Assignment 10

Why did Mr. P say, "Son, you're going to find more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation"?

Mr. P said this because the people in the reservation do not have any hope. Most of them are poor, addicted to alcohol and abusive. Mr. P tells Arnold that he was taught “to kill the Indian to safe the child”, this makes the people in the reservation give up on their hope.

If he stayed, 36people would ‘kill’ him, they would kill his hope. The resources in the reservation are very limited, for example the math book he gets that once belonged to his mother, if he does not have the resources or chances to grow mentally and socially he is limited in his hope. So the further away he goes from the reservation the further away he goes from his limitation of hope and the closer he comes to finding his hope. For example the risk he takes going to Reardan, a school which provides good books and teachers, it increases his chance of finding his hope and growing as a person mentally and socially.  

Give 2 examples of "black comedy" in the book. Give quotes and page numbers.

   1. Page 88: Picture. In the picture he describes how Indian people need to travel. They don’t have enough money for a gas for their car or public transport so they need to walk everywhere. “no gas money? I hitchhike”, “gas money: car isn’t running, I hitchhike” “dad gives me a ride. Car breaks down 1 mile from school. I walk + get to school 30 mins. late”, “mom gives me a ride dad too hungover” and “no gas money; nobody stops to pick me up. Walk home; watch TV”.

   











2. Page 57: Picture. In the picture he compares a white person to an Indian person. White people for example have an ergonomic backpack with cell phone while Indian people have a glad garbage book bag. The white people side states: “a positive future”, “hope” and “positive role models” while the Indian side says: “a vanishing past”, “bone-crushing reality” and “a family history of diabetes and cancer”.

Explain the significance of the use of drawings in the book.

The drawings in the book give more information so you can understand the book better. These drawings also have a second meaning. The second meaning is that Arnold likes to draw so this is his way of making the diary more of his own. The drawings are very important to him, it is his way of expressing himself and showing his view of the world.

Explain how Arnold is caught between two worlds and how this is connected to the title of the book.

The title of the book is ‘’The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian’’.  Part-time in this book means that Arnold lives in two different worlds, one being the Indian world and the other being the White world. In the book his geometry teacher Mr. P told him to get off the reservation, the day after Junior decided to switch schools. He wanted to go to Reardan, an all-white school. Once he attended this school, he made some friends. But he also still had a friend named Rowdy in Wellpinit. So he was caught in these two worlds, this was really clear during the basketball match. They had to play against each other, the first time Reardan lost and Arnold got punched by Rowdy, the second time they won. Arnold was torn, he disappointed Rowdy, but at the same time he and the team from Reardan had won the game.    

There are several themes in the book. Choose 3 from the list and give detailed explanations and analysis for each.

1)   Alcoholism

All Indians drink booze and are getting drunk. Almost every person that Arnold lost in his life died while somebody were drunk. For example his sister Mary, Eugeune and his grandma.

The police said about Mary that she never even woke up, she was way too drunk. She was too drunk to feel any pain when she burned to death. Everybody would tell stories about Mary. ‘But the whole time, everybody were drinking booze and getting drunk and stupid and sad and mean. How do we honor the drunken death of a young married couple? ‘’Hey, let’s get drunk!’’.

Eugeune’s friend was too drunk to remember that he pulled the trigger. Arnold’s grandma died by a drunken driver.

2)      Friendship

This is a very big theme in the book. He breaks his friendship with Rowdy by going to Reardan. He builds new friendships with Gordy, Roger and Penelope. But the most important friendship in the book is his friendship with Rowdy, they have been best friends since birth and Rowdy protects Arnold from the harmful people in the reservation.  He loses his friendship when he decides to go to Reardan. Rowdy feels betrayed and is very mad at Arnold, he is in fact so mad that when Reardan’s basketball team has to play against the reservation he gives him a concussion by knocking him down. Arnold misses his friendship with Rowdy and tries to contact him a few times but gets either no or a negative response. But in the end Rowdy comes to Arnold because he is ‘bored’ we think that he actually misses Arnold. They go and play basketball together and all is well. 

3)      Tolerance

Arnold speaks in the book that the modern Indians in the reservation are not tolerant. In the chapter “red versus white” he speaks about his grandmother being the most tolerant person he knew. She was tolerant of the outcasts, and he has very much respect for her.  
He also speaks about the fact that Indians used to be very tolerant. The weird people were often worshipped. People who had seizures where seen as shamans because they were chosen by God to have these sieizure-visions. People who were gay were seen as man and woman, so they are caregivers and worriers at the same time.

How would you characterize the relationship between Rowdy and Junior at the end of the novel? Can the two ever really be best friends again? Are they part-time friends or real friends?

We would characterized the relationship between Rowdy and Junior as complicated. They start as really good friends, but in the middle of the story they don’t get on really well. At the end of the story they sort of become friends again. They are real friends, because after everything that has happened they can forgive each other and move forward.

While the Pow-wow sounds like fun, Arnold wants nothing to do with it. Why?

Because he is scared of “the Indians that are not dancers and singers, but the rhythmless, talentless, tuneless Indians that are going to get drunk and beat the shit out of any available losers”. He says after that, that he is the most available loser. Arnold is scared that he is going to get hurt and that is why he wants nothing to do with it.

"Ever since the Spokane Indian Reservation was founded back in 1881, nobody in my family ever lived anywhere else. We Spirits stay in one place. We are absolutely tribal. For good or bad, we don't leave one another. And now my mother and father had lost two kids to the outside world."
Explain how Arnold's parents had lost two children to the outside world.

Arnold: He decides to go to another school, Reardan, outside of the reservation, into the world of white people. They feel as if they have lost him to the outside world, and that by going to Reardan he will forget where he came from and forget the Indian culture. Arnold still lives in the reservation so they have metaphorically lost him to the outside world.

Mary: Mary marries an Indian from Montana and they go to live together there. She met him at the casino and he was a good poker player, he was not scared to gamble everything and that that’s the kind of man that she wants to marry. They physically lose her to the outside world.

Mary describes her experience eating fry bread at a restaurant in an email to Arnold. Why is it significant that Mary can still get fry bread even though she's no longer on the Spokane Reservation?

She moved to Montana with her newlywed husband and they order room service. They had Indian fry bread on the menu, this means a lot to her because her grandmother used to make it all the time. It did not taste as good as her grandmother used to make it but it was delicious anyways.  It reminds Mary of home.   

What does it mean to "kill the Indian to save the child"? [5.40]

It means that they didn’t literally kill Indians. They were supposed to make you give up being Indian. The songs and stories and language and dancing. Everything. They weren’t trying to kill Indian people. They were trying to kill Indian culture. They did this in school, teachers were supposed to teach them about white culture and norms.