The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian #1 | Pages 1-66

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is narrated by Junior, a sixteen year old indian boy who lives on an Indian reservation. Junior lives in a part of his town called the Rez where everyone is basically dirt poor. When Junior was born, he was born with a sort of birth defect where he has excess cerebral spinal fluid clogging up in his brain and caused some minor brain damage which essentially affected some of his motor skills as a kid. Growing up, he also had ten extra teeth that had to be all removed at once because his parents didn’t have the money to make more than one appointment. Junior also explains to the reader how the Rez is no place for peace and quiet, around every corner, someone is always bound to pick a fight with you. Luckily for Junior, he has his friend Rowdy, who Junior is very grateful for for protecting him.

Throughout pages 1-66, one scene that I want to focus on is when Junior is in class and he opens up his textbook and finds his mother’s name written inside the front cover. It’s almost horrifying for Junior to see this, because it just proves to show how poor his tribe is that they’ve been using the same textbooks for at least over thirty years. Junior was so frustrated and upset at this fact that he threw the entire textbook right at his teacher’s face. Junior gets suspended for throwing the text book and then him ad his teacher, Mr.P, exchange a few words with each other. Mr.P explains his past on being a teacher and how he even taught his older sister when she was his age. However he also explains all the flaws that the Rez offers to the youth, and that it only teaches kids to give up. Mr.P then tells Junior that the only way that he can be helped is to escape the Rez forever, and that’s exactly what Junior does. He explains to his parents that he wants to transfer to a new school, knowing that he’ll have to start a new life and leave everything behind.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is an interestingly and hilarious novel. However behind the humor, the reader can obviously tell the true nature of Junior. He’s a smart kid that wants to do everything he can to get the best out of his future. The reason that I wanted to focus on this specific part of the story is because I found his way of thinking inspiring. You have to be really brave to make a decision like moving schools and leaving your life behind. Even if the Rez is a bad place to begin with, it’s not any easier starting fresh in a place where you’re different from everyone else. Junior has to sacrifice his relationship with Rowdy in order to search for hope by learning in a better school that’s also not close from home. That is something admirable to accomplish as a character