Assignment 10

 

 

Questions about the book "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian" by Sherman Alexie

 

 

1. 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 was his old teacher, after Arnold threw a book at him Mr. P looked for him to speak with him for a while.

He never blamed him for throwing that book, or well he wasn't very happy with it, it hurted.. but he could understand him. As a teacher he had seen for a long time that there wasn't very much hope in the reservations, they had to learn things from books even his mother had used.

Mr. P supported him in making the decision to go to Reardan, there he would get a good education and there would be more hope in 'the world of white people'.  

 

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

Do you know what happens to retards on the rez?
We get beat up.
At least once a month.
Yep, I belong to the Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club.
~ chapter one

And sure, sometimes, my family misses a meal, and sleep is the only thing we have for dinner, but I know that, sooner or later, my parents will come bursting through the door with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Original Recipe.
And hey, in a weird way, being hungry makes food taste better. There is nothing better than a chicken leg when you haven’t eaten for (approximately) eighteen-and-a-half hours. And believe me, a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in the existence of God.
~ chapter two

3. Explain the significance of the use of drawings in the book.
The drawings in the book are there to make the book come alive, to make it funnier and just to illustrate all the bizarre situations Arnold is in.
Mostly he draws himself as a goofy person.

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

The two different worlds are the 'world of the reservation, a bit closed to the outside' and the 'white people world, in here the school of Reardan'. Arnold is a part time Indian because he originally is from the rez but goes to a school in Reardan.
So thats why they called the book the absolute true diary of a part time Indian.

5. There are several themes in the book. Choose 3 from the list (see assignment 12) and give detailed explanations and analysis for each.
Hopes and dreams - Arnold has no hope in the reservation, he sees al his neighbours, family members and other people in the rez who have a hard time to get jobs. Many of them have given up hope. Arnold sees a chance to get more hope, he transfers to Reardan, a school outside the reservation where all the white people go to school. In the eyes of the Indians, they are the ones who still got hope, since theyre not treated bad, are well educated, have money to spend and do not experience discrimation that much.

Education - He goes to school, a better school than in the rez to create chances. In his old school, they had books with his mothers name written in it. Since his mothers years of school, they still didn't change the books so you could say that the education in the reservations is subordinated. In the school of Reardan they do have better education and newer books so you could say that the education over there is perhaps better.

Poverty  - his family is poor, just like many other Indians. Arnold even has troubles hiding this since he doesn't want other people to find out that he is poor. He could get a free lunch, he is poor enough for it but Always spends his little money he has on the lunch. Or when he went to prom and afterwards went with a group to a diner, he ordered lots of things, not to seem poor but had to ask for money when he didn't feel well and had to vomit in the bathroom and Roger caught him.
Even his sister couldn't attend the funeral of her own granny because she had no money to travel.
Also the great gesture of his father who sneaked away on Christmas eve and came back after newyear, drunk and in a hangover but still gave Arnold 5 dollars, which he could have spent on a cheap whiskey but didn't!

6. 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?
Arnold has one time said that he and Rowdy Always would be friends, even when they never saw each other or when Rowdy hated him. however a paragraph later Arnold wanted to emberass Rowdy during the match.
for their whole life Rowdy had protected Arnold, and he is very gratefull for that. but when he went to Reardan Rowdy got mad at him, for leaving him and betray him with his white hopes and dreams. however they still talked sometimes.. I think that they will still be part time friend.

7. While the Pow-wow sounds like fun, Arnold wants nothing to do with it. Why?
 Arnold doesn't want to do anything with it because he was afraid the Indians would get drunk and would beat him hard. He also didn't want Rowdy to fight for him because Rowdy Always had protected him and made Arnold even feel worse.

8. "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.They 'lost' Arnold when he went to Reardan highschool, he 'betrayed' the Indians and traded them for the white people, an outside world for most of the Indians.
While his sister, Mary, moved out to mary an Indian from another tribe. Also she went into the outside world, sometimes wrote cards but missed a lot, for example her grandmothers funeral.  

9. 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?
The fried bread is originally a meal her grandmother used to make with the recepy from the Spokane tribe. That she could get fried bread in a hotel restaurant was strange to her, she imagined an old lady in the kitchen preparing the meal.

10. What does it mean to "kill the Indian to save the child"? [5.40]
 Mr. P confessed to Arnold that he used to beat the Indians during his lessons, he had to 'kill the Indian' by that he meant that they were trying to kill the Indian culture so that the kid would be saved (being Indian would be bad while getting rid of all the Indian culture would make the kid more white and thus save him, or create new chances).

kind regards
Esther and Carlijn