Diary Of A Part Time Indian Thesis

The diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a novel about a disabled Indian boy's life on a reservation in Spokane, Washington. Alexie describes the complications and struggles that Junior endures throughout the process of changing schools. Arnold Spirit Jr is fourteen years old and is forced to act like an adult for him to be able to choose the life he desires. Throughout the book we see Junior change the way he sees himself and how he sees himself through the eyes of others. He begins to find his own value that had been hidden behind a curtain of self doubt.
As the novel progresses Junior is keen on going to the school that is separated from his reservation called Reardon High. Even though Junior wants to go to this school so he can achieve a better education, much backlash came from Juniors tribe as it seemed as if he was abandoning his culture. Juniors started at Rearden very worried about what everyone would think of him, and on his first day he punched a white kid in the face for telling an insensitive joke to him. Junior went home feeling confident in what he did but later started to realize that him trying to prove himself to everyone was unnecessary. He said “I felt like somebody shoved me into a rocketship and blasted me to a new planet. I was a freaky alien and there was no way to get home”(66),

The bus loaded with Reardan High School's varsity basketball team entered the reservation, and was struck by vandals with any object they could find. The whistle blew and Juniors fell almost instantly. Rowdy had knocked Junior out. This was the biggest game of his entire life, and he was hurt. Junior proved he was determined to win when he told the coach “I would walk out of this hospital and walk all the way to Wellpinit to play them right now”(148). This is important because it shows how Junior has learned to