The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian

In Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, he chooses upon numerous themes in America’s 21st century. Alexie is an example of a great writer that brings many themes into one piece of literature. He accomplishes this by pulling in characters with different backgrounds and different views on things. He piles situations on top of each other that create multiple outcomes for the main character. Alexie makes a commentary about American society through plenty of themes, but the most apparent being bullying. This project contains cartoons done by me, that flow with each paragraph below. Each cartoon connects with the artifact in each paragraph through the big concept of bullying. Through pulling in themes from all

over and creating a huge interest in the 21st century, Sherman Alexie focuses on bullying that can be connected with many different situations and artifcats.

One ongoing theme in Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and the unknown painting above is how bullying lowers self-esteem.

Constantly through the story, Junior is bullied with words or fists. As soon as Junior enters his new school, there are horrendous remarks made about Junior’s culture. One being when a kid came up to Junior and said, “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?” (Alexie 64). Words like these are thrown at Junior by his ex-best friend and random civilians. It lowers Junior’s self-esteem and makes him reconsider the choices he made. The words being thrown at Junior can be seen in the picture above. This eye-opening picture does not have a title nor a painter willing to credit it. However, the person being seen with their hands over their ears can easily be seen as Junior from Alexie’s story. The person saying “freak” over and over again, could be placed with all the things thrown at Junior throughout his life. In both artworks, the characters getting yelled have a lower self-esteem because of the verbal abuse they’re getting. Both Junior and the person covering their ears go through days with verbal bullying, but hopefully the person in the painting gets through it just as Junior

does.
The ongoing theme of bullying, in the aspect that life’s not fair, is present in Sherman Alexie’s book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Junior is picked, pushed, and punished by people all through his childhood. One day, at Junior’s new “white” school, he plays a game of basketball against his old “Indian” school. Junior tells the reader, “and as I ran onto the court, somebody in the crowd threw a quarter at me. And hit me in the fricking forehead” (Alexie 145). Junior did nothing to his old school, except leave it. Everyone at his old school looked at him as a traitor and despised him for it, but Junior continued on with his life. The will Junior has can also be seen in the song “Bully” by Shinedown. The lyrics that best describe Junior’s situation are, “It's 8 a.m., this hell I'm in Seems I've crossed a line again For being nothing more than who I am So break my bones and throw your stones. We all know that life ain't fair But there's more of us we're everywhere (Shinedown 2012). The song tells of a person living their life while being bullied. The person being bullied in the song, and Junior from the novel, both live their life although life's most definitely not fair. Sherman Alexie’s story and Shinedown’s song both consist of this constant theme of bullying in the 21st century.
Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian, and a great speech given in 1781 speak of a form of bullying.

Both situations have a person or group of people that have not done anything to anyone, but their “friends” beat them up anyway. In 1781, Lenape Chief Buckongahelas gave a speech in Gnadenhutten Ohio. His speech tells of American men pushing Native Americans out of everything they have. He claims, “That this must be the case I concluded from the many cruel acts his offspring have committed from time to time against his Indian children, by encroaching on their lands, stealing their property, shooting at and even murdering without cause men, women, and children. Yes, even murdering those who at all times had been friendly to them” (Buckongahelas). He tells of American men befriending Native Americans, just to push the Native Americans off of their homeland. This is similar to the theme present between Rowdy and Junior in Alexie’s novel. Junior leaves to go to a new school but still tries to reconnect with Rowdy. After e-mailing Rowdy for advice, Rowdy responds with, “Hey Asshole...Get a Life” (Alexie 115). This is just one of the times Rowdy beats up Junior for no reason. Both situations give similar messages, Rowdy and Junior or Americans and Native Americans, that consist of one protagonist that did nothing wrong and one antagonist that is doing things only for

themselves.
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian, written by Sherman Alexie, contains many stories with many different aspects of bullying. Through multiple commentaries about bullying, very different artifacts, and the drawings I provided, a reader can come to the conclusion that bullying is one of the important ongoing themes today and in the novel.