people thought about his decision, he was trying to become independent. It didn’t matter if he was going to be the only Indian going to rich, white school. Arnold was strong and perceptive and has a lot of empathy for