The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Analysis

Despite being a newcomer in the realm of literature, Sherman Alexie’s critically acclaimed novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, has reviewers rhapsodizing about the eccentric stories the novel holds. Following through the perspective of a young boy, Arnold ‘Junior’ Spirit takes the reader through his many escapades while he tries to establish a name for himself in an unknown and treacherous territory. Although a story worth reading for entertainment purposes, a majority of the novel features content that possesses little relevance in an academic setting. To contrast the simpler (and sometimes vulgar) parts of the plot, Alexie’s poetical aptitude allows certain touching moments to relay beautiful underlying messages that emphasize

Born with “water on the brain” (Alexie 3), Arnold’s strong voice asserts consistent firm control over the entire novel from his earlier days of a broken home, to achieving popularity with the white kids in a rival high school. As Arnold divulges his countless embarrassing tales, Bruce Barcott relates Arnold’s voice to that “funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home” (Barcott). With Arnold speaking in a first-person perspective in colloquial terms, a majority of the novel possesses surface-level writing without room to extrapolate interpretation. Much of the book relies on simple grammatical sentences that a normal fourteen year-old boy would construct, hence much of the plot being obvious without inferences necessary. With the lack of maturity of a youthful age, much of the book relies on crude humor such as Arnold claiming that “isosceles triangles make [him] feel hormonal” (Alexie 25) and simplistic yet charming cartoons by Ellen Forney. Forney illustrates small cartoons that portray the artistry of Arnold frequently throughout the book, in which Diane Samuels notes that “the writing occasionally relies too heavily on the cartoonesque quip” (Samuels). Because of the necessary aid of pictures, the words lack the meticulous details that books of literary merit contain since Alexie relies on these images to carry the plot at

With Arnold’s habitual complaints about how “it sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you some-how deserve to be poor” (Alexie 13), analysis of the text proves to be problematic in a plot that blatantly expresses all the points. Gilmore notes that “criteria included in a class definition of literary merit compel students to value close reading and careful analysis” (Gilmore 12), whereas this book does not allow analysis of the mini stories within. When Arnold laments the fact that he is “really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family” (Alexie 10), there is no deeper underlying meaning that can be extracted from Arnold’s anecdotes. Another obstacle to the qualification of literary merit is the book’s age. Although a modern novel, the book has not “stood the test of time in some way” (Gilmore 7) whereas other literature studied within the AP Literature curriculum tends to have timeless themes that still apply