Tommy Doherty, Class of 2023

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
~Aristotle

With many important things on my mind, reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, wasn’t at the top of my list. The book started slowly and I quickly wanted to stop reading the book and focus on my secondary school essays; however, as I continued reading the book, I learned many key takeaways from this book. Even though this book was a struggle for me to read, I locked in and finished the reading—a reading that explores the effects of poverty and difference in profound ways on a sarcastic, lively boy named Junior, growing up on a Native American reservation, and taught me to accept academic challenges in a more complete way.. 

Poverty is like a virus that has no cure. In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Junior lives on the Wellpint Native American Reservation in Washington State, part of a population who is not given opportunities. Because of this, how he faces major poverty surfaces and reveals a teenage boy who lives on an Indian reservation, lacking money, jobs, and resources. Life could not be harder for him. 

Junior lives on this reservation with all of the other members of his tribe. He describes many of these people as alcoholics and violent due to their low income. In a scene early in the book, Junior is sitting hungry around a table because his parents don’t have money for food.

“I wish I were magical, but I am really just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation.” [page 7] He goes on to say, “It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor” [page 13]. 

As poor as Junior is, this still does not prevent him from loving his family, friends, and people close to him. Junior has a strong connection with his dog but his dad ended up putting his dog down because they could not afford to take him to the animal hospital. “A bullet only costs about 2 cents, and anyone can afford that.” [page 14]. Junior had a special connection with his dog and after his dad put the dog out of his misery, Junior wanted to disappear. His friend Rowdy talks him out of it. 

Junior learns to make the best out of situations that might seem dire. He could be starving but he still gets up, goes to school, and exercises his brain, educating himself and trying to be successful. “Poverty = empty refrigerator + empty stomach” [page 8]. You have to be tough and have the grit to live and work through poverty.

Nobody is the same as another and the theme of difference plays a big part in Junior’s life. Junior is different compared to the other kids, but he doesn’t see that as a disadvantage. In Chapter One Junior is describing how difficult his life is with a speech impediment and how other kids find him an easy target.

“You wouldn’t think there is anything life threatening about speech impediments, but let me tell you, there is nothing more dangerous than being a kid with a stutter and a lisp”. [Chapter 1]

Junior then reflects on how something as real as a speech impediment makes him a target of bullying. 

“And if you’re fourteen years old, like me, and you’re still stuttering and lisping, then you become the biggest retard in the world.” 

Junior faces these setbacks in his life with sarcastic humor. He started wearing glasses “when I was three;” moreover, he wasn’t like the other kids in his class Junior and “ended up having 42 teeth.” Even though Junior has so many setbacks. He faces setbacks head-on instead of going around them. In an environment where everyone is different, you feel like there is no escape. “I was a freaky alien and there was absolutely no way to get home.” Junior plows through the challenges of life, and plowed through the challenge of reading his compelling story.

  Accepting challenges lead to success, and reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian challenged me to comprehend what I was reading and to find meaningful themes in the book; it challenged me to read the book in a different way than I have read books in the past. I had to highlight cool and interesting words, and annotate the themes of the book. This was difficult for me because the books I have read in the past did not always involve what my teacher calls “a scholarly approach.” I started reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian as just another book I needed to read. 

I knew it was going to be a challenging read as I was going to have to highlight and annotate as I read. The highlighting slowed my reading down a bit, but when I started to bear down and read the book the highlighting started to come more easily. The book was slow at first for me until I got to Junior’s basketball tryouts where I started to become more intrigued by the book. 

The challenges I faced were worth it in the end. Junior taught me that you never lose if you always learn something. It taught me how everyone has a different path, and the people who you spend your life with shape who you are and will become. 

If you told me several weeks ago that I was going to enjoy reading this book, I would be in shock. Weeks ago I wasn’t excited to read this book one bit, but it was all worth it in the end as I learned many key life values.

Don’t wait to read this book. 

Read it now and read it well.