Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian Reading Comprehension Excerpt

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
By Sherman Alexie
Art by Ellen Forney
© 2007

The Absolutely Truthful Diary of a Part-Time Indian won the National Volume Award in 2007.   But I didn't hear about it then.  Before this past summertime, I'd never heard of it.  I beginning read about it in this article on The Atlantic Wire.  It made the news in Baronial, because the book, once required summer reading for incoming sixth graders, had been banned past a New York public school.

Fox News's off-white-and-balanced headline read: "Complaints reportedly force NYC school to remove book on masturbation from summertime reading listing."  According to New York Daily News, which kickoff reported the story, the mother who complained about the book said, "It was like '50 Shades of Grey' for kids."

I used to be a public-schoolhouse teacher.  And I tin tell you from beginning-hand feel that a "volume on masturbation" would never make the cut for a public schoolhouse's required summertime-reading list.   So, I was curious.  And skeptical.  I decided to do a little more research.

The  Absolutely True Diary of a Function-Time Indian is no stranger to controversy or to  being banned in schools (for a detailed description of some of the bannings and the purported reasons therefor, click here).  Since 2010, information technology has been on the American Library Association'southward list of the 10 most ofttimes challenged books every year.  Last yr, information technology was the #2 virtually banned and challenged volume.  Why?  "Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for historic period group."

And that'southward not all.  In 2011, Meghan Cox Gurdon wrote a slice for the Wall Street Journal entitled "Darkness Too Visible: Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity.  Why is this considered a skillful thought?"

Here is her thesis:

If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is. There are of course exceptions, but a careless young reader—or one who seeks out depravity—will find himself surrounded by images not of joy or dazzler but of damage, brutality and losses of the nigh horrendous kinds.

Gurdon has obviously been blessed with a life of flowers and rainbows, every bit seen through her delightfully rose-colored glasses.  Patently, she is unaware that "damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds" are the reality for some kids (and not "hideously distorted portrayals" thereof).  She throws around the word "depravity" as simply a clueless, eye-aged, ultra-conservative lady would.

Gurdon'south article is relevant here, considering, in her bitchy bluster, she takes potshots at The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and its writer, Sherman Alexie:

Every year the American Library Association delights in releasing a list of the most oft challenged books. A number of young-developed books fabricated the Top 10 in 2010, including Suzanne Collins'south hyper-fierce, best-selling "Hunger Games" trilogy and Sherman Alexie's prize-winning novel, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Role-Fourth dimension Indian." "It virtually makes me happy to hear books still have that kind of power," Mr. Alexie was quoted proverb; "There's nothing in my book that even compares to what kids tin can find on the Internet."

Oh, well, that's all correct then. Except that it isn't. It is no comment on Mr. Alexie'south work to say that one depravity does not justify another. If immature people are encountering ghastly things on the Cyberspace, that's a failure of the adults around them, not an excuse for more envelope-pushing.

V days later, the WSJ printed Alexie'southward response: "Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood."  Here'southward an excerpt:

Does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother? Does she believe that a YA novel near murder and rape will somehow stupor a teenager whose life has been damaged past murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a child who already lives in hell?

[. . .]

When some cultural critics fret about the "e'er-more than-appalling" YA books, they aren't trying to protect African-American teens forced to walk through metal detectors on their style into school. Or Mexican-American teens indelible the culturally schizophrenic life of beingness American citizens and the children of illegal immigrants. Or Native American teens growing upwards on Third World reservations. Or poor white kids trying to survive the meth-hazed trailer parks. They aren't trying to protect the poor from poverty. Or victims from rapists.

No, they are simply trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be. They are trying to protect privileged children. Or the seemingly privileged.

With this as my introduction to the book, my interest was piqued.  I didn't know anything most the content of the book (other than the masturbation bit), but I immediately added it to my to-read listing.

From the outset, (this volition come equally no surprise to you) I was more on Alexie's side of this battle than Gurdon'due south.  But I was trying to proceed an open mind.  I wantedto understand what information technology is about the volume that strikes people as so horribly offensive, so inappropriate, so evil, so . . . depraved.  And I wanted to assess, as considerately as possible, whether those things were reason enough to continue it out of a loftier-school library.

Then, I took careful notes while I read.  The following is a fairly (but probably non entirely) comprehensive list of what could exist considered questionable content.  I will suspension it downwardly according to the categories listed on ALA's website of why the volumehas been banned or challenged:

Offensive language

The book is written as the diary of a fourteen-yr-one-time boy living on an Indian reservation in the Pacific Northwest.  He talks similar—you guessed it!—a 14-yr-old boy.  There are definitely a handful of "bad" words, just information technology'southward nothing you wouldn't hear in the halls of whatsoever middle school (and certainly non anything new to a mid onetime enough to read the book).

I have a notorious potty mouth, so if any of these 4 lists is incomplete, it is probably this 1 (I wouldn't be surprised if I read a word that could be considered offensive without thinking twice most it and, thus, failed to make annotation of it).  But, as I was reading, I used my maternal grandmother, who in one case reprimanded me for saying "jeez," as a guidepost.  I tried to include on the following list any word or phrase that appears in the book that would have offended her:

• retard ("And if you're fourteen years old, like me, and you're nonetheless stuttering and lisping, so you become the biggest retard in the earth.  Everybody on the rez calls me a retard about twice a day        . . .")
• sucks ("It sucks to exist poor, and it sucks to experience that you lot somehow deserve to exist poor.")
• dickwad
• ass
• retarded fag
• bitch
• asshole (used multiple times, including: "The world is only cleaved into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not.")
• nigger (see below)
• faggot
• tree fag
• bite my ass
• pussy
• eat me

Racism

The book is about Arnold "Junior" Spirit'south conclusion to go to a improve school that is twenty-2 miles from home, off the Indian reservation where he lives.  He is a Spokane Indian, and his new school is attended about entirely past white kids, so racism definitely plays a role in the book.  There are both explicit and subtle references throughout the book to the tribe'southward reaction to Arnold'southward choice to go to school off the reservation (suggestions that he has abandoned the tribe, is trying to be white, etc.).  Racism is non condoned or glamorized.  Instead, information technology is portrayed realistically and used to innovate themes of tolerance, acceptance, perseverance, and self-confidence.

• Page 64: Racist joke, bullying ("Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?")
• Folio 131: "They call me an apple because they think I'm ruddy on the exterior and white on the inside."
• Folio 162: "We'd expected this white guy to exist original.  But he was yet some other white guy who showed upwardly on the rez because he loved Indian people SOOOOOOOO much."

Sexually explicit

The claim that the book is a L Shades of Grey for kids or that it is a "book on masturbation" is pretty hilarious.  There are three mentions of masturbation in the unabridged book (two of which are in passing).  In that location are likewise a few mildly sexual references appropriate for the diary of a pubescent boy.

• Page 25-26 (thepassage that is ruby-picked and presented to school boards for banning):

I spend hours in the bathroom with a mag that has one thousand pictures of naked movie stars:

Naked adult female + right hand = happy happy joy joy.

Yep, that's right, I acknowledge that I masturbate.

I'm proud of it.

I'm good at.

I'm ambidextrous.

If there were a Professional Masturbators League, I'd get drafted number i and make millions of dollars.

And maybe yous're thinking, "Well, you lot really shouldn't be talking about masturbation in public."

Well, tough, I'm going to talk about it because EVERYBODY does information technology.  And EVERYBODY likes it.

And if God hadn't wanted usa to masturbate, so God wouldn't accept given us thumbs.

• Page 95-97: Figurative use of the give-and-take "boner" ("[Y]ou should also read and draw considering actually good books and cartoons give y'all a boner."  "I am rock hard . . ." "When I say boner, I really mean joy . . .")
• Folio 136: Vague reference to adults having sex activity ("[Y]our mother helped me become a potable from the water fountain final night, if you know what I mean.")
• Page 172: Reference to masturbation ("grief  . . .When you feel so helpless and stupid that you lot think zero will e'er be right once more, and your macaroni and cheese tastes like sawdust, and you can't fifty-fifty jerk off because it seems similar too much problem.")
• Page 190: Mildly sexual reference and use of the word "blooper" ("I waved at her; she blew me a kiss.  Great, now I was going to take to play the game with a boner. Ha-ha, just kidding.")
• Page 202-three: "Miss Warren was, like 50 years quondam, but she was pretty hot. . . . And then I sort of, er, physically reacted to her hug."
• Folio 217: Says he is in the "tribe of chronic masturbators" (He is also in the tribes of bookworms, cartoonists, beloved sons, and small-town kids).
• Folio 225: Sexual reference ("I'thou not a tree fag . . . I stick my dick in the daughter trees . . .")

Unsuited for age group :

This one was a trivial tougher for me to estimate, because it'south and so wide.  Barnes & Noble suggests that the book is appropriate for kids ages 12-17.  Scholastic says the reading level is 3.4 (the AR level is four), but information technology is appropriate for grades 9-12 (so ages 14-18, or thereabouts).  I'thousand pretty sure kids in that age range accept seen and heard it all.  Just I used this as a catch-all for things virtually which I could imagine Gurdon complaining:

• Page 32: Reference to violence/boldness/insubordination ("Of course, I was suspended from school afterwards I smashed Mr. P in the face, even though information technology was a complete blow.")
• Page 54: Reference to his father'southward boozer driving ("His breath smelled like mouthwash and lime vodka.")
• Page 105-107: Word of bulimia ("Penelope gorges on her pain and and then throws it up and flushes it abroad.")
• Page 155: Reference to gay marriage ("My grandmother had no use for all the gay bashing and homophobia in the world, peculiarly among other Indians.  'Jeez,' she said. 'Who cares if a human being wants to marry some other human being?  All I want to know is who's going to choice up all the dingy socks?')
• Page 169: Reference to alcohol abuse and murder ("Way drunk, Eugene was shot and killed by i of his proficient friends, Bobby, who was likewise drunk to even recall pulling the trigger.")
• Page 171: Reference to suicide ("A few weeks later, in jail, Bobby hung himself with a bedsheet.")
• Page 173: Following his begetter's best friend's decease: "I was mad at God; I was mad at Jesus.  They were mocking me, so I mocked them:

Cartoon by illustrator Ellen Forney

[. . . ]

"More than anything, I wanted to kill God.  I was joyless."

• References throughout to his male parent'due south alcoholism and the frequent abuse of alcohol on the reservation.

There is, without question, a lot of heavy stuff in the book.  Arnold gets ridiculed and bullied by both the white kids at his new school and the Indian kids on the reservation for his option to become to loftier school off the reservation.  He deals with the deaths of several friends and family members.  He talks about the rampant problem of alcohol abuse on the reservation, including his own father's alcoholism.  He is very poor and ashamed of existence poor and scared that the people at his new school will find out that he is poor.  He finds out that the most beautiful daughter at his school is bulimic.

All of this, I'thousand certain, is what Gurdon finds ugly and depraved.  She wants to comprehend kids' eyes and put earmuffs on them and "protect" them from all of these "distorted portrayals."

But, whether nosotros care to admit information technology or non, this is the reality.  Show me a child in whatever public high school, and I'll show yous a kid who knows someone with an eating disorder, has witnessed or participated in or been the subject area of bullying, and knows someone with a trouble with booze.  This volume is not an introduction to those things.  It's truthful that not every high school student has had to deal with murder or suicide or poverty  . . . but many (besides many) accept.  The book offers an example of a manner to navigate those issues.

This is not a night book.  And it is non a dangerous volume.  It is a book in which the positive messages FAR outweigh the "offensive" language or the mentions of masturbation.  And that is why the book is worth reading.  That'due south why it got the National Volume Honor in 2007 for Young People'due south Literature.  In the author's words:

[T]here are millions of teens who read because they are deplorable and lonely and enraged. They read because they alive in an often-terrible world. They read because they believe, despite the unconversant protestations of certain adults, that books-peculiarly the night and unsafe ones-will save them.

I can't make a list of all the peachy themes and messages in this book (I wrote those downwards while I was reading, too, but the proficient list was iv times as long every bit the "offensive" list . . . and this review is already manner besides long).  And, I don't want to ruin the book for yous, because it is definitely worth reading.  And then, I will summarize: the book tackles (in a positive, approachable fashion) rough topics like bullying, poverty, racism, domestic violence, expiry (including murder and suicide and manslaughter), loss (of a pet, of a friend, of a family member), grief, low, loneliness, fighting with friends, alcoholism, and bulimia.  In relation to those rough topics, the book emphasizes the importance of skilful friendships, parental support, tolerance, education, backbone, initiative, and perseverance.  The book provides an extremely relatable protagonist who is a positive, smart, mettlesome kid.  Arnold makes practiced decisions, fifty-fifty when those decisions aren't the like shooting fish in a barrel choices to make.

The thing that makes me the angriest when I read manufactures about banned books is how frequently the people banning the book or seeking to accept the book banned patently haven't read it.  Linguistic communication is taken out of context.  People hyper-focus on inconsequential details and somehow gloss over of import, poignant themes.  I have a feeling this happens oft with this book in particular.  In fact, one school board that was provided only the masturbation passage immediately voted to ban the book.  But, after the board members read the volume in its entirety, they reversed their decision (for additional details, read this).

Rating: four/five🚫

The Admittedly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is written every bit a high-school freshman'southward diary.  Information technology is heavy on dialogue and cartoons (which are by artist Ellen Forney and, like this one at right, are DELIGHTFUL).

There is some "bad" linguistic communication and there are some references to sex, yes, but that is one of the reasons the book is both realistic and relatable.  A book about a loftier-school kid without any of those things would come off every bit silly, young, and trite.

What makes this such a expert book is that it shows yous a child in a pretty shitty situation, who is adamant to exercise something positive, to employ his intelligence for good, and to remain confident and tolerant and strong in the face of difficulty.  He deals with realistic problems in a thoughtful, positive fashion.

If I were still a teacher, I would tell my kids to read it.

Who should read information technology: Aidan in a couple of years (i.due east., kids, peculiarly boys, between the ages of about 12 and 17—give or have, depending on reading and maturity levels); parents and grandparents (I'm talking to y'all, Mom!) of kids in that age range every bit a reminder of (or maybe fifty-fifty an introduction to) what life is similar at that historic period.

I last note:I know there are loads of people out there who disagree with me about this book.  STRONGLY.  If you are one of them, please know that I welcome your criticisms and disagreements  in the comments beneath, but I enquire that you delight brand sure they are constructive and respectful.

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Source: https://iknowwhatyoushouldread.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/why-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-is-so-controversial-and-why-you-should-read-it-anyway/

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