The novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, written by Sherman Alexie and published in 2009 by Klett, is about Arnold Spirit, who suffers because of his physical problems and who tries to change his life by changing schools.

At the beginning of the chapter “Red Versus White”,  Arnold mentions that his reader probably thinks he is fallen in love with white people. Still, he tells us that this is not true. He loves his sister, who sends him postcards and has made a New Year’s resolution to finish her book, which is about hope,  by the summer. He is glad, that his sister is happy and tries to realise her dreams. And he loves his parents, because, though they may have their flaws, they talk to him and listen to his problems. Furthermore, Arnold gives us his opinion about white families and the white community in Reardan. He marvels at how people can live inReardan and still be strangers. Indian families are so close and know everything about each other – even their shoe size. But even if Arnold criticizes the white community, he is realistic. He still knows thatliving in Reardan is better than Wellpinit. He tells us about what he thinks is the best thing about Wellpinit: his grandmother, who is really tolerant. She is accepting everyone, even homeless and discouraged gay. Also, all the Indians at the powwow knows her. Unfortunately, she has recently passed away. She was struck and killed by a drunk driver and the last thing she said was “forgive him” – meaning, forgive the drunk driver who killed her. So Arnold forgives Gerald, the Indian who struck her with his car and who got sent to prison for eighteeen months. At the end of the chapter,  Arnold laments his  grandmother’s death, especially since she didn’t even drink alcohol.

 

I am sorry for uploading it that late, but our internet didn’t work properly at the weekend.

 

The novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, written by Sherman Alexie and published in 2007 by Klett, is about the fourteen-year old Indian boy Arnold Spirit, called Junior, who gets away from his his daily life by changing to a school full of white people to follow his dreams and not to loose hope.

In the beginning Arnold starts telling the reader about his physical and psychological problems he has because of his brain damage.

We learn about his social background, family and friends, Rowdy and his dog Oscar who gets shooten by the father because he was ill and because of their poverty they couldn’t afford a vet.

Deeply sad about this, Arnold is seeking comfort from Rowdy. Then both go to the powwow celebration, where Arnold gets beaten up by the Andruss brothers. For revenge and to protect Arnold, Rowdy cuts of their braids.

The next chapter is placed in school. Arnold thinks about the past and realizes they were taught by the same books his mother already had. He gets really angry and smashes the book in his teachers face, accidentally breaking his nose. He is suspended from school but his teacher Mr. P visits him and advices him to leave the reservation if he doesn’t want to end up as all the others – hopeless.

Junior followed this advice and attended Reardan high, which is full of successful white people.

Rowdy gets to know this. In a rush of anger he punshes him and leaves him lying on the floor.

In the first day at Reardan high everybody stared at him, laughed about him and called him names. The worst are Roger and his friends. After a few days, he couldn’t stand it any more, so he punshes him in the face, which brought him respect. At his first day at school, he also met Penelope, who first ignored him but he already fell in love with her. He talks to Rowdy about his feelings but he is no help.

When Halloween comes, Junior dresses up as a homeless, just as Penelope to collect money. He wants to help her and also collects money in his reservation. Unfortunately he gets robbed and all the money is lost.

In the following chapter Junior reflects about how lonely and isolated he feels at school. Being treated unfair by a teacher, Gordy, a schoolmate, defends him making them friends.

He also gets to know from his mother that his sister Mary got married, his sister herself didn’t inform him. Later he received an e-mail where she tells him happily about her new life.

At Thanksgiving Junior misses Rowdy very much, because they always celebrated this together, but no don’t talk to each other any more. He draws a cartoon as a present for Rowdy and wants to give it to him at his house but Rowdys father was lying about Rowdys presence.

Back in school he goes to the toilet and hears someone vomiting in the next cabin, which made him trying to help. It comes out that it is Penelope, suffering from bulimia, what she finally admits breaking up in tears. Little by little they get closer to each other and become the hot item at school. Her father is not happy about this but finally has to accept it.

He realizes he has fallen in love and asks first Rowdy, then Gordy for advice.

He still feels not fully accepted because of being poor and living about twenty miles away form school, a distance he often made by feet. At the Winter Formal he has to wear his fathers old suit and can hardly afford anything. Penelope doesn’t care. Roger notices this and borrows him 40 dollars so he can buy some drinks and food and also invite Penelope. At the end of the evening, also Penelope realizes his poverty but instead of running away she kissed him.

He still misses Rowdy and sends him a photo. In return, he gets a mean photo of Rowdy. Junior feels that his people hate him for leaving the reservation and leading a different life. They compare him with an apple – red outside, white inside. This leaves him disappointed.

From her new life, far away from her reservation, his sister writes him a letter, complaining about none will give her a chance. She won’t get a job because of her lack of experience but none let her make the experience either.

The chapter 21: “And a Patridge  in a Pear Tree” is about christmas at Junior. They didnt have  enough money for presents, so the Dad tooks the little money what they have and gets drunk with it. When he comes back he has an epic hangover and sleeps until the next days. But this time he has a surprise for Arnold. The Dad gives him five dollars. With this money the Dad has been drunk for another day or two but he gives this Arnold. Armold finds it good but also strange. In Chapter 26 : “Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball” a few days after the basketball season ended, Arnold wrotes Rowdy an e-mail. In this e-mail Arnold says “sorry” to Rowdy because the season for Rowdy was not so good. Rowdy wrotes back that theay win next year against Arnold.. But he wrotes this in friendly way and it was also the first time that Rowdy has talks to Arnold since he lefts the rez and their beef.

The following summary is about the last chapter from Sherman Alexie’s novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” from 2007.

Junior first describes the beautiful pine trees on the reservation. He starts to remember climbing a giant pine tree with his best friend Rowdy when they were ten years old. He describes that they spend a hot summer day together. Instead of playing video games, watching TV or reading books, which was what they usually used to do, they were sitting on the floor of Junior’s room and were”dreaming about airconditioning” (comp. p. 223, ll. 14 & 15).

After that, Junior describes how he and Rowdy got to climb the pine tree nearby Turtle Lake. It was Rowdy’s idea to cool down and swim in Turtle Lake because it was so hot. So they went there, even though Junior was afraid of Turtle Lake after his father told him a story in which a horse drown in Turtle Lake. The horse was carried away and burned. But it was found laying on the riverside of Turtle Lake after the lake caught fire one day.

But when Junior and Rowdy arrived at Turtle Lake, Junior saw the giant pine tree, which he describes to be as high as a skyscraper. Junior also says, that he fell in love with it. Rowdy then decides to climb that tree. When they reached as far as they could – they didn’t arrive at the very top yet but the branches got too thin to climb any further – they sat down. They could overlook the whole reservation.

Then he transitions from not believing in surviving climbing the pine tree into not believing in surviving his first year at Reardan. From that, he moves on and starts thinking of Penelope, whom he wrote love letters, Gordy, who wants to visit the reservation, and Roger, who gave Junior his basketball shirt and said that he is going to be a star one day.

At that point, Rowdy knocks on Junior’s door. Junior invites him to come inside. They have a talk about the things that happend, after Junior transferred to Reardan high school, such as Rowdy being responsible for punching Junior in the face. They walk to the courts and play basketball and Junior tries to convince Rowdy to transfe är as well. But Rowdy still wants to stay on the reservation. He also says that he thinks that Junior is an “old-time nomad” (comp. p. 232, ll. 29 – 31), who will keep on discovering the world. Junior needs to promise Rowdy to send him postcards.

In the end, Junior and Rowdy keep on playing basketball without keeping score.

The sixth chapter of the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” written by Sherman Alexie and published in 2007 is about the boy Arnold Junior who wants to transfer school and go to Reardon high school.

After his teacher talks to him and advices him to changes schools Junior decides to change to the Reardan high school. Junior talks to his parents and tells them about his idea. His parents are a bit confused and ask him if he´s sure but they agree to Junior and let him change the school.

In chapter 5 “Hope Against Hope” the math teacher Mr. P visits his student Arnold in his home when Arnold is suspended from school. Arnold is surprised about the visit and also about what Mr. P talks to him. He is not angry about the fact that he threw a book into Mr. P’s face and that his nose is broken now. Instaed, Mr. P forgives Junior and even apologizes. He makes visible that he believes in Junior because he is very smart, how his big sister Mary. But she just stopped to follow her dream of becoming a romance novel writer and is now an underground dweller. So, Mr. P wants Junior to leave the reservation forever. He means that all the poeple in the reservation have given up yet but Junior still has hope. He will find more hope and more chances for his life outside the reservation, in another school.

The chapter “Dance,Dance,Dance”of the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Diary Indian”, written by Sherman Alexie in year 2007, is about the two different personalities of Junior and the chapter deals with Junior´s secret that he is poor and his friends Roger and Penelope find it out.

At the beginning of the chapter Arnold thinks about his two personalities. In Reardan he has a girlfriend and he is very cool but in the rez he is a handicapped person with poor parent and an aggressive best friend. After that Junior tells the reader that at Reardan Highschool everybody thinks that he has lots of money, but in reality his family is really poor. Normally it´s not too hard for him, but it´s December and in this month he takes Penelope to the Winter Formal and Arnold has only five dollars in his pocket. On the Winter Formal he wears his dad´s old suit and he has thougt that everybody would lough because of this suit, but Penelope loves it. Junior and Penelope dance togehther and it is Junior´s best night in his life and he is happy that nobody notices that he is poor. At the end of the party Roger, Penelope, Arnold and other friends from Roger decide to drive into Spokane and have pancakes at adinner. But Junior wishes that Penelope doesn´t want to go to the dinner because Junior has not enough money to buy her many things but his girlfriend Penelope want to go to the dinner. In the dinner Junior orders things he isn´t able to pay. After this he is going to the bathroom, because he feels bad and Roger goes to the bathroom too. Junior tells Roger that he has forgotten his wallet and Roger lends him forty dollars. Back at school Penelope asks Junior if he is poor and he tells her the truth. She kisses him and she tells that,what Arnold tells her, Roger who brings Junior home. He realizes that Penelope and Roger are really good friends and both swear they are not going to tell anybody his secret.

The  novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, written by Sherman Alexie and published 2009 by Klett, deals with a boy named Arnold Spirit, but his nickname is Junior. He is a boy who is living  on a reservation, but he changed schools and now he is a pupil at a white school, which is not on the rez.

The Chapter 9 “Grandmother Gives Me Some Advice” (p.78-83) is about a dialoge between Junior and his Grandmother. Junior is opening his heart to his Grandmother over his hestiation against Roger. He sais that he punshed Roger in his face. Now he is scared  because Roger did not hit him back. His Grandmother respons that maybe Roger respects him. Just like a pack wild dogs. At the next  day Junior goes with Eugene, his father’s best friend, to school. Junior is afraid that Roger punshes him, but Roger just asks him about Eugene and afterwoods leaves. In the end Junior is saying “Hi” to Penelope but she ignores him.

The Chapter 10 “Tears of a Clown” (p.84-85) is about the past of Junior. It deals with his first love and tells it Rowdy. It gets clear that Rowdy is his best friend.