Part-Time Indian Language

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, written by Sherman Alexie, is a fictional autobiography about a young Native American boy. The young man tells his story about living on a Native American Reservation and going to school to a middle class “white” school against the wishes of the people who lived on the Reservation. It also documents his difficulties of overcoming social norms and practices. The book is considered too be a teenager to young adult novel. The book is considered a must read for young adults. Though a fantastic story, the book confronts controversial topics and uses somewhat vulgar language. Due to the topics and the language used in the story, language including extremely racist comments, and sexual language, has caused an uproar with parents of students who were told to read to book.

One such excerpt of inappropriate subjects can be found on page 25. “Most guys, no matter what age, get excited about curves and circles, but not me. Don’t get me wrong. I like girls and their curves. And I really like women and their curvier curves. I spend hours in the bathroom with a magazine that has one thousand pictures of naked movie stars:” (Alexie, Forney, 25) The language in the novel does get slightly worse. However, the novel should not be banned from school curriculums. At least not for older grades. The novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian should be part of the high school reading curriculum, or grades 9th through 12th, however it should be censored from grades younger than 9th grade. The novel contains wonderful messages and a true insight into cultures that are often misinterpreted that are valuable for high school students to learn, but due to its graphic language and topics, it should be censored from grades younger than 9th