Absolute True Diary Of A Part Time Indian Friendship Analysis

Friendship: Protection, Belief, and Secrets Imagine life alone, with no one to help you with anything. Could society function without friendship? The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie follows the perspective of Arnold Spirit, or Junior, a Spokane Indian living on the Wellpinit Reservation. He was born with brain damage but still leads a normal life. In search of something more, he decides to transfer schools to Rearden, the rich white school. He meets new people along the way, but also runs into some problems on his journey. In the novel, Sherman Alexie shows that friendship can protect you, push you to be better, and hold your secrets.
First off, the rez is a rough place to live, especially as a kid like Junior,
Friends are people who you can express them to and know they will keep them to themselves, which Penelope, Roger, and Rowdy demonstrate throughout the book. Penelope is introduced as the hot, popular girl who comes off snobbish. On page 71, when Junior tried to greet her, Alexie writes, “She looked at me and sniffed… LIKE I SMELLED BAD OR SOMETHING!” She turned out to not be the awful person she’s portrayed as, but actually one of Junior’s closest friends. The reason they became so close was that Junior accidentally heard Penelope vomiting. He is one of the first people to learn she is bulimic. Knowing this about her, Penelope started to open up more and more. Together they talked about their dreams and aspirations for getting away. He says, “We were supposed to be happy with our limitations...there was no way Penelope and I were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly”(112). They trust each other to talk about important concerns. Another secret Junior shared was his poverty. In addition to Penelope, Roger, who was introduced as a racist calling Junior names like Chief, Squaw Boy, and Tonto, ends up being a generous, trustworthy guy. Alexie writes, “He opened up his wallet and handed me forty bucks”(126). Roger understood that Junior didn’t have money to pay for the food he ordered after the dance, so he gave him money. He kept the secret that Junior was poor and didn’t spread it around, which was something he feared
Friends like Rowdy helped protect Junior on the rez, Gordy pushed him where he wanted to go, and Penelope, Roger, and Rowdy all showed trustworthiness towards him. Friendship brings you many great things and is an essential part of life as you get to understand and be understood. As Junior says, “If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn