#3 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | Pages 160-230

The final pages of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian leaves the reader in total shock after a series of unfortunate events. Throughout pages 160-230, Junior discusses the deaths of three of his most loved family and friends. Like most grandparents it’s expected for them to die of old age, illness, stroke, heart attack etc., but least expected to die from drunk people. More specifically, Junior’s grandmother was killed by a drunk driver who ran over her while she was walking home from a powwow event nearby. She was brought to a hospital and her last few words were, “please forgive him”, in which she was talking about the drunk driver who killed her. The next few weeks, a wake and a burial was planned to mourn the death of a wonderful a forgiving and kind person. However this isn’t the end, weeks later Eugene, one of Junior’s very close family friends get shot by one Eugene’s close friends due to the irresponsible act of drinking too much to handle. Another burial is held to mourn another death within a short span of just a few months. Finally, just when the reader thought that it couldn’t get any worse, Junior gets pulled out of class one day by his school counselors. His school counselor has to deliver the heartbreaking news that his sister just died without giving any reason on how. Soon when Junior gets picked up by his dad, he explains that she was hosting a party at her house and drank way too much that her and her husband were passed out. Someone at the party was making soup and forgot to turn off the stove which a fire, but because she was so drunk and passed out, she didn’t even wake up to the fire, killing both her and her husband. 

One of the other main issues discussed during pages 160-230 actually relates to the title of the novel. Ever since Junior has changed schools to Reardan, while still living in Wellpinit, made his life feel like a part time job. Half of his day with white people and the other half with Indians. There’s always been a tension between Indians and other races, especially white folk. Junior explains how Indians have this assumption that any association outside of the Indian reservation community was bad, this meant white people. In other words, Junior’s decision with changing from his school in Wellpinit to a white school in Reardan made him a traitor to his community. This shows through Junior’s basketball games where Reardan is playing against Wellpinit. The crowd is filled with families and friends coming from both areas, seeing Junior as a former resident in Wellpinit playing for a white school, the crowd boos at him.

The last few chapters of this book had left me in total shock. At first when I had read that Junior’s grandmother has died in a car accident, I literally had that entire page again because of how much disbelief I was in. Then on top of that, the death count just kept going and the mood of the book kept getting more depressing. Yet, the author made it seem like Junior was handling these circumstances pretty well, if not the best that he could. Some moments made me think about what it would’ve been like if I was in the same situation, which is obviously more heartbreaking to think about. In other words, there are several relatable moments in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian which. Whether the situations are humorous or sentimental, I found it very easy to sympathize thought process of the main character.