Part Time Indian Book Should Be Banned Essay

Books are selected to be banned or challenged because people believe the book teaches no lessons or gives the reader no educational value. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is about a 14 year old Indian living on the reservation seeking a better education. This book is consecutively challenged every year by parents concerning this book being inappropriate. In some cases this book has been successfully banned in some school districts. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian should be banned because there is abusive, violent, and racist material which overtakes the educational value.
In the book, Junior’s friend Rowdy deals with abuse from his father. This quote is from Junior at the end of the second basketball game. “And I knew that Rowdy’s father was probably going to beat the crap out of him for losing the game” (Alexie 196). Rowdy is beaten for no reason from his abusive father. Physically abusing your child is messed up and can be inappropriate for some readers. Reading about abuse in a school environment from a fictional story gives the reader no educational value. Therefore, abusive material is not the only reason for this book to be banned, there is also violent content. The books gets violent when Junior’s friend Rowdy punches him in the face. Junior is punched in the
The quote is from Junior after transferring schools, he arrives to school and is made fun of and called names for being a reservation Indian. “But I knew I’d have to put a stop to it eventually or I’d be known as Chief or Tonto or Squaw Boy” (Alexie 64). Junior is racially called stereotypical Indian names. The students at his school are being racist by calling him Indian names. There is no educational value in reading about racism and can be considered inappropriate. Finally, reading about racism and racist slurs shows no educational value to the book and should be banned from