The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

- Wider contexts

It’s a first person narrative, told by Arnold. Arnold makes out to be a reliable narrator, as he never gives you a reason not to trust him, and the title is “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” so you would believe he is telling the truth. Arnold creates and controls the story told, because we only have access to his thoughts, every person described is described by him, and the picture painted of the different characters is affected by the feelings Arnold have towards the other characters. Arnold is not shy, the reader does not miss out on any details, he describes his feelings, from the aggressive ones, to the more erotic ones.

Arnold is a 14-year-old boy, from the Spokane Indian Reservation. He is not like any other 14-year-old boy, he was born with too much cerebral spinal fluid, Hydrocephalus is a quite serious condition, it means “water on the brain” or as Arnold describes it “cerebral spinal fluid is just the doctors' fancy way of saying brain grease”. Arnold is a positive boy; he chooses to see the glass as half full instead of half empty.

Arnold evolves both physically and mentally throughout the book. After the incident where he injures Mr. P in the reservation, and moves to a new school, where he starts to make friends, he evolves like crazy. He gains a reputation, and he makes more than one friend, he also gets a girlfriend, Penelope, a beautiful and popular girl, this helps Arnold evolve his confidence, and it makes him popular. As he starts to make more friends, he goes to tryout for the basketball team, where he impresses the coach, and gets on the first team. This is where he starts to evolve physically, as he already gained the confidence, he now has what it takes to believe in his basketball talent and turns out to be a key player in the team at his new school, compared to the school in the reservation, where he never believed in himself and never thought he had what it would take to be on the first team.

Its written as a diary, so the book is in past-tense. The book is short-sentenced, making it quite easy to read and understand. The creativity of the writer (Arnold Spirit Jr.) is expressed in illustrations through out the diary, not only to illustrate different things, but also to make a gateway into his mind, so we get to see his writing style, and his way of illustrating and physically observing the world. The narrator is Arnold, and you do not ever leave his head. The story and memories described in the book are observed by the main character. The judging and picture painted of other characters, are assembled by some of the thoughts and illustrations you are given by the author. We will therefore never know anything beside the mind of Arnolds. Not many difficult words are included in the book, making it easy to understand, and when you stumble upon a hard work, its as if the author already knew you would struggle, so in the few cases I struggled understanding the meaning of a word, the author would already have looked it up, and written the meaning, or explained it for the reader. The book is made by “the Hollywood model” making a prelude, where Arnolds dog dies, and then the presentation where you get to learn several things about Arnold, making a point of no return as his friendship ends with Rowdy as he switches school, escalation of conflict following his first weeks at the new school, and the trouble he gets at the reservation, making a climax at the final basketball match against the Spokane Indian reservation, fading out with him and Rowdy becoming friends again.