Stand Up Warrior

In the novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie; the main character a teenage boy name Arnold Spirit Jr. was born with hydrocephalus.  He was ridiculed and beaten repeatedly by his own people for no reason. He also experienced the loss of 2 close relatives and a close family friend. Arnold has been through a lot, but he still managed to stay strong without being held down.  From living through the ridicule of those on the reservation to transferring to an all white school, he always stood tall, like a true warrior.  Arnold also experienced his life-long best friend pulling away from him when he transferred to the all white school. Here was a young man that had been set apart from everyone all of his life and now his one confidant didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Arnold was angry, but her still managed to stay positive through the anger and self-blame.

            Arnold is just like any other kid, the only difference he was born with hydrocephalus. People on his reservation (which is simply a Native American ghetto) either didn’t like him or he was invisible to them. He just wanted to be the same like everyone else and fit in but everyone just pushed him away. When he left school a lot of people on the reservation hated him even more because he left for a white school. It was as if they didn’t want to see a white-washed Spokane Indian. It is not a good feeling when your own kind hates you more for leaving the reservation. I asked myself how did Arnold go through all of these challenges and not give up on life.  How could he possibly stay so positive?

A big part that plays a big role in the novel is Arnold and Rowdy the two best friends who are like brothers something that would Arnold would say. These two were inseparable. Rowdy would take care of Jr. and make sure that he was safe and get revenge if someone hurt him. Like for example when junior run into the Andruss brother’s camp and the triplets beat and made fun of him rowdy ran into their house when was sleeping and shave off their eyebrows and cut of their braids. That show you what type of friend Rowdy was to junior, I mean you would except him to understand junior and be understand him but that wasn’t the case everything change when jr told Rowdy that he was transferring schools for a better education but Rowdy didn’t like that one bit he hated that Arnold said “im leaving the rez, man, and I want you to come with me. Come on. It will be an adventure” (Alexie 49). It was sad because junior loss his only friend who he been with him for his whole life, he wanted Rowdy to come with him but he refused to leave the rez for a white school. Even though they weren’t friends after junior told Rowdy he was transferring schools he still considered him is best friend. I can related to this part it was my freshman year at Hayward high school and I was going out for Hayward high football team my sophomore year and I remember I use to get in a lot of trouble at the school, and my older cousin was telling me about Washington high school football and education was better than Hayward. So I had a choice to either stay at Hayward or leave to Washington for a better lifestyle. I then told my best friends that I was leaving to go to Washington and he was sad and mad about that, he told me “don’t leave bro” and I told him “I wanted to this for football and better education!”  I know that didn’t make him happy and it didn’t make me happy because I was leaving my best friend who had my back, and for the longest we didn’t stay in contact but in the back of my mind I still consider him my best friend so I can related to part of this book. it fine when you don’t  have that many people to talk to or don’t like you but when you lose your best friend just because you want to go to a better school it hurt a lot. So how it is that junior don’t let all of this get to him.

            For Arnold things  just get worse from here not only does his people hate him or dislike him but he loses some important people who either play a big factor in his life or was a role model to him. Some of the important people he loss in his life was his grandma, dad friend Eugene, and his older sister Mary. One of the biggest impact is his life was his grandma, she care so much about Arnold just as much he care about her. He didn’t have too many positive role models in his life but when he needed advice about something he would go straight to his grandma. Like for example when Arnold punch Roger he told her that he was scare and what he think that Roger would do to him, and his grandma simply said “I think it means he respect you” (Alexie 68). But when jr heard her say that and said “but I’m not tough at all she replied back with said “yeah, but you punched the alpha dog in the face” (Alexie 70). He didn’t believe her words but soon later realized that his grandma was right. I have another thing in common with Arnold, but this was with my grandpa, he taught me a lot of things even if I didn’t want to hear it but there was one thing that made me think different about life. I remember telling him “Grandpa Track and school is hard and tiring” and he would tell me like this “rell rell nothing in life is easy” I had to think about what he said and applied it to my life. Even before she was died her last words to the family was “forgive him” (Alexie 157).  She wanted the family to forgive and not do anything stupid where they would regret it and she was smart for saying that because Arnold dad was going to find Gerald who killed her and beat the hell out of him! But he respected her last words and didn’t go after Gerald. Another positive thing about her was that she never drink a day of her life and that was rare, because a lot of Native American drink alcohol which cause a lot of negative problems like mostly death, or hurting someone or sad stuff it sad that his grandma was killed by a drunk driver.

 Just when he loses his grandma his dad best friend who was an like uncle to Arnold and another role model to him was shot to death by his “so friend” over a bottle of alcohol over a bottle I say. First of all someone get mad at you for wanting to drink the rest of the bottle is not your friend, no friend pull out they gun and shoot you or threaten you. That was just my opinion but anyways Jr just feel like God was making fun of him, so he want to kill god for taking his grandma and now his dad friend Eugene was he feel like everything was going downhill. Like for example he said “I was depressed that I thought about dropping out of Hearden. I thought about going back to weepinit. I blamed myself for all of the deaths. I had cursed my family I had left the tribe, and had broken something inside all of us, and I was now being punished for that” (Alexie 173). I think it cool that someone close to you tells you that you’re brave for going to a white school. “It pretty cool, you doing this” (Alexie 71). That real motivation to hear someone from the rez tell you that but it also sucks that you lose your life to your so call friend.

The last person that made him focus and motivated was his older sister Mary, the one who stay in the basement. I think if Arnold didn’t hear what Mr. P about his sister being his top student then maybe jr would have stay in the rez but he wanted to leave just because he didn’t want to be like her and give up. So when jr left for the other school she also left and got marry to a guy who gamble, it was like she wasn’t stuck no more and she could finally live the dream she want. But that dream didn’t work out, after her grandma died and he dad best friend died Mary also died because of alcohol and was sad because Arnold lost his only sibling and his parent lost one child and their only daughter. This kid have been through it all it seem like it never ends, how is that that he doing sad but still stay above the water?

So how is it that he stays above water and don’t submerge by this stuff? He basically knows that if there that one people that care about him or show him a little love then he won’t be at the bottom. He has a heart that no one in the rez had and that was being a stand up Warrior, he been though a lot on top of that he loss three people in his life which all alcohol use, so I think that with seeing all that, he don’t want to be in one of them three situations. Even though he think that the deaths is his fault he know that it not deep in his heart and that he can’t let that dragged him because he a Stand Up Wrrior.