Native American Identity

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“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.” (Page 132) In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the protagonist, Arnold, frequently has difficulty finding the correct balance of being an individual and a member of different communities. Arnold is a Native American who has grown up on a reservation without hope. His family has lived in penury, his whole life, and he decides to pursue a better life for himself and his future family. On the reservation, he is called Junior, while at Reardan he is known as Arnold. These two names illustrate his two public personas and represent his two communities. However, bullies both on the reservation and at his new school harass …show more content…

This name change represents his two communities and how he tries to adapt to be accepted into them. And yet despite his best efforts, again he is conflicted with the balance of being independent and being part of a community when he goes to Rearden, the all white high school. On page 65 Arnold punches a boy named Roger because Roger had been bullying him. Being raised on the reservation, he was taught that how you handle your problems is with your fists, however at Reardan in the “white world” that is not how things are done. This is Arnold struggling between his individuality and how he handles situations versus how everyone else at school does. Moreover, Arnold is distraught that he lives in poverty while the rest of the school was raised in prosperity. Arnold feels pressured to conceal this feature of his life as an attempt to integrate into the school. Throughout the novel, Arnold finds himself struggling between being a member of two vastly different communities and his own …show more content…

A historical example of this is when lighter-skinned African-Americans who could pass as white would live in a white world in times of segregation and inequality. This was exceedingly stressful because they had to sacrifice parts of their lives, such as culture and being able to see their families. And all of this, so that they could fit into a different community and fit into society. Another historical example of this is with members of the LGBT+ community. Before it was socially acceptable to be LGBT+ then members of that community would be “in the closet” or “stealth” because they wanted to be able to fit into society with equal rights and opportunities. They were forced to hide that part of themselves because of threats of violence toward them, unequal rights, and various forms of bullying. They had to find a balance between being an individual, and being a member of society and their communities. To conclude, being a member of society or of a community can be very difficult when it forces you to immolate characteristics of yourself. Throughout the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Arnold finds himself struggling to cope with this balance and assimilate into his communities. Historically, minority groups also found this difficult as they had to hide

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