Absolutely True Diary

Response: The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian,is a really funny book that explains the events that Junior/Arnold went through. The author writes all the events not just to explain how bad his life really was, but also to add humor to the story.The story is told by Arnold’s point of view. The reader could understand Arnold’s perspective of his family’s poverty, his love for Penelope, and his struggles with friends and peers.

The first topic that helps the reader understand the point of view and understand the sadness of Arnold’s life is his family’s poverty. He had to kill his dog, have little food, and wear clothes that make him look homeless. In the first chapter on pages 9 and 10 Arnold noticed his dog Oscar was getting il.

He got made fun of by her,was beat up for her, and even got kissed by her. The first thing that expressed his love for penelope is when he told her his name and got made fun of by the whole class for having a very uncommon name. After meeting her and having her feel bad for him they became semi close friends at the time. Throughout the story they became closer and closer together. Arnold came from an indian reservation school to a very white populated school and got bullied but meeting his new crush (penelope) which later on made the situation a hundred times better. The next event that shows Arnold’s love for penelope is when he got beat up for her on halloween. On the day of halloween Arnold saw penelope in the hall and talked about their plans for that night. Turns out that penelope would be asking for money rather than candy to give to the less fortunate people. Arnold said he too would collect money for the less fortunate people so they both can hand in the money to charity together. While collecting his money, Arnold saw 4 big guys walking towards him slowly and before he knew it he was on the ground stripped of the $10 he had raised prior to being jumped. Arnold went to school the following day with a couple of bruises on his back and a sad face as he approached penelope with the bad news. She felt very bad for him and offered to hand

He talks about how he has to deal with bullies, make friends, and deal with old friends. He got bullied a lot when he moved schools. At his new school high school in reardan, Arnold got verbally, and physically bullied. The seniors at his school were much bigger than Arnold and were very rude with their words towards the poor boy. On Page 63, Arnold said that they called him mean names like Chief, Tonto, Redskin, and Squan boy. All of those names are mean and very racist because Arnold lives in a Indian reservation. Arnold also made a couple of friends during the course of the story. After punching the leader of the bullies(roger) and becoming good friends with penelope, Arnold gained respect from a lot of people including roger. They became pretty good friends and roger even was nice to Arnold and helped him when he really needed it. On the pages 125,126 Arnold mentions how roger came into the bathroom to check on him and lent him $40 to pay for the bill at the diner. The connection between Arnold and Roger became very strong that night, they went from enemies to good friends. From then on Roger and Arnold would be best friends. The last thing that helps the reader understand that the point of views is how he has to deal with his old friend Rowdy. Once Arnold left the school at the res, rowdy began to think that Arnold was a trader so they stopped