A brief description of Sherman Alexie’s book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian can be presented as a typical young adult story. It tells readers about Arnold Spirit Jr. a gifted boy born and raised in an Indian reservation, possessed by the dream of becoming an artist, one day challenges the system and enters Reardan High School - a better school for white students. Despite the traditional for such genre set of plot moves, such as first love, the first fight, first complexes, the book raises much more extensive topics for reasoning.
The author shows that even now, in the 21st century, there is ethnicity separation in the society with Indian reservations, which creates the situation when Native American children go to specialized …show more content…
From the very beginning, readers learn that he was born with the cerebral spinal fluid inside the brain that influenced his general physical state: “I have all sorts of physical problems that are directly the result of my brain damage” (Sherman 1). listing them in more detail the boy notes, “I also had a stutter and a lisp. Or maybe I should say I had a st-st-st-st-stutter and a lissssssssththththp” (Sherman 4). This quote also confirms that the strength of Junor's character manifests itself in his self-irony, which is also conveyed by the author through illustrations in his diary. It should be noted that the drawings in the diary carry several functions for both readers and inside the narrative. For an outside observer (that is, a book’s audience) they are the author's adaptation of the book into a teenager's diary: always playful, sometimes evil, these drawings perfectly reflect Arnold's emotions and sometimes reveal his character and his anxieties better than any words. However, in the story of Arnold, they are a manifestation of his desire to become an illustrator or cartoonist, along with the means of protagonist’s self-reflection. Such a reflection also made Junior different from other members of his community who feel trapped, helpless, and hopeless. In this case, an emphasis should be made on the changed perspective of the boy that is resulted from the going beyond the usual
The author shows that even now, in the 21st century, there is ethnicity separation in the society with Indian reservations, which creates the situation when Native American children go to specialized …show more content…
From the very beginning, readers learn that he was born with the cerebral spinal fluid inside the brain that influenced his general physical state: “I have all sorts of physical problems that are directly the result of my brain damage” (Sherman 1). listing them in more detail the boy notes, “I also had a stutter and a lisp. Or maybe I should say I had a st-st-st-st-stutter and a lissssssssththththp” (Sherman 4). This quote also confirms that the strength of Junor's character manifests itself in his self-irony, which is also conveyed by the author through illustrations in his diary. It should be noted that the drawings in the diary carry several functions for both readers and inside the narrative. For an outside observer (that is, a book’s audience) they are the author's adaptation of the book into a teenager's diary: always playful, sometimes evil, these drawings perfectly reflect Arnold's emotions and sometimes reveal his character and his anxieties better than any words. However, in the story of Arnold, they are a manifestation of his desire to become an illustrator or cartoonist, along with the means of protagonist’s self-reflection. Such a reflection also made Junior different from other members of his community who feel trapped, helpless, and hopeless. In this case, an emphasis should be made on the changed perspective of the boy that is resulted from the going beyond the usual