In his novel The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie tries to answer a question all young children growing up ask themselves, and that’s “Where do I belong?” Any teacher looking to assign a book to their class should always assign a book that has both meaning, and should be a story that gets students excited to read. Every student would be able to relate to Alexie’s main character Junior, and his trouble to find a place in two worlds that don’t exactly want him there. As a teacher, this book would be one that they could use to show kids that even thought they don’t always fit in, they will always be able to make their own place to fit.
Junior uses his talent of drawing in the novel to represent his insecurities about his situation and his life as a “part-time” Indian, yet they are also a great tool for teaching since he also uses the drawings to represent escape for Junior. This would be an exceptional way for a teacher to try and relate to their students and find a talent that an outsider could escape from any real or perceived horrors in their life. Junior expresses his lack of belonging on the “Rez” by saying “You’ll be the first one to ever leave the rez this way,” Mom said. “The Indians around here are going to be angry with you.” (Alexie 47), this shows just what he thinks about how the people of the Rez feel about him. He then goes on to further explain how he feels at Rearden, his new high school, by saying “I didn’t deserve to be there. I knew it; all of those kids knew it. Indians don’t deserve shit.” (Alexi 56). With thoughts like this it would be easy to see how this kid does not feel like he fits in.
Alexie writes this book as if it were an autobiography of sorts, although the characters are fictional, and uses experiences from his own life to help relate to young adults. While this story is about an Indian that doesn’t fit in anywhere, he is speaking to all kids who feel they may not belong. He continues on to show how he deals with abuse, alcoholism, death, and poverty by using humor. He may be an Indian, but he tackles heavy problems that many people can recognize and identify with.
To address these darker issues, and then get over them Junior uses humor to fight back his despair. This is never more so evident than when his grandmother dies. Junior tells a story about a man named Ted that comes to the funeral mistakenly. At the end of Ted’s tale, which was false, Junior says that “Two thousand Indians laughed at the same time” (Alexie 167). He then goes on to explain that “When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing” this showcases perfectly how his character of Junior uses humor to cover his sadness and cope with tragedy.
The message behind this novel is one that every teacher should hope to impart on students in their classroom. Alexie shows that despite adversity in life, there is a way to deal with and overcome the obstacles ahead of you. This fits in our classrooms well because it is a time in young kids’ lives that they are struggling with who they are and where they belong. Alexie deftly uses his novel to tackle these issues and show children that there is hope after all.
