Where is Wellpinit, Washington? What is Junior’s life like on the Wellpinit reservation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wellpinit, Washington is a small town on the Spokane Indian reservation<\/a>. The main character of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em>, Arnold Spirit Jr<\/a>., grows up on the Wellpinit reservation but leaves the reservation to pursue an education in a nearby town. Junior battles his dual identities, which comes to a head in a basketball rivalry between the Wellpinit school and his new school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep reading to find out more about Junior’s life on the Wellpinit reservation, and the basketball rivalry that helps him find his identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Set in 2006, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em> is a semi-autobiographical novel by Sherman Alexie. Although based on the author\u2019s childhood, True Diary<\/em> is a work of fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14-year-old Junior (Arnold Spirit, Jr.) lives in Wellpinit, Washington, a small town on the Spokane Indian Reservation, known to residents as \u201cthe rez.\u201d Junior describes the rez as \u201clocated approximately one million miles north of Important and two billion miles west of Happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Junior was born with too much cerebrospinal fluid in his brain, and the consequent brain damage has resulted in numerous complications, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 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, Wellpinit, Junior can hear the Wellpinit school 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 When the team walks into the gym, the fans go silent. Then, 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> 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 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: Reardan isn\u2019t David, the underdog; Readan is <\/strong>Goliath<\/em><\/strong>, the giant, the team with all the advantages.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 school 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 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reardan presents Junior with strength to chase his dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Penelope and Junior have ambition in common: They\u2019re both dreamers who feel trapped in their small towns.<\/strong> Penelope\u2019s dream is to study architecture at Stanford; Junior\u2019s dream is to become a famous artist. They both want to create beautiful things, and they bond over that dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the second basketball game against Wellpinit, the Reardan coach admits that Wellpinit\u2019s team is better, but that Reardan has more heart. He then announces Junior will be starting and he\u2019ll be guarding his friend Rowdy, who is much bigger. Junior is terrified, but his coach keeps telling Junior he can do it. He realizes that this simple sentence, \u201cYou can do it,\u201d is one of the most powerful sentences in English<\/strong>, especially coming from an adult. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Where is Wellpinit, Washington? What is Junior’s life like on the Wellpinit reservation? Wellpinit, Washington is a small town on the Spokane Indian reservation. The main character of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold Spirit Jr., grows up on the Wellpinit reservation but leaves the reservation to pursue an education in a nearby town. Junior battles his dual identities, which comes to a head in a basketball rivalry between the Wellpinit school and his new school. Keep reading to find out more about Junior’s life on the Wellpinit reservation, and the basketball rivalry that helps him find<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,24],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-14732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-society","tag-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nLife on the Wellpinit Reservation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Finding Belonging on the Basketball Team<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Shared Ambitions<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n