Paragraph of Setting in the Novel:
The novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is a story that follows a native boy named junior through his life of school. Junior has a lot of mental and physical disabilities that make the story unique, and the setting of this novel is extremely poor and pretty run down. It is not an ideal place to live. the people who live their struggle with substance abuse and anger issues. it is an incredibly sad place where native people are stripped of their culture by white people and even the school system. There is no hope on the “Rez” it is a place where the government could hide people off the radar. It is a place of lost culture and broken people. there is only one road that connects to anywhere else, and they are all alone to do whatever they want until they lose themselves. To outsiders it looks like a fine and normal Indian Reservation, but the truth is much different. This poverty ridden “Rez” is everything but normal. The physical setting for Junior travels through his reservation to his high school and they are quite different as the story goes on. Juniors school life used to be full of pain and horrible memories but when he switches schools and goes to Reardan high school he experiences the same schooling and treatment as white kids. (well, more or less). But even though he could have a wonderful day at his amazing school he still has to go home to his drunken parents and abusive tribe members.
10 Quotes of Setting:
- If the government wants to hide someone there is probably no place more isolated than my reservation, which is located approximately one million miles north of important and two billion miles west of happy. Pg 30
- I mean, it was a crazy hot July day(102 degrees with 90 percent humidity), and plenty of people were falling over from heat exhaustion, so why not a little dog wearing a fur coat? Pg 9
- Both of us were pushed out into the world on November 5, 1992, at sacred heart hospital in Spokane. Pg 17
- And yeah I know its weird but the tribe actually houses all of the teachers in one bedroom cottages and musty, old trailer houses behind the school. Pg 29
- Reardan is the rich white fair town that sits it the wheat fields exactly twenty two miles away from the Rez. Pg 45
- I walked over to the school, and found rowdy sitting in his usual place on the playground. Pg 48“
- Man”, he said. “There’s a lot of white people here.” Pg 71
- That’s what happens in small schools. Pg 86
- Ever since the Spokane Indian reservation was founded back in 1881. Pg 89
- “Yes, it’s a small library, a tiny one. Pg 97