Richard
Singh
English
102
March 1, 2014
The Tree of Hope
“If
you are going through hell, keep going”. These are the wise yet motivational
words of Winston Churchill, the former Prime Minister of England. Churchill is
simply stating that even when you are in your darkest moments of life; push
through it because there is always a turning point in which where one’s agony transforms
into one’s happiness. This statement can easily describe the character Arnold
“Junior” Spirit in, author, Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. In the novel,
Arnold is a young Native American adolescent growing up in the Spokane Indian
Reservation. Just like all of the other Indians on the reservation, Arnold is
very poor and struggling to get by in life. On top of being close to dirt poor,
Arnold has a few physical abnormalities that causes him to be different from
other people which results in his endless bullying by the other Indians in the
reservation. Though Arnold is mistreated by his reservation, he still has
unconditional love for the reservation. The reservation had contained a few
trees, very big trees. As a child, Arnold had climbed one of the trees in the
reservation that was roughly 100ft tall. Arnold climbed the tree and was very
close to the top until he looked down and saw what possibly could have been one
of the greatest sights he had ever seen in his life. He saw the entire Spokane
reservation and was in awe. The tree that Arnold had climbed as a child
represents his life. For instance, the branches of the tree display all of the
struggles and obstacles he had faced in life. Thought it was an arduous task,
he persevered through the branches and kept climbing the trunk of the tree
because he wanted to reach the top of the tree. Arnold does not let anything
impede him on his journey of becoming successful because he wants to experience
the beauty and joy as he once did when he gazed upon the reservation from the
top of the tree.
One
obstacle Arnold faced in the novel was the constant bullying within his
community. Arnold claimed that he was bullied on a daily basis on the
reservation. He said he was called “a retard about twice a day” due to his
defects (4). Not only was Arnold also called names, but also was physically
abused by many of the Indians in the reservation. Arnold had claimed that he
was part of the “Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club” (4). Arnold was not only bullied by people around
his age group, but also was bullied by the adults on the reservation as well.
While at the local powwow, Arnold had run into the Andruss brothers. The brothers
are triplets who are in their thirties. Arnold said that, “one of the
brothers…kneed [him] in the balls” (21). Arnold was bullied by many people within
his reservation due to his physical abnormalities. Arnold could have been
drowned by the bullying and succumbed to the pressure by harming himself but
instead he had hope that he could make it out of the reservation. Arnold loved
making cartoons and drawing in general. He said that, “I draw because I feel
like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation” (6). Arnold
used drawing as a coping mechanism in order to stray away from all of the
adversity he had faced. He had hope and faith that he could make it in life
despite all of the hate he received from his own community. Arnold is able to persevere
through bullying by using his own therapeutic method, drawing, in order to
acquire hope of becoming someone successful.
Another obstacle Arnold had faced was
the cheap education he was receiving at the reservation. For instance, during
his first week of high school at the reservation, Arnold was very excited about
taking a geometry class. As his geometry teacher, Mr. P, handed him a book he
quickly opened the book up to the first page only to find it saying “THIS BOOK
BELONGS TO AGNES ADAMS” (31). The book had belonged to Agnes Adams, Arnold’s
mother. As it is depicted by one of his
illustrations, Arnold had thrown the book at Mr. P because he was enraged that
he was “handed a geometry book that was at least thirty years older than [he]
was” (31). Arnold illustrated a picture of what looks to be him throwing the
book at Mr. P subsequent to finding out it was his mother’s book thirty plus
years earlier. Due to the reservation being very poor, Arnold was unable to
receive the proper education he desired because the reservation’s school did
not receive the proper funding in order to be up to date with their material.
Now, Arnold could have completely given up at this point at school and could’ve
become a drop out but instead he did something bold and courageous, which was
deciding, “to go to Reardan [High School]…one of the best small schools in the
state” (45-46). Arnold decides to go to Reardan High, which is one of the best
schools in his state, but was also filled with many rich white kids who were
racist. By being “the first one to ever leave the rez…the Indians [would] be
angry with [him]” (47). Arnold knew by leaving the reservation and going to a
white school he would make many Indians in his reservation upset but he knew
that the only way to make it out of the reservation and to succeed in life is
by taking such an enormous risk because it will lead him towards happiness and
not despair. He did not give up after seeing how poor his former high school
was, instead he decided to go to one of the best high schools in his state,
despite the consequences he may receive.
Besides
the lack of proper education, Arnold also faced the constant struggle of being unconfident.
Before starting high school Arnold talks about how he and his best friend Rowdy
were the best basketball players in middle school. He talked about how Rowdy
would go on to be a great basketball player in high school and start on varsity
but that he, Arnold, would not. Arnold said, “I don’t think I’ll be a very good
high school player…I’ll probably be a benchwarmer on the C squad” (28). Even
before tryouts Arnold is already selling himself short and believes that he
will not be a good basketball player in high school. This is quite ironic
because Arnold ends up trying out for Reardan’s basketball team, whose school
is more athletically demanding, and he “ended up on the varsity…as a freshman”
(142). Even though Arnold always believes he is lower than everyone else, he
still ends up proving himself wrong because of his persistence. Arnold not only
was a varsity player, but he also led them to defeat his former high school in
a blowout game by a lead of “forty-two points” (194). Arnold persevered through
his own lack of confidence by not quitting and trying things out, even if they
have indefinite outcomes. Another example of how unconfident Arnold was is when
he was twelve years old and falls in love with an Indian girl named Dawn. He
said that “she was out of my league...I knew I’d be one of those guys who
always fell in love with the unreachable, ungettable, and uninterested” (74).
Again, Arnold showed how unconfident he was because he believed that he would
never be loved by those he loved, in a non-platonic way of course. It is quite
ironic, again, because he ends up dating Penelope, the “pretty and smart and
popular” girl at Reardan (108). They became the “hot item at Reardan High
School” (109). Arnold showed how he had come a long way from being a total
nobody at the reservation to being a very hopeful and courageous person after
leaving the reservation because he had the mentality of wanting to be
successful. He did not become submerged by all of the negatives because he
fought through them by making very wise decisions, decisions that failed him in
the past but yet still also helped him in the present.
Even
after struggling with bullying, a lousy education at the reservation, and even
being unconfident with his abilities, Arnold also experienced tragic deaths of his
loved ones. Arnold first loses his grandma due to being “struck and killed by a
drunk driver”. Subsequently he loses Eugene, an uncle figure to him, who was
shot by a man who was “too drunk to even remember pulling the trigger” (169).
Shortly after the loses of his grandmother and Eugene he loses his sister Mary,
who “burned to death” because she was passed out due to being “too drunk” to
wake up and realize her home was burning” (205). The common themes in these
deaths are alcohol abuse. It is said that Native Americans do have a history
with alcohol abuse[1].
Arnold himself also says that after his sister’s burial he went to school the
next day because while they shared stories of the departed, “everybody would be
drinking booze and getting drunk and stupid and sad and mean…I couldn’t stay
and watch all of those people get drunk…if you’d given me a room full of sober
Indians, crying and laughing and telling stories about my sister, then I would
have gladly stayed and joined them in the ceremony” (212-213). Arnold said that
he is disgusted with how everyone drinks even though it was the cause of all of
the death of his loved ones. He knows that living in the reservation there is a
great abuse of alcohol and he doesn’t want to be apart of it. He goes to
school, even while being affected by the death of loved ones, because he wants
to succeed in life and not submit to the inherent Indian ways that causes Indians
to regress in life. Arnold said that, “I knew I was never going to drink and
because I was never going to kill myself because I was going too have a better
life out in the white world” (217). Arnold fully realized his journey from
leaving the reservation and what world has to offer and at the same time knows
that his people are slowly killing themselves because of alcohol abuse. He
knows that his perseverance will lead him to a better life rather than living
on the reservation.
In
conclusion, the tree that Arnold climbed as a child represents his life by
the branches representing all of the obstacles in his way from reaching the
top. He doesn’t quit climbing because he is persistent and hopeful of a
beautiful outcome. Sherman Alexie shows us through the lens of Arnold
Spirit the challenges most Native Americans, mainly adolescents, face today.
Many Native Americans are facing alcohol abuse, poverty, and lack of direction.
Arnold was one of the few courageous Indian boys who did not follow the
footsteps of a traditional Indian because he wanted to succeed and would do
whatever it took to attain success. The story’s profound message shows us that
Native Americans are not treated with the proper respect they deserved and that
the United States government should help them out more because they are slowly
dying off. The US did, after all, take their land. They were the indigenous
people of the lands we call home today.
