Part Time Indian Friendship

The exceptional novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, possess a great amount of themes. Yet the one that stands out the most is the theme of friendship. This essay will explore the various relationships that junior has with his friends Rowdy, Roger, Penelope, and Gordy. The audience and Junior learn that friendship can be found in the most unusually places or even when its least excepted.

Junior and Rowdy share a very special relationship it is undeniable that these two are inseparable. They’re practically twins because they share the same birthday which is November 5, 1992 and claim that they spending every waking hour together “Rowdy and I have spend 40,880 hours in each other’s company” (Alexie

24). The best part about their relationship together is how caring and honest they are to one another, especially if it hurts to hear it. After Junior’s beloved dog Oscar died, he considered disappearing to grieve. Surely Rowdy talked him out of it and made it clear that no one would miss him if he left. “ But he is my best human friend and he cares about me, so he would always tell me the truth” (Alexie 16). As painful as it was to hear him say this, Junior knew it was true, however he also knew that Rowdy would miss but would never admit it. Subsequently my best friend and I share a very similar relationship like Junior and Rowdy. There isn’t a moment when I’m not on the phone with her or when we’re just hanging out. My best friend and I are also brutally honest with each other, but also have that fine line of respect.
The friendship that Junior shares with Roger and Penelope is the kind that would be found in the most unexpected places – Reardan high.

Before Junior and Roger became the buddies they are later in the novel, they had their differences. At the beginning Roger was a very rude person who would say racist things to junior. However if you fast-forward toward the middle of the book we find that things have totally changed. Roger now respects Junior and even helps him out in a drastic way that Junior would have never thought anyone would help him. Roger lends Junior forty bucks after Junior supposedly left his wallet at home. “Man, don’t sweat it. You should have said something earlier. I got you covered” (Alexie 126). This is a significant grand gesture of kindness. Junior and Penelope have an exclusive relationship. These two share a lot of their hopes and dream together and darkest secrets. Penelope told him what she wanted to do with her life “I want to go to Stanford and study architecture” (Alexie 112). Junior was the first person to find out that Penelope was bulimic. In like manner with Penelope finding out that junior was poor. Although Junior had superb relationship with Roger and Penelope, he had also shared a valuable one with his basketball team. “I wasn’t expected to be good so I wasn’t, But in Reardan, my coach and other players wanted me to be good. They expected me to be good. And so I became good. I wanted to live up to expectations” (Alexie 180). His basketball

team turned him into a confident person and made him believe that he could achieve greater things. I’ve had friends in the past that encouraged me to reach for my goals just like the Reardan basketball did for Junior. As a matter of fact I have a exclusive relationship with a particular friend and we talk about our hopes and dream as well as our secrets. I was the first person to find out that my friend was gay. Ever since then our friendship has grown stronger, because I was able to be there in the moment and support her.
It’s quite difficult to understand Junior’s relationship with Gordy. In the novel he explains that they are just friends that study together and how his relationship with Rowdy is not similar to his relationship with Gordy. However its clear to see that Rowdy is like the Gordy of Reardan. In some strange way Rowdy and Gordy both protect Junior. Rowdy protects him on the Rez and Gordy sticks up for him at school. “Thanks for sticking up for me back there. For telling Dodge the truth” (Alexie 87). It is unquestionable that Gordy and junior are more then just friends. They are both afraid to admit that they are more like best friends. They both like the same nerdy things. Also Gordy stands up for Junior more than once. The second time he does is when the teacher gives Junior a hard time after his grandmother passed away. “But I was too broken. Instead, it was Gordy who defended me” (Alexie 175). I remember back in the sixth grade I used to have a friend that would stand up for me whenever I was being named called about my weight. It felt really comforting knowing I had a friend that would protect me like that. I later returned the gesture back in the eighth grade when he was being bullied online.
In brief The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian taught me that friendship can be found at most unusually of times or even when you don’t excepted. We just have to keep our hearts open and go with the flow of things. You’ll never know what the power of friendship can do if you don’t believe.