Part-Time Indian Humor

The author, Sherman Alexie, did very well with just about every aspect of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, in my opinion. I think what he did best, though, was the humor. For me, personally, humor is the most appealing and most effective way to keep my attention and to get me to finish reading the entire book. Some parts of this are sad when you think about it, but the constant humor kept me smiling and laughing throughout the book. At the beginning of the story, the narrator, who is also known by everyone as Junior, talked about all of the things wrong with his body and how ugly he was; Alexie added some humorous similes to make you laugh a little bit during that particular scene. Junior was talking about how his eyes and glasses

The two settings are very distinct because one is the Indian reservation where he lives, and then the other is a mainly white community where he transfers to for school. I think the story would have changed if it took place anywhere else besides those two places. They are completely different, and Junior learned a lot more being able to experience life in two different places. The Indian reservation was a dangerous place for him because fighting was a normal thing, and he was not strong enough to defend himself. At the beginning of the book, Junior talks about the difficulties that arose for him early in his life due to being born with too much cerebral spinal fluid in his skull (Alexie 2). That played a big role for him because he was looked at as a “nerd” and got picked on a lot. Alcoholism was also a really common issue at the reservation, so that made his desire to get out of there even stronger. The community Junior attended school in was very different from where he lived. For starters, he was known by his birth name, Arnold, instead of Junior. Reardan, the school that he transferred to, was different from Rez in a lot of ways, and they were really good at sports. Junior mentioned that they beat them in flag football twice, handed them their only two losses in basketball, and then beat them in baseball too (Alexie 42). The kids at his new school

One of the first scenes that I am able to relate with is when the family has to put their sick dog down because they could not afford to save him. Junior said, “I wanted to blame them for my sick dog and for all the other sickness in the world. But I can’t blame my parents for our poverty because my mother and father are the twin suns around which I orbit and my world would EXPLODE without them” (Alexie 10). I can relate to that particular scene because my family also had to put down our dog last year. Junior stated that there was nothing he could do to save his dog, and I could relate to that on a personal level because I also knew that there was nothing I could have done to save my dog either. My dog was also sick when we had to put her down, so I knew how Junior felt when he was really upset and wanting to blame his parents. I knew that I could not blame my parents either, because there was nothing any of us could do about it. It is a sad part of life, but we have to move on. Another relatable scene is when Junior found out that his sister wanted to be a writer before she gave up on that. Junior could not believe it when he found out from his teacher, and he began to question, “had she been hanging on to her dream of being a writer, but only barely hanging on, and something made her let go?” (Alexie 33). I have been asked multiple times what I am going