Character sketch

Junior/Arnold

Have you ever wondered or experienced what it is like to have to go to a different school and leave all of your friends behind? If so, then you can sympathise with the main protagonist, Junior, of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie. Junior, or as he is known off the reserve Arnold, is a creative and determined person. In this story, Junior goes to the school on the Spokane Indian reservation then a teacher tells him to go to a school off the reserve so that he can be successful. Junior is creative because he likes to draw cartoons. Life on the reserve was hard for Junior so he uses his cartoons to escape from the world. “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little life boats” page 6. Some of his drawings are included all throughout the book helping give your more context about how he feels. Junior is determined because he wants the right to do things. It started when he was only a baby, he was born with too much spinal fluid in his brain, or as he calls it having “water on the brain”. He had to have a surgery to get it removed. After the surgery, he was supposed to have major brain damage and live the rest of his life as a vegetable, but that did not happen. However, he did have some seizures, but they stopped as he grew older. Later, he was determined to be successful, so, he decided to go to school off the reserve. He fought for respect while he was at Reardan, that is the school he went to off the reserve, and he got it. Junior is a fun and believable character that everyone can find a way to connect with.