Part Time Indian Essay FINAL DRAFT

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.

               

             

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[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3068262