{"id":14508,"date":"2020-09-16T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=14508"},"modified":"2020-09-21T23:57:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T03:57:19","slug":"finding-your-identity-absolutely-true-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/finding-your-identity-absolutely-true-diary\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Your Identity: Lessons from Arnold Spirit Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How is the theme of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-find-your-identity\/\">finding your identity<\/a> explored in <em>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em>? How does Junior learn about the concept of finding your identity? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea of finding your identity is often present in the book <em>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em>. Junior, a young member of the Spokane Indian tribe, leaves his reservation for a better education. In the process, Junior tries to understand his identity and learn more about himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about the theme of finding your identity in the book <em>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Does Finding Your Identity Mean?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As he struggles to fit in at his new school, Junior feels like he\u2019s split in two: He wakes up as an Indian (Junior) and arrives at Reardan as a nobody (Arnold). He hopes this is part of his quest of finding your identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He doesn\u2019t feel like he belongs on the reservation, either. <strong>Many Indians think you become as good as white if you aspire to a better life<\/strong>, and Junior faces many people on the rez who think of him as a traitor for going to school outside the reservation. As Junior learns about the idea how &#8220;how to find your own identity,&#8221; he faces this issue more than once. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Finding Belonging on the Basketball Team<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Finding your identity can happen through friends or common interests. One of these common interests was basketball. Junior makes it onto Reardan\u2019s varsity basketball team, and he finally starts to feel he\u2019s found his tribe. As the team enters the reservation for their first game against Junior\u2019s old high school, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wellpinit-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian\/\">Wellpinit<\/a>, Junior can hear the Wellpinit fans chanting. It takes him a moment to realize they\u2019re chanting \u201cAr-nold sucks! Ar-nold sucks!\u201d They\u2019re making a point of calling him by his Reardan name, Arnold, rather than his reservation name, Junior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the team walks into the gym, the fans go silent. Then, <strong>all at the same time, all the spectators in the stands turn their backs on Junior, <\/strong>displaying their contempt towards his new identity<strong>.<\/strong> Junior\u2019s angry, in part because he thinks that if his community had been this organized when it came to educating its children, he might still be there. Thinking about this irony makes him laugh, the sole sound in the gym. In a show of support, his teammates join him, and they laugh their way to the locker rooms. But Junior\u2019s fellow tribe members don\u2019t let up\u2014a fan throws a quarter at Junior, leaving a gash that requires stitches, and Junior\u2019s former best friend, Rowdy (who plays for the reservation team), knocks Junior unconscious within minutes of Junior\u2019s return to the game. Reardan loses by 30 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later in the season, Junior\u2019s eager for Reardan\u2019s rematch with Wellpinit, even though he feels like the \u201cIndian scout who led the U.S. Cavalry against other Indians.\u201d This time, Reardan destroys the reservation team, and Junior ecstatically compares himself and his team to David, who knocks out Goliath with a stone. But then he realizes something: <strong>Reardan isn\u2019t David, the underdog; Readan is <\/strong><strong><em>Goliath<\/em><\/strong><strong>, the giant, the team with all the advantages.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior\u2019s teammates drive their own cars, carry their own cell phones, have parents with good jobs, and will go to college. In contrast, more than one kid on the Wellpinit team probably didn\u2019t eat breakfast. Two of them have fathers in prison. None of them will go to college, and Rowdy\u2019s father will beat him for losing the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having spent most of his life as the underdog, Junior\u2019s now ashamed of his privilege. He continues to feel like only a part-time Indian. He also learns that finding your identity is challenging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Strength in Numbers<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Junior eventually realizes he\u2019s in the company of millions of Americans who\u2019ve \u201cleft their birthplaces in search of a dream.\u201d He&#8217;s also not the only one who has asked the question &#8220;how to find your identity.&#8221; Junior realizes<strong> <\/strong>he\u2019s a member of the Spokane tribe, but he\u2019s also a member of many other tribes, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The basketball tribe<\/li><li>The bookworm tribe<\/li><li>The teenage-boy tribe<\/li><li>The poverty tribe<\/li><li>The American immigrants tribe<\/li><li>The tortilla-chip-lovers tribe<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Finding your identity means understanding that the world is bigger than the Spokane and that he\u2019s a member of many different tribes, Junior knows he\u2019s going to be okay. He also knows that the idea of &#8220;how to find your identity is a big question, and he will continue answering this question as he grows up. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How is the theme of finding your identity explored in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? How does Junior learn about the concept of finding your identity? The idea of finding your identity is often present in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Junior, a young member of the Spokane Indian tribe, leaves his reservation for a better education. In the process, Junior tries to understand his identity and learn more about himself. Read more about the theme of finding your identity in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,43,24],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-14508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-self-improvement","category-society","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>Finding Your Identity: Lessons from Arnold Spirit Jr. - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What does &quot;finding your identity&quot; mean? 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