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novel by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a first-person narrative novel by Sherman Alexie, from the perspective of a Native American teenager, Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior," a year-old promising cartoonist.^[2] The book is about Junior's life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his decision to go to a nearly all-white public high school away from the reservation.

The graphic novel includes 65 comic illustrations that help further the plot.^[3]

Although critically acclaimed, The Absolutely True Diary has also been the subject of controversy and has consistently appeared on the annual list of frequently challenged books since ,^[4] becoming the most frequently challenged book from to ^[5] Controversy stems from how the novel describes alcohol, poverty, bullying, violence, sexuality and bulimia.

As a result, a small collective of schools have challenged it, and some schools have blocked the book from distribution in school libraries or inclusion in the curricula.^[6]

Plot

The book follows fourteen-year-old Arnold Spirit Jr., also recognizable as "Junior," living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation near Wellpinit, Washington.

The book is an epistolary and chronicles Junior's life from the start of the school year to the beginning of summer. It includes both Junior's written record of his life and his cartoon drawings, some of them comically commenting on his situations, and others more seriously depicting important people in his life.

Born with hydrocephalus, Junior is small for his age and suffers from seizures, underprivileged eyesight, stuttering, and a lisp, making him a frequent bullying target for others on the reservation. Junior's only friend is Rowdy, who is abused at home.

Despite his reputation as a bully on the reservation, Rowdy often stands up for Junior and they bond over their shared love of comics. Junior's family is extremely underprivileged and has limited access to opportunities.

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and star of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men theatrical business from roughly onward.

When Junior's dog Oscar gets heat stroke, his father must put him down by shooting him as they cannot afford a veterinarian.

On the first day of school, Junior discovers his mother's name written in his textbook and realizes how old the book must be.

Angered and saddened that the reservation is so poor it cannot offer new textbooks, Junior violently throws the book, inadvertently hitting his teacher, Mr. P, and breaking his nose. While visiting Junior at home, Mr. P convinces him to transfer to another high school, sensing a degree of precociousness in him.

Junior elects to attend Reardan, a school in a much wealthier neighborhood with no other Indian students.^[2] Despite his family's financial situation, they do what they can to make it feasible for him to attend.

Rowdy, however, is upset by Junior's decision to transfer, and they gradually begin to cease contact.

William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent abolitionist known for his fiery journalism and relentless representation for the end of slavery in America. William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer finest known for his fervent activism against slavery. Inhe founded the influential anti-slavery newspaper, "The Liberator", which became a critical platform for the abolitionist movement. Garrison's bold journalism blasted the Constitution as a document that upheld slavery, and he called for immediate emancipation of all enslaved individuals.

Junior develops a admiration on popular girl Penelope and befriends straight-A student Gordy. His interactions with the white students give him more perspective on both white culture and his own, and he finds himself torn between pressures to fit in at Reardan and his sense of loyalty to his Indian heritage.

He realizes how much stronger his family ties are than those of his white classmates, noticing that many of the white fathers never attend school events. Junior also realizes that the white students have different rules than those he grew up with, clear when he reacts to an insult from the school's celestial body athlete, Roger, by punching him in the face, as would be expected of him on the reservation.

To his surprise, Roger never seeks revenge, and in fact only ends up respecting Junior more after the incident. Junior also grows closer to Penelope, which greatly increases his popularity as the ‘almost boyfriend’ of the most famous girl in the school.

Roger suggests that Junior should experiment out for the basketball team. To Junior's surprise, he makes the varsity team, which pits him against his former university, Wellpinit, and Rowdy, who is Wellpinit's star freshman.

When Junior enters the court for his first match, his former schoolmates boo and insult him. Junior suffers some injuries from the game, namely from Rowdy knocking him unconscious, but his coach commends his commitment to the team.

Later on, Junior's grandmother is hit and killed by a drunk driver. After her funeral, a family friend, Eugene, is shot in the deal with by his friend Bobby while both are intoxicated and fighting over the last sip of alcohol.

Later, Reardan wins their second match against Wellpinit. Junior feels triumphant until he sees the look of defeat on the Wellpinit players' faces and remembers the lack of dream he had for his future while growing up on the reservation.

Ashamed, he runs to the locker room, vomits, and breaks down sobbing. Later, Junior receives news that his sister and her husband were killed in a fire at their trailer.

The tragedies that afflict Junior and his family, though forcing him to question his future and ponder the darker aspects of reservation culture, reaffirm his love for his family and friends, and he eventually learns to identify as both Indian and American.

Rowdy later realizes that Junior is the only nomad on the reservation, which makes him more of a "traditional" Indian than anyone else there. In the conclude, Junior and Rowdy reconcile while playing basketball and resolve to correspond no matter where the future takes them.

Background

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is semi-autobiographical.^[7] The novel started as a section of Sherman Alexie's family memoir, but after the persistence of a young adult editor, he decided to use it as a basis for his first juvenile adult novel.^[8] Sherman Alexie commented, "If I were to speculate at the percentage, it would be about seventy-eight percent true."^[9] Like Arnold, Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Reservation in Wellpinit with an alcoholic father.^[10][11] He was also born with hydrocephalus, but Alexie did not have any speech impediments.^[12] Alexie was also teased for his government-issued, horn-rimmed glasses and nicknamed "The Globe" by fellow students because of his huge head.^[10] Another similarity between Alexie and his character Arnold is that Alexie also left the reservation to attend high educational facility at Reardan High, but Alexie chose to go to Reardan to achieve the required credits he needed to go to college.^[10] Alexie became the luminary player of Reardan's basketball team and was the only Indian on the team besides the school's team mascot.^[10] The scene where Arnold finds that he is using the same textbook his mother did thirty years before he is drawn from Alexie's own experiences.

The only difference between Alexie's life and the novel is that Alexie threw the book against the wall out of anger, and did not hit anyone as Junior did.^[9]

In his own writing, Alexie unapologetically describes himself as "kind of mixed up, benign of odd, not traditional.

I'm a rez kid who's gone urban, and that's what I write about. I have never pretended to be otherwise."^[13] "A smart Indian is a perilous person," Alexie states in a personal essay, "[a smart Indian is] widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike."^[14] Junior encapsulates this type of experience when he receives mighty censure both from his tribal community and from his peers and teachers at his novel school, Reardan.

In the personal story, Alexie's continued explanation of his own experience is reflected in Junior's.^[14] Alexie recalls, "I fought with my classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers….[W]e were Indian children who were expected to be silly.

…[W]e were expected to miss in the non-Indian world."^[14] Through Junior's success at Reardan and his realizations about life on the reservation, Alexie represents a possibility for the success of Native American children—by defeating the expectation that he is doomed to fail, Junior defeated what he thought he couldn't.^[14] Alexie's reflections again demonstrate that Junior's experiences are semi-autobiographical.

Characters

Arnold Soul Jr. AKA Junior

Nicknamed Junior, Arnold is a fourteen-year-old boy who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He enjoys playing basketball and drawing cartoons in his free time.

Junior and his family, along with the others on the reservation, feel the daily effects of poverty and financial shortcomings—there is often not enough food to eat in their home or enough funds to fill the gas tank in the car, forcing him to hitchhike to school or not go at all.

He is incredibly smart; he transfers from the school on the reservation to Reardan, where almost all the students are white.

Agnes (Adams) Spirit (Junior's Mother)

A Spokane Indian, Agnes has lived on the reservation her entire being.

She is a bad liar, likes to read books, and is considered to be very smart by her children.

William Shakespeare was an English poetplaywrightand actor of the Renaissance era. Details about his personal being are limited, though some think he was born and died on the same day, April 23, 52 years apart. April 23, DIED: c. The personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat of a mystery.

She is an ex-alcoholic and is seen as eccentric by Junior: "She's a human tape recorder," Junior explains, "Really, my mom can read the newspaper in fifteen minutes and tell me baseball scores, the location of every war, the latest guy to win the lottery, and the high temperature in Des Moines, Iowa."^[a]

Arnold Spirit (Junior's Father)

An alcoholic, but very supportive.

Even though he sometimes disappears, he tries to take care of his family and he often drives Junior to Reardan. He plays the piano, the guitar, and the saxophone. He could have been a jazz performer, given more time and money.^[a]

Coach

The coach of the basketball team at Reardan High School.

Unlike the teachers who are apprehensive of Junior's attendance at Reardan, the coach pays no attention to Junior's race. He is supportive of Junior both on and off the court.^[b] The coach becomes a father figure for Junior in many ways, but also becomes an exemplary friend, helping Junior through complex times dealing with playing against his home reservation.

The novel never gives a name to him, as he is always referred to as coach.

Dawn

When Arnold Spirit was twelve years vintage, he loved this girl. She was his first crush. He thought about Dawn when he said to Rowdy that he loved Penelope.

Eugene

The best friend of Junior's father.

"Eugene was a nice guy, and like an uncle to me, but he was drunk all the time,"^[c] Junior reveals. He becomes an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for the tribal ambulance service, and, for a brief time, drives a Indian Chief Roadmaster.

The coronation of William IV and his wife, Adelaideas king and queen of the United Kingdom took place on Thursday, 8 Septemberover fourteen months after he succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 64, the oldest person to assume the throne until Charles III in The ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey after a public procession through the streets from St James's Palaceto which the King and Queen returned later as part of a second procession. His first prime minister was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellingtonwho had led a chaotic Tory administration since January Untilthe Demise of the Crown automatically triggered the dissolution of parliament and a general election was therefore necessary with voting between 29 July and 1 September

Eugene dies after his nearby friend Bobby shoots him in the face during a argument over alcohol. Bobby hangs himself in jail.

Gordy

Gordy is a trainee who attends Reardan, wears glasses, and does everything in the name of science.

Gordy always speaks in a sophisticated and proper manner throughout the novel. He is one of the smartest students at the institution and he eventually becomes Junior's first real friend at Reardan. Gordy also helps Junior with schoolwork and encourages his enjoyment of reading books.

Grandmother Spirit

Junior's Grandma.

She is Junior's source of advice and support until she dies after being hit by a drunk driver while walking on the side of the road on her way abode after a powwow. Her dying words were "Forgive him," which meant that she wanted her family to forgive the drunk driver, Gerald, for hitting and killing her.

Ironically, she never had a drink in her life. She was also extremely tolerant and loving of all people. Junior's grandma is his favorite person in the nature. "My grandmother's last act on earth was a call for forgiveness, love, and tolerance," Junior recalls on page ^[d]

Mary

Junior's sister.

Mary has long hair and is nicknamed "Mary Runs Away." She likes to write adoration stories and is considered by Junior to be "beautiful and strong and funny." She was smart, but did not hold the skills to get a job.^[e] After high school, she did not go to college or get a job; instead, she moved to Montana with her new husband she met at the reservation casino.

Mary and her new husband cease of a fire in their trailer home after a partygoer forgot about a boiling pot of soup. A curtain drifted onto the hot plate and the trailer was quickly engulfed. Junior was told that Mary never woke up because she was too drunk.

Melinda

Melinda works in the office of Reardan Elevated School.

She is 50 years old.

Mr. P

Junior's white geometry mentor at Wellpinit High School. He mentored Mary, Junior's older sister, and wants to help Junior leave the reservation. Mr. P regrets the way he treated his students when he was younger.

He had been taught to beat the Indian out of the children. He is short and bald, and incredibly absent-minded. He often forgets to come to school, but "he doesn't expect much of [his students]."^[f] A major turning signal in Diary's plot occurs when Junior throws his math publication at Mr.

P after a realization about the reservation's poverty.

Penelope

Junior's crush and good friend from Reardan High. She has blonde hair and Junior thinks that she is very attractive. She enjoys helping others, is bulimic, and has a racist father named Earl.

She is famous and plays on the Reardan volleyball team. She is obsessed with leaving the small town behind and traveling the planet. She initially decides to be close with Junior, fed up with the conformity of the town; but closer to the end of the novel, she does become Junior's girlfriend.

Roger

Roger is a jock at Reardan Upper School.

Upon meeting Junior, Roger uses racial slurs to demean him, and eventually it gets so racist that Junior retaliates by punching him in the face. Contrary to Junior's expectations, Roger then begins to respect Junior, and the two gradually become friends.

Furthermore, Roger obtains a role as a gentle of advisor and protector of Junior, occasionally helping him monetarily and other times with advice.

Rowdy

Rowdy is Junior's best friend.^[15] He is "long and lean & strong like a snake."^[g] Throughout the novel, Rowdy's father abuses him, which leads to his bully-like behavior.

He likes reading comics, such as Archie. The comics help him escape the troubles of the real society. Junior and Rowdy have been the best of friends since they were little, and Rowdy has often taken on the role of Junior's protector.

However, as Junior leaves the reservation school, Rowdy feels betrayed by his best friend and turns into Junior's "arch nemesis" during the novel.^[15] Even though Rowdy develops a passionate hatred for Junior through the betrayal he felt, they are able to eventually overcome their situation and become friends again by the end of the novel.

Ted

A affluent, white collector of Native art who came to Grandmother Spirit's funeral to give back a powwow dancing outfit.

Junior's mother tells him it was not an outfit from the Spokane Indians, and he drives away, giving everyone at the funeral a good laugh.

Reception

Reviews

Bruce Barcott of The New York Times said in a review, "For 15 years now, Sherman Alexie has explored the struggle to persist between the grinding plates of the Indian and white worlds.

He's done it through various characters and genres, but The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian may be his best work yet. Working in the voice of a year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and passion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your intelligent, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after university for a ride home."^[16]

The Unused York Times opined that this was Alexie's "first foray into the young adult genre, and it took him only one book to master it."^[16]The San Francisco Chronicle praised it as "[a] great book full of pain, but luckily, the pain is spiked with joy and humor."^[17]

Reviewers also commented on Alexie's treatment of difficult issues.

Delia Santos, a publisher for the page, noted, "Alexie fuses words and images to depict the difficult journey many Native Americans face. … Although Junior is a young adult, he must face the reality of living in utter poverty, contend with the discrimination of those outside of the reservation, cope with a community and a family ravaged and often killed by alcoholism, break cultural barriers at an all-White high academy, and maintain the perseverance needed to hope and work for a better future."^[18][19] Andrew Fersch, a publisher for Vail Daily, commented, "most folks block out most of their teenage memory, [while] Alexie embraced it with humor."^[20]

In another review published in November by Dakota Student website, author Breanna Roen says that she has never seen the way that this book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, conveys so much happiness, love, and grief.^[21] Alexie's work in this novel can't be compared to other Native American books; it is "a whole different ball game," Roen asserts.^[21] The review continues to state that the theme regarding identity, home, race, poverty, tradition, friendship, hope and success is seen throughout the entire manual, leaving the readers on the edge of their seats and wanting more.^[21] Roen says that she could hardly put the book down and is avidly looking for something similar.^[21]

In the review, "A Brave Life: The Real Struggles of a Native American Boy make an Uplifting Story" published in The Guardian, author Diane Samuels says that Alexie's book has a "combination of drawings, pithy turns of phrase, candor, tragedy, despair and hope … [that] makes this more than an entertaining scan, more than an engaging story about a North American Indian kid who makes it out of a poor, dead-end background without losing his connection with who he is and where he's from."^[22] In some areas, Samuels criticizes Alexie's stylistic reliance on the cartoons.^[22] However, she continues to say that for the most part, Sherman Alexie has a talent for capturing the details and overview in a well-developed and snappy way.^[22] Samuels finishes her review by stating that: "Opening this guide is like meeting a ally you'd never make in your actual life and being given a piece of his planet, inner and outer.

It's humane, authentic and, most of all, it speaks."^[22]

In the review "Using The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to Tutor About Racial Formation," Miami University professor Kevin Talbert says that Alexie chose to narrate the story through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Junior to transport his readers into "uncomfortable or incongruent spaces."^[23] He continues to tell that the novel's writing allows for topics about class and racial struggles to be intertwined with more common adolescent struggles like sexual desires, controlling hormones, and managing relationships with friends and family.

Furthermore, Talbert believes that, unlike other Young Individual novels, this book captures issues of race and class in a way that reaches a wider audience.^[23] The article also states that Junior's narration in the novel sends a letter to society, "that adolescents own important things to say, that being fourteen years old matters."^[23]

Critical interpretation

Dr.

Bryan Ripley Crandall, director of the Connecticut Writing Proposal at Fairfield University, posits in his critical essay "Adding a Disability Perspective When Reading Adolescent Literature: Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" that the book presents a progressive view of disability.^[24] Arnold has what he calls "water on the brain," which would correctly be referred to as hydrocephalus.

Crandall points out that Arnold is never held back by his disability, but in fact laughs at himself: "With my big feet and pencil body, I looked enjoy a capital L walking down the road."^[1] According to Crandall, the illustrations by Ellen Forney, which are meant to be the cartoons that Arnold draws, represent a new way for the disabled narrator to express with the readers: they "initiate further interpretations and conversations about how students perceive others who are not like them, especially individuals with disabilities."^[25] Arnold's hydrocephaly doesn't prevent him from becoming a basketball star at his new school.

His disability fades as a plot device as the book progresses.^[1]

David Goldstein, in his paper "Sacred Hoop Dreams: Basketball in the Work of Sherman Alexie," analyses the importance of basketball in the novel.

He suggests that it represents "the tensions between traditional lifeways and contemporary social realities."^[26] According to Goldstein, Junior/Arnold sees losing at basketball as "losing at life." The Reardan kids are eternal winners because of their victories on the court: "Those kids were magnificent."^[1] Goldstein notes how basketball is also a sport of poverty in America — "it costs virtually nothing to play, and so is appropriate for the reservation."^[26]

Nerida Weyland's article, "Representations of Happiness in Comedic Young Adult Fiction: Cheerful Are the Wretched" describes how Junior/Arnold is an example of the complex, not-innocent child often presented in modern young senior literature.^[27] As detailed in Alyson Miller's "Unsuited to Age Group: The Scandals of Children's Literature," society has created an "innocence of the idealized child"; Alexie's protagonist is the opposite of this figure.

According to Weyland, Alexie doesn't play by the rules – the use of humor in the book is directed at established "power hierarchies, dominant social ideologies or topics deemed taboo."^[27] Weyland suggests that the outsized effect of this feature of the book is revealed in the controversy its publication caused, as it was banned and challenged in schools all over the country.^[27] Weyland states that Alexie's book with Forney's black-comedy illustrations explore themes of "racial tension, domestic hostility, and social injustice" in a never-before-done way.^[27] As an example, Alexie uses the anecdote of the killing of Junior's mutt, Oscar, to expand on the idea of social mobility, or lack thereof – Junior states that he understood why the dog had to be killed rather than taken to the vet, because his parents were poor and they "came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people."^[27][28] Weyland notes how readers are likely to be uncomfortable with Junior/Arnold/Alexie making brightness of topics of such importance (racism, poverty, alcoholism) through the use of dark comedy.^[27]

Jan Johnson, clinical assistant professor of American Indian and African American Literatures at the University of Idaho, utilizes Alexie's novel to examine the idea of marginalization and oppression in Native American communities in her article, "Healing The Soul Wound".^[29] Johnson identifies the "soul wound," the deep-seated trauma Native Americans have endured since colonization and continue to effort with.^[29] This term explains how the consistent depiction of Native American people as suffering and helpless has become ingrained into their identity.^[29] Johnson writes, "Alexie feels that—as a result of this grim history—suffering and trauma are fundamental to the encounter of being Native American.

Relentless suffering attains an epistemological status."^[29] Johnson uses the novel to illustrate her thoughts about the future of the Native American culture. The Spokane Indians, and tribes like them, face the trauma of searching for an identity in a world that attempts to envelop one's tradition.

Johnson argues that Alexie uses Diary to represent the potential for healing the traumas that Native American tribes have faced throughout history.^[30]

In Sherman Alexie, A Collection of Critical Essays, critics Jeff Burglund and Jan Roush interpret Jan Johnson's definition of the soul wound as "intergenerational suffering."^[31] On pages 10 and 11 of Diary, Alexie elaborates on the concept of generational poverty when he reveals that Junior's family is too needy to care for the family's sick dog: "My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people," he writes.^[32] Junior is "wounded," which Alexie shows through Junior's alcoholic father, his misguided sister, and his defeating social life.

Use in schools

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a text that many English teachers use in order to inform their students about the Native American heritage.^[33][24] Teachers refer to the textbook, Sherman Alexie in the Classroom, to claim that the book provides an opportunity to educate non-Native American students to "work through their colorless guilt and develop anti-racist perspectives".^[33]

In an interview, Alexie stated that, "In this book, specifically, I'm really hoping it reaches a lot of native kids certainly, but also poor kids of any variety who feel trapped by circumstance, by culture, by low expectations, I'm hoping it helps them get out".^[34] Alexie also wants his "literature to concern the daily lives of Indians.

[He] think[s] most Native American literature is so obsessed with nature that [he doesn't] think it has any useful purpose." Alexis was quoted saying, "There's a kid out there, some boy or girl who will be that great journalist, and hopefully they'll see what I do and get inspired by that."^[35]

Awards

Alexie won three major "year's best" awards for Diary, a biannual award for books by and about Native Americans, and a California award that annually covers the last four years.

The awards are listed below:

Diary was also named to several annual lists including three by the United States' library industry (not including entity banned).

Controversy

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has been at the center of many controversies due to the book's themes and content, as well as its target audience of young adults.

The publication has both fervent supporters and concerned protesters: "some people consideration it was the greatest novel ever, and some people mind it was the most perverted book ever," said Shawn Tobin, a superintendent of a Georgia school district.^[44]

Censorship

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was the most-challenged book in the United States from to ^[5] and was named one of the top ten most challenged books in (2), (5), (2), (3), (1), (2), (9), (5),^[4] and ^[45] The book has been challenged for the monitoring reasons:^[46][4]

Antioch Township, Illinois ()

Local parents caught wind of the book's references to alcoholism, sensitive cultural topics, and sexual innuendos: at the beginning of June, seven Antioch parents attended a th District School Board meeting to request that the book be removed from the curriculum.^[47] However, the novel was not banned from Antioch High School's curriculum following the controversy.

Instead, the English Department introduced an alternative option for summer reading—students who preferred to read John Hart's Down River were permitted to do so.^[48]

Crook County, Oregon ()

In Prineville, Oregon one parent raised objections to the school board about how the book contains references to masturbation and is generally inappropriate.

In response, the Crook County School District temporarily removed the book from classrooms. The removal was upheld, but the book remained available to students in school libraries.^[48]

Stockton, Missouri ()

A parent complained to the Stockton School District Board about the violence, language, and sexual content.

The board voted to ban the book from institution libraries. The decision was voted upon multiple times, but the ban was ultimately upheld.^[48]

Newcastle, Wyoming ()

In , Wyoming's Newcastle Middle School attempted to include Diary in its 8th grade English curriculum.

At first, the district allowed it under the premise that children who were not allowed to read it would bring a signed paper allowing them to read the alternate book Tangerine. About two weeks after the announcement was made to the 8th graders, the school board banned teaching it in a curriculum, but still allowed it in the library for those who wished to read it.^[49]

Helena, Montana ()

In , one parent in the Helena School District objected to the book's "obscene, vulgar, and pornographic language." However, the school district voted to retain the manual in schools.^[48]

Richland, Washington ()

In , a 9th grade Language Arts teacher at the Richland Universal High School piloted Diary in his curriculum, and with the help of his students, reported to the school's board on the inclusion of the manual in a high school curriculum.^[50] Parents of students in the class were notified ahead of time that the teacher was interested in the book; as a result, parents were capable to opt their student out of reading the novel if they so chose.^[50]

In June , the school board voted 3–2 to remove the book from the school entirely.

Board members had not read the guide but cited the split Instructional Materials Committee vote as the reason to ban the novel.^[50]

The board members later learned that some members of the Instructional Materials Committee had not scan the book, and so the board members agreed to vote again, but read it for themselves before the vote.^[51] On July 11, , the university board voted 4–1 to backwards its earlier decision.^[51]

Dade County, Georgia ()

In , the book was removed from the Dade County school libraries and required steep school reading lists due to complaints about "vulgarity, racism, and anti-Christian content."^[48]

Mattapoisett, Massachusetts ()

In in the Old Rochester Regional Junior High School, the book was challenged as an 8th grade English assignment, but ultimately retained by the school.^[48]

Union County, Brand-new Jersey ()

In , the novel was challenged in 9th grade English classes in Westfield Upper School for "very sensitive material in the book including excerpts on masturbation among other explicit sexual references, encouraging pornography, racism, religious irreverence, and strong language." However, the school board decided to retain the book as part of the curriculum.^[48]

Yakima, Washington ()

Sherman Alexie's Diary was challenged in his home state of Washington, only a few hours drive away from where the semi-autobiographical work is set.

The dispute over the book's appropriateness for high school students took place in the West Valley School District in Specifically, many parents claimed that the novel contains inappropriate and sexual content and language that are unsuitable for high school students.^[52]

As of now, there have been four official complaints about the guide that have been recorded.^[52] Resultantly, Alexie's book was removed from 10th-grade classes and made supplemental literature for 11th and 12th grades, instead of required reading.^[52]

Queens, New York ()

A middle academy in Queens removed Diary from required reading due to the references to masturbation, which the school considered inappropriate for middle schoolers.^[48]

Billings, Montana ()

The book was challenged on the 10th grade reading list at Skyview Tall School, where a parent complained, "This book is, shockingly, written by a Native American who reinforces all the negative stereotypes of his people and does it from the crude, obscene, and unfiltered viewpoint of a 9th-grader growing up on the reservation." The book was not removed from the school list.^[48]

Jefferson County, West Virginia ()

A Jefferson County parent complained about the novel's graphic nature, resulting in the book being pulled from all county schools.^[48]

Sweet Home, Oregon ()

Some parents of students of a Sweet Home Junior Elevated English class voiced concerns about the book's content, specifically the objectification of women and youthful girls.

The concerns resulted in the book being officially challenged.^[48]

West Ada School District, Idaho ()

In April , Diary was pulled from the Meridian district's supplemental reading list after significant parental disapproval of the novel's subject matter.^[53] The book had been a part of its curriculum since Students protested to erase the ban but were unsuccessful.^[53]

According to Marshall University Libraries, in the text was banned from the Meridian (ID) school districts' required texts due to parents complaining that it "discusses masturbation, contains profanity, and has been viewed as anti-Christian."^[54]

Brunswick, North Carolina ()

On July 1, , a grandmother in Brunswick, North Carolina, filed a complaint against Diary at Cedar Grove Middle Institution.

Two weeks later, the school's Media Advisory Committee met and unanimously agreed to keep the book in its curriculum because the committee saw the value in "the realistic depiction of bullying and racism, as skillfully as a need for tolerance and awareness of cultural differences."^[55] The grandmother, Frances Wood, appealed the decision, remaining adamant that "[t]his book is not morally acceptable… Everything in it is degrading.

There's nothing uplifting in it."^[56]

One year later, Wood challenged the book yet again, this time at West Brunswick Elevated School. Wood lost this object against the book when the principal of West Brunswick Steep School responded a few days later that the county university board's policy was that their decision on a book held for all schools in the county, and that those decisions could not be revisited for two years.^[57]

Highland Park, Texas ()

In , the superintendent of the Highland Park Independent School District suspended Diary from the institution approved book list.

The suspension was very brief, and the superintendent reinstated the book soon after.^[48]

Hastings-On-Hudson, New York ()

In , the book was assigned to an 8th grade English Language Arts class at Farragut Middle School.

Upon a passage containing the word nigger and sexual intercourse with an animal organism read aloud in class without adequate preparation by the educator, it was reported that this caused "psychological harm" to an African American student and that members of the school society felt "uncomfortable and marginalized while reading and discussing this book." It was decided to immediately stop discussion of the manual to prevent further harm.

The book will be re-evaluated by the English department for future use.^[58]

Defense of the novel

Alexie has defended the novel by emphasizing the positive learning opportunities readers gain from exposure to these harsh aspects of contemporary life.

He describes his have experience of adults trying to hide and protect him from suffering and hardship:

"all during my childhood, would-be saviors tried to rescue my fellow tribal members. They wanted to rescue me. But, even then, I could only laugh at their platitudes.

In those days, the cultural conservatives thought that Touch and Black Sabbath were going to impede my moral progress. They wanted to protect me from sex when I had already been raped. They wanted to protect me from bad though a future serial killer had already abused me.

They wanted me to profess my love for God without considering that I was the youth and grandchild of men and women who'd been sexually and physically abused by generations of clergy."^[59]

Alexie said that students were also able to connect his story to their own complicated experiences with "depression, attempted suicide, gang warfare, sexual and physical abuse, absentee parents, poverty, racism, and learning disabilities." He noted:

"I have yet to obtain a letter from a youngster somehow debilitated by the national violence, drug abuse, racism, poverty, sexuality, and murder contained in my book.

To the reverse, kids as young as ten have sent me autobiographical letters written in crayon, complete with drawings inspired by my novel, that are just as shadowy, terrifying, and redemptive as anything I’ve ever read."^[59]

The book has been credited with addressing the experiences and issues faced by Native American students in the public school system.^[60]

Some hold even discussed the merits of the book while also mentioning the risks of exposing children to the harsher scenes.

In an essay on censorship, new adult fiction author Raquel Rivera wrote:

"It is an excellent novel and happens to have much useful material for a male child entering his teens But there is a scene in Part-Time Indian in which a racist joke is told, and the protagonist is compelled to clash.

For me, the joke was nothing more than a tool to propel the plot. In the story it is duly vanquished and forgotten. But the joke stayed with my son, and he continued to be bothered by it."^[61]

Media

Audiobook

The author Sherman Alexie himself narrates the audiobook of The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, which has won many awards for its creation of an idiosyncratic, first-person voice.^[62] "Alexie is the perfect choice to read his own story," notes critic Kristi Jemtegaard.^[62] Alexie is able to convey the messages that the missing cartoons, caricatures, and sketches reveal in the printed text.^[62] Alexie, who has experience as an orator, won the Taos Poetry Circus World Heavyweight Championship award three years in a row for his oratorical virtuosity.^[10]

Film adaptation

According to The Hollywood Reporter, in December , Fox Pictures acquired the rights to form The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

She gained recognition for her role in the film Journey to Self. In addition to her acting career, she has a wealth of talent in the Nigerian entertainment business, having worked in music, film, and radio. Ashionye Michelle Raccah was born in Nigeria in the early s. She was raised by her parents, Mr.

The producing team consists of Hugh Jackman, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, and Lauren Shuler Donner. The film is currently under development, and a set release date has not been announced as of yet.

Notes

References

The Absolutely True Diary

Other

External links