Part Time Indian Trauma

Everyone goes through some type of trauma. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior deals with a lot trauma throughout the novel and his whole life, because of this Junior is different from his other classmates at Reardan. A common theme Sherman Alexie uses is death, and they are all caused by alcohol in some way. Three major deaths in this novel, Junior’s grandmother, Eugene, and his sister, Mary, make Junior not want to drink alcohol, because alcohol killed the people closest to him, so Junior becomes frustrated, and at one point, thinks of suicide.

Junior and his grandmother are close. He appreciates spending time with his grandma because she always knows what to say. Junior becomes frustrated when she dies because she

Junior always loved his sister, but he felt like she has thrown her life away since all she does is sit in the basement. One day, Mary decides to leave home with a guy she met and move in with him in a trailer. Junior feels like it is his fault she left. So, he also thinks it is his fault she died. Mary has a party and is so drunk she passes out with her boyfriend in the trailer. The trailer catches on fire and they are too drunk to wake up, so they burn to death. Junior’s dad picks Junior up from school and later goes home to be with his family. Junior’s emotions are all jumbled up and he starts to laugh uncontrollably. He did not want to accept his loss so he doesn’t. He tries to stay strong and avoid his emotions for his mother. Junior has so much death around him and he doesn’t know how to react, “I was in this weird fog” (Alexie 209). All of the sadness and death turn Junior’s life upside down and he is heartbroken.

Trauma is everywhere, but some people experience it more often than others. Sherman Alexie shows how so much death and alcohol can affect someone’s life, especially someone like Junior. Three major mentors in Junior’s life die. His grandmother, Eugene, and his sister all have something in common. Alcohol caused each of their deaths in different ways and this was very traumatic for