{"id":14440,"date":"2020-09-12T09:31:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T13:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=14440"},"modified":"2020-09-23T11:39:24","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T15:39:24","slug":"arnold-spirit-true-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/arnold-spirit-true-diary\/","title":{"rendered":"Arnold Spirit Jr: The True Diary Protagonist Struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Who is Arnold Spirit Jr.? What is the book <em>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian<\/em> about? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arnold Spirit Jr. is the main character of <em>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em>. Arnold Spirit Jr., who often goes by Junior throughout the novel, is a teenager who branches out from his reservation to attend a nearby school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to find out who Arnold Spirit Jr. is and more about his story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Arnold Spirit Jr.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Narrator Arnold Spirit, Jr (Junior) was born with too much cerebrospinal fluid in his brain, which he initially describes as a brain drowning in grease. But because this makes his brain sound like a big French fry, he decides it\u2019s more poetic to say that at birth, he had \u201cwater on the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At six months old, Junior had a surgery in which the extra fluid was sucked from his brain. His doctors predicted he\u2019d live as a \u201cvegetable\u201d if he didn\u2019t die during surgery, but he survived with only relatively <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/small-problems\/\">minor problems<\/a> relating to his brain damage. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Nearsighted vision in one eye and farsighted in the other<\/li><li>Seizures<\/li><li>A stutter and lisp<\/li><li>42 teeth (most people have 32)<\/li><li>A huge skull<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The extra teeth cause particular problems. When Junior\u2019s teeth get so crowded he has trouble closing his mouth, he goes to the Indian Health Service. The Indian Health Service only does this kind of work once a year, so Junior has to get all ten extra teeth pulled at once. Further aggravating the situation is the fact that <strong>the white dentist apparently doesn\u2019t think Indians feel as much pain as white people, so he only gives Junior half the Novocain.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior\u2019s large head also causes issues. Bullies on the reservation call him \u201cGlobe\u201d: They grab him, spin him around, and put their finger on his head, saying, \u201cI want to go there.\u201d Due to Junior\u2019s physical challenges and speech impediment, people on the reservation regularly beat him up and refer to him as a \u201cretard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cartoons<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior spends most of his time at home drawing cartoons. There are many reasons he loves to draw:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Drawing at home is safer than being outside.<\/li><li>Drawing is a more dependable and universal language than words. Only certain people understand particular languages like Spanish and Chinese. But everyone understands drawings.<\/li><li>Drawing brings Junior hope. While most of the time he feels like a \u201czero\u201d on the rez, he feels important when he\u2019s drawing. Junior thinks he might be a famous artist one day.&nbsp; <strong>He believes his art could be his ticket to a better life.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The End of Summer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior says that most people think the worst thing about being poor is being hungry. He acknowledges that sometimes, he and his family go upwards of 18 hours without eating because they don\u2019t have the money for food. But Junior always knows that eventually, one of his parents will come home with KFC. And KFC tastes even better when you\u2019re hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior sometimes wants to blame his parents for their poverty, but he knows he can\u2019t. He knows his family\u2019s poverty is not his parents\u2019 fault, and he knows they dreamed of more. But <strong>no one on the reservation realizes their dreams. They don\u2019t get the chance. They\u2019re too poor.<\/strong> And that creates a cycle that\u2019s hard to escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>First, you believe you\u2019re poor because you\u2019re stupid.<\/li><li>Then, you believe you\u2019re stupid because you\u2019re Indian.<\/li><li>Finally, because you\u2019re Indian, you believe you will always be poor, and the cycle repeats itself.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Poverty doesn\u2019t make you strong or perseverant. <strong>Poverty just \u201cteaches you how to be poor.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Oscar<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>For Junior, <strong>the worst thing about being poor isn\u2019t hunger. It\u2019s the inability to save his best friend, his dog Oscar.<\/strong> When Oscar gets sick, Junior begs his mom to take Oscar to the vet, but the family doesn\u2019t have the hundreds of dollars needed for the operation. Junior promises to get a job to pay the vet, but he knows that employment options for Indian boys are few: He\u2019s too young to work at the reservation casino and there aren\u2019t many lawns on the reservation to mow. Helpless, Junior lays next to Oscar for hours, petting him and whispering to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Junior\u2019s dad comes home, he gets out his rifle and bullets and tells Junior to take Oscar outside. At that moment, Junior simultaneously hates and deeply appreciates his father. Junior knows his father doesn\u2019t want Oscar to suffer. Junior sees that his dad is crying, and Junior knows that he can\u2019t blame his father for the poverty that\u2019s forcing them to end Oscar\u2019s life this way. Vet visits are costly, but bullets only cost two cents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Junior takes Oscar outside and tells him that he loves him, Oscar seems to understand what\u2019s happening and looks relieved to be put out of his misery. As Junior\u2019s dad prepares the rifle, Junior runs away as fast as he can, but he can\u2019t outrun the speed of sound\u2014so he hears the shot that kills his best friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Early Fall<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When his parents get home, Junior asks them, \u201cWho has the most hope?\u201d His parents look uneasily at each other, unsure of how to answer, but when Junior asks again, they say, at the same time, \u201cwhite people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior knew they\u2019d say that. Now he knows for sure where he and his hope need to go: to Reardan, the rich, redneck, racist farm town where the white kids go to school.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a kid on the rez, saying, \u201cI want to go to Reardan\u201d is like saying, \u201cI want to fly to the moon.\u201d No one leaves the reservation, certainly not to go to another school, and certainly not a white school. But Junior\u2019s parents put up little resistance. Even though Junior\u2019s dad once got pulled over in Reardan three times in one week for DWI (Driving While Indian), Junior\u2019s parents know Reardan is one of the best schools in the state. They suggest he wait until the following school year, but Junior insists that if he doesn\u2019t start the following day, he never will. Junior\u2019s parents agree. It\u2019s as if they\u2019ve been waiting for Junior to ask to go to Reardan. <strong>Like Mr. P, they see their son\u2019s potential and don\u2019t want him to end up drunk and impoverished like the rest of the Indians on the rez.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Saying Goodbye<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day, Junior walks to his old school to tell Rowdy that he\u2019s switching schools. Rowdy is alone on the playground because all the other kids are afraid of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior wants to tell Rowdy that he loves him, but he knows that boys aren\u2019t supposed to say those kinds of things to each other and also that Rowdy would hate it, so he gets straight to the point and tells him that he\u2019s transferring to Reardan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, Rowdy thinks Junior is joking, and he doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s funny. When Rowdy realizes Junior is serious, he mocks him and says he\u2019ll never go because he\u2019s too much of a \u201cwuss.\u201d Although Junior knows Rowdy well and, therefore, should know better, Junior makes two critical mistakes at this moment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mistake #1:<\/strong> When Rowdy turns away, upset that Junior is leaving, Junior touches Rowdy\u2019s shoulder. Rowdy shoves him and calls him a \u201cretarded fag.\u201d This makes Junior cry. Then, to Junior\u2019s surprise, Rowdy starts to cry, too. The fact that he\u2019s crying makes Rowdy so mad that he starts screaming at Junior, accusing Junior of always thinking he\u2019s better than Rowdy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mistake #2:<\/strong> Junior tries to explain that he doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s better than anyone and touches Rowdy <em>again<\/em>. In response, Rowdy punches him. At that moment, Junior knows that his best friend is now his worst enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Arnold Spirit Jr: Reardan and Beyond<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior shows up for his first day at Reardan with a black eye and a swollen nose from Rowdy\u2019s \u201cgood-bye punch.\u201d Before Junior\u2019s dad drops him off, he tells Junior to remember that the white kids are no better than he is. But they both know that\u2019s not true. Junior knows that they both understand they\u2019re Indians losers \u201cliving in a world built for winners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Junior\u2019s Christmas<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior\u2019s family doesn\u2019t have money for presents at Christmas, so his father does what he always does when there isn\u2019t enough money for something: He takes what they <em>do<\/em> have and gets drunk. He\u2019s gone from Christmas Eve until January 2nd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When he gets back, he\u2019s so hungover that he can\u2019t get out of bed. Junior goes into his room to say hello, and his dad apologizes about there being no presents at Christmas. Junior tells him it\u2019s okay, but it isn\u2019t. He realizes that <strong>he\u2019s once again trying to protect the man who repeatedly breaks his heart.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior\u2019s dad tells Junior that he has a present for him now, which he\u2019s been storing in his boot. Under the foot pad, Junior finds a wrinkled five dollar bill. He can\u2019t believe that his father was able to keep himself from spending his last $5 on a bottle of whiskey and two more days of drunken bliss. Junior turns to thank his father for saving the money for him, but his father has already fallen back asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since being at Reardan, Junior has come to understand what good parents he has. Yes, his dad is an alcoholic and his mom is an \u201cex-drunk,\u201d but they show how much they care about Junior with the sacrifices they make and the way they talk to him honestly and listen to him sincerely. This is more than many of Junior\u2019s white peers can say. Junior notices that the parents, especially the fathers, of many of his classmates ignore their kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conversely, on the rez, everyone knows everyone else. There might be problems on the rez, but everyone is close. It\u2019s like a big family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Spring and Summer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As the school year comes to a close, Junior and his parents go to the cemetery to clean the graves. Junior\u2019s mom tells him how proud she is of him, which is the greatest thing she could have said, as far as he\u2019s concerned. He understands that he can be happy while still missing his sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior cries thinking about how amazing his sister was. <strong>She pursued her dreams. She never reached them, but it was the bravery of the attempt that mattered.<\/strong> Junior sees that, like his sister, he\u2019s also making the attempt, and it also might kill him, but staying on the rez also would have killed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior cries for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>His sister and her premature death<\/li><li>Himself and the fact that he\u2019s the only one who\u2019s been brave and arrogant enough to leave the rez and find a \u201cbetter life out in the white world\u201d<\/li><li>His tribe, many of whom will die in the coming year due to the effects of alcohol<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But Junior\u2019s not alone in his grief, or his bravery. He\u2019s in the company of millions of Americans who\u2019ve \u201cleft their birthplaces in search of a dream.\u201d <strong>He\u2019s a member of the Spokane tribe, but he\u2019s also a member of many other tribes<\/strong>, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The basketball tribe<\/li><li>The bookworm tribe<\/li><li>The cartoonist tribe<\/li><li>The teenage-boy tribe<\/li><li>The poverty tribe<\/li><li>The funeral-goers tribe<\/li><li>The American immigrants tribe<\/li><li>The tortilla-chip-lovers tribe<\/li><li>The boys-who-miss-their-best-friends tribe<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Understanding that his world is bigger than the Spokane and that he\u2019s a member of many different tribes, Junior knows that even through his grief, he\u2019s going to be okay. But he also worries about the people he loves who may not be okay, like Rowdy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Arnold Spirit Jr. and Rowdy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After the school year ends, Junior\u2019s at home watching TV when there\u2019s a knock on the door and&nbsp; Rowdy enters. Junior, surprised to see him, says, \u201cI thought you hated me.\u201d Rowdy acknowledges that he does, but that he\u2019s also bored. He asks if Junior wants to shoot some hoops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After shooting in comfortable silence for a little while, Junior tells Rowdy he should go to Reardan with him in the fall. Rowdy responds by saying he was reading a book about how \u201cold-time\u201d Indians used to be nomadic. Rowdy thinks that <strong>Junior is the only true nomad on the reservation<\/strong>, and that\u2019s pretty cool. This makes Junior cry. Rowdy, dry-eyed, is unperturbed. He just tells Junior to make sure to send him postcards as he travels the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior knows that what Rowdy says is true: he\u2019s a nomad. Junior hopes that, someday, his tribe will forgive him for leaving, and that, someday, he\u2019ll forgive himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/junior-and-rowdy-a-friendship-survives-hardship\/\">Junior and Rowdy<\/a> play a game of one-on-one. They play for hours, until the moon is high in the sky, and they don\u2019t keep score.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who is Arnold Spirit Jr.? What is the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian about? Arnold Spirit Jr. is the main character of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Arnold Spirit Jr., who often goes by Junior throughout the novel, is a teenager who branches out from his reservation to attend a nearby school. Keep reading to find out who Arnold Spirit Jr. is and more about his story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,33],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-14440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-people","tag-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Arnold Spirit Jr: The True Diary Protagonist Struggles - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who is Arnold Spirit Jr.? 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