Arnold starts The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian feeling like the reservation outcast, but once he transfers to the fancy white school in Reardan, he becomes a basketball star who gets carried around on people's shoulders. How does Arnold go from zero to hero?
Well, the journey to a new identity is not an easy one for Arnold, trust us.
When Arnold transfers to Reardan, he sees himself as having two different selves: Junior from the outcast from the reservation and Arnold from the white high-school at Reardan. The rest of the novel is really all about reconciling these two different selves.
So how does he do it?
Well, Arnold learns to see himself not simply as Junior the Indian or Arnold the traitor, but as someone who belongs to many different tribes (24.31-24.44). He becomes a multi-tribal kind of guy. He moves between locations, kind of like a "nomad" (30.182). By seeing himself in this way, Arnold resolves his split personality crisis and finds a meaningful, less restrictive form of identity.
Our environment can define who we are. By changing our environment, we can change ourselves.
By seeing himself as a member of many different tribes, Arnold is able to forge a new and meaningful identity. He becomes multi-tribal, which means that he belongs to many different groups.
Arnold is a nomad, just like the old time Indians. Even though he leaves his home on the reservation, he's not abandoning his family, history, or identity as a Native American.
RACE:
Race is a pretty huge deal for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Why? Because it gives Arnold Spirit, Jr. a good deal of trouble in his search for self. Arnold feel like he's only half an Indian – or as he says a "part-time Indian" – once he transfers to the white school of Reardan. He then gets split into two: Junior on the Indian reservation and Arnold in his white high school. This all suggests that one's racial or ethnic identity can change depending on place or social setting.
As Arnold tells us, being an Indian also means being poor. Race and class are deeply connected.
Arnold sees himself as half-Indian and half-white. This suggests that racial identity can change depending on situation.
POVERTY:
One of the most compelling aspects of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is that we see firsthand how devastating and totally awful poverty is not only for an individual, but for an entire community. We see how poverty has squashed hope on the reservation: how alcoholism is everywhere, a condition that leads to tons and tons of senseless death. (Arnold loses his grandmother and his sister.) Though poverty may not teach us anything (as Arnold is quick to tell us), Arnold's fight for a better life inspires us – and gives us hope that things can change.
What's the key to hope? Plain and simple: money. If you have it, the world is your oyster. If not? Well, the world can be a pretty bleak place.
While poverty itself may not teach us anything, Arnold's story of struggling against poverty – and leaving the reservation – fills us with hope. We learn not to give up, but to keep on fighting.
DEATH:
Though our narrator Arnold Spirit is only fourteen years of age, he is confronted with the death of his loved ones over and over and over again. For Arnold, death is pretty much relentless, and comes knocking at his family's door time after time. With bodies piling up left and right in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold finds that death is a very hard thing to cope with to cope with – especially when it is senseless. That is, the death Arnold is confronted with is primarily the result of poverty or alcoholism.
Despite all of this, Arnold must learn to carry on. Arnold does this by focusing on life and the joy that it brings. (Note for example the lists he makes in Chapter 24).
FRIENDSHIP:
Arnold's main friend – and only friend – on the reservation in Wellpinit is Rowdy. Once he moves to Reardan, though, he becomes friends with a whole host of people: Penelope, Gordy, Roger, even the school basketball coach. Why is it important that Arnold meet new people and make new friends? What does he learn from these people? Why is it important that he reconcile with Rowdy in the end of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?
HOPES, DREAMS...:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a novel about hope, and how important it is to have it and how it helps us stay afloat. In this novel, we see the consequences of people and even whole communities that lack hope. Why is it important to hope? Who has the most hope? Why do only white people seem to have hope? Why does Arnold have hope?
The power of hope is limitless. If we can still dream, then we can imagine ourselves out of even the darkest situation.
When others believe in you, it's so much easier to believe in yourself.
EDUCATION:
Reardan High School is a wonderland of chemistry labs, brand new basketball courts, and computer labs. The place is a regular learning hotspot. Arnold leaves the reservation to get a better education in Reardan, but, as we find out, the things that he needs to learn aren't always found in those fancy classrooms. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, so much of what Arnold learns has simply to do with attitude. From Gordy, the Reardan brainiac, Arnold learns about the joys that knowledge can bring. From Coach, the head of basketball at Reardan, Arnold learns about the power of positive thinking – and how a simple phrase ("you can do it") can completely change who you are. Why could Arnold not learn these things at his high school in Wellpinit?
A good education opens the door to great opportunity.
The most important part of Arnold's education at Reardan is that he learns to believe in himself. He learns not to give up.
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