The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: An Important Accomplishment

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is Sherman Alexie's young adult novel about a high school age boy, Arnold Spirit, Junior, who risks his identity, family and community ties, and humiliation for the chance to hope for a better life.  It's a beautiful story accompanied by great illustrations, but that's not what makes it a great teachable book. 

I have worked for part of my career with low income students and the other part with mostly upper-middle class to wealthy students.  This latter group, even when they are the most empathetic, caring young people you could ever hope to encounter, has tremendous difficulty understanding some of the pernicious effects of poverty.  They understand the symptoms - things like access to health care, graduation rates, and income disparities - but not the effects a life of poverty can have on people.  And that makes sense; It's hard to understand the ways in which a life of poverty can change a person. 

Data and statistics are effective ways to show people why addressing societal problems is important, and I have students who volunteer, donate, and write passionately about these issues because they study this data.  Most of them have a fairly developed sense of fairness and social justice.  Nevertheless, for many of my young students (but I believe for many people in general), when it comes to individuals, they often believe that 'if s/he just tried a little harder/set aside a little bit of money/didn't drink', s/he could change his/her life.  Is it true?  Yeah, to a point.  Is it extremely difficult and rare?  Yes.  Understanding why it's hard is often elusive. 

What Alexie shows through The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is why it's so difficult.  Junior is a heroic protagonist because he takes such an enormous risk to escape the culture of poverty he has grown up in.  Alexie shows how a culture of dreams denied can not just rob people of opportunity but also of hope.  And he doesn't do it by making the reader pity Junior; he does it by showing us how hard he must fight - and how much he must risk - to change his life. 

This is the power of stories and of literature, to allow us to see perspectives and feel empathy towards those whose lives are not our own. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Alexie has put that power to great use and possibly changed the lives (or at least the minds) of many young readers. With this novel he has created a powerful tool for teachers and students everywhere.