CG The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Can You Get the Best of Both Worlds?

“You get the best of both worlds, mix it all together and you know that it's the best of both worlds” This is the opening theme song for a girl who lived a double life, just like Arnold.The only difference is that for Arnold, those two worlds can’t be mixed together. Arnold is an indian who lives in the reservation in Washington state but goes to a Reardan high school, a white school twenty-two miles away from where he lives. The book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” is Arnold’s story, where you find death, and sacrifices, but there are also happy moments. Moments where you see those two worlds working together and changing a boy’s life forever.

Arnold's story really starts the first day of his freshmen year in his reservation high school, Wellpinit. When Mr. P handed Arnold his geometry textbook, Arnold’s hopes for his geometry class come crashing down once he is handed his mother's geometry textbook. “My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from. This is absolutely the saddest thing in the world.” (Alexie 31) Arnold is so discouraged by this event, that with the help of Mr. P he makes the decision to move schools where Arnold’s hopes for his education can come true.

When you are on a team and you're the best player there is, you usually don’t get any better because there is no one there to challenge you. Let me tell you that when Arnold makes this change and attends Reardan high school he is definitely challenged. “Reardan was the opposite of the rez. It was the opposite of my family. It was the opposite of me. I didn't deserve to be there.” (Alexie 56) Yet Arnold attended his classes with all these negatives thoughts, punched a ‘white guy’ for trying to get smart with him and stayed. Dirty looks, and racist insults did not stop Arnold from achieving his dream for a better life.

Sports for teenagers could be like a baby for a mother. In Arnold's case it was basketball, a very well known sport in Reardan and Wellpinit high school. In Wellpinit it was expected for Arnold to become a bench warmer as his best friend Rowdy to play point guard in varsity, but in Reardan nothing was expected from Arnold. Yet he ended up playing varsity as a freshman, and

the first game of the season was no other but Wellpinit vs. Reardan, his res high school, his people who now hate him for betraying them. “That made me laugh some more. And then my Coach started laughing with me. And so did my teammates.” (Alexie 143) For those forty-eight minutes Arnold became a part of the team, he was no longer an outsider or a redneck, he was their teammate and he was going to fight along with them, against the people he grew up with.

Toward the end of the book you see both those worlds Arnold is a part of, become more than just different worlds. In the span of just a few months three people in his life die, his father's best friend, his grandmother and his sister. After the loss of his grandmother, he never expected his tribe to treat him the way they did. “No matter what else happened between my tribe and me, I would always love them for giving me peace the day of my grandmother's funeral” (Alexie 160) This showed Arnold that although he left them, they we're still family, they cried together and they laughed together that day and he would always remember that. He would also remember how the people from Reardan acted after his sister's death. “They we're worried for me. They wanted to help me with my pain. I was important to them. I mattered. Wow.” (Alexie 214) All the hope Arnold had from both worlds came together for him, and that was something he would always remember.

I read the book and I can see why some people might want to ban ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’ it has a few curse words, tells racist jokes and adds fuel to the fire of being prejudice. Yet the whole point of the story is how two very different worlds was able to accept one person, how is that bad? It shows how a kid (Arnold) was able to fit in both worlds and how those two worlds we're able to care for him. This book shows how when you have hope and take action for those hopes to become a reality, you get results. This book taught me that making sacrifices, even with the worst thoughts of what might happen are worth it. They're worth it because those sacrifices could turn into something beautiful and hopeful.