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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
A timeline of events following the main character Arnold/Junior in the book by Sherman Alexie. -
Arnold tells us the story of his illness and his problems.
Arnold tells us that he was born with excess cerebral spinal fluid. Because of this he had to have a surgery as an infant. It was supposed to make him brain dead, but he comes out with relatively minor complications. He had 10 extra teeth that had to be removed and he is nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other. He also gets made fun of by other kids for the size of his head. He occasionally has seizures, that cause him to have a stutter and a lisp. The other kids call him a retard. -
Arnold tells us about Oscar.
Arnold tells the story of his "best friend", his dog Oscar. Since Oscar is always there for him, he is very important to Arnold. Oscar gets sick, and Arnold's mother tells him that everything will be fine. He knows that his family doesn't have enough money to take him to the vet. His parents decide to shoot Oscar because that is the cheapest way to put the dog out of his misery. Arnold is devastated. -
Arnold gets harassed at the powwow.
Arnold does not want to go to the powwow because he is afraid he will get beat up like he always does. His friend Rowdy convinces him to go and says that he will protect him. Rowdy ends up getting drunk and runs into a minivan. Arnold laughs, and Rowdy pushes him down. Rowdy gets a shovel and attacks the minivan. Arnold runs because he is scared of Rowdy and getting arrested for vandalism. Arnold runs into triplets that are big time bullies. They made fun of his brain disorder and attacked him. -
Arnold throws a geometry book at his teacher.
Arnold likes learning and is excited for his first high school geometry class. On his first day of school, his geometry teacher comes to class with a box of geometry textbooks. The teacher, Mr. P., hands out the textbooks. Arnold is shocked to see his mother's name signed on the front page of the book from over 30 years ago. He is enraged he is being taught with course materials over 30 years old and before he knows what he's doing he throws the book as hard as he can into Mr. P's face. -
Arnold asks his parents if he can transfer to Rearden High School.
After Arnold has been suspended, he gets a visit from Mr. P. He tells Arnold that he is very smart and that he doesn't want to see him give up. When Arnold's parents come home, he asks them if he can transfer to the rich school for white farm kids that is located 22 miles outside of the reservation. His parents tell him that it will be hard to get him there and that the kids on the rez will hate him. Even with their concerns, they agree to support him and let him switch schools. -
Rowdy punches Arnold on the Playground.
The day after he decides to transfer to Rearden, Arnold finds Rowdy on the playground and tells him the news. Rowdy thinks it is a joke and starts to get mad. Arnold even suggests that Rowdy transfer with him, but Rowdy hates Rearden. Rowdy realizes that he is being completely serious and turns away from him. Arnold taps his shoulder, and Rowdy turns around to push him and then punches him in the face. -
Arnold Starts School at Rearden.
The day after his fight with Rowdy, Arnold has his first day at Rearden. His dad drove him the 22 miles to school and told him to remember that the white kids aren't any better than he is. The other students stare at his black eye, and Arnold notices that all of them are wearing nice clothing compared to his tattered ones. It is also ironic that the school's mascot is an Indian. -
Arnold meets Penelope.
In his first class, Arnold meets a pretty girl named Penelope. She leans toward him to ask him his name. He tells her that his name is Junior because that's what people called him on the reservation. She laughed because she thought the name Junior was funny and soon enough the whole class was laughing at his name. Then, the teacher took role and called out his full name, Arnold Spirit. Everyone was confused why he had two names. -
Arnold punches Roger in the face.
One day at school, a big kid named Roger walked by Junior and said, "Hey, Chief." He went on to say a very racist joke about Indians, and Junior felt as if Roger had just kicked him in the face. Roger and his friends were laughing, and Junior knew that he had to do something big. He punched Roger in the face. Roger and his friends were stunned. At Rearden, fights were not common. Junior was just following the "rules of fighting" that he had learned and lived by his whole life on the reservation. -
Arnold makes friends with Gordy.
In his science class one day, Arnold speaks up to correct a teacher that is wrong. The teacher and the whole class laugh at him assuming that he doesn't know what he is talking about. Only the class genius doesn't laugh. The teacher looks to Gordy, the genius, to tell him that Junior is wrong. Unfortunately for the teacher, Gordy says Junior is right. After class, Junior goes to thank him. A couple days later they become friends and Gordy helps teach Junior things like how to study. -
Arnold goes to the Winter Formal with Penelope.
In December, Junior took Penelope to the Winter Formal. He only had 5 dollars, so not nearly enough to pay for everything. He spends the whole night trying to hide the fact that he is poor. He tells Penelope to meet him at the gym since he can't afford gas or a car and he has to wear his dad's old suit. At the end of the night Penelope asks him if he is poor. He says yes and she gets Roger to drive him home. Neither of them care if he has money, and they just want to help him out when they can. -
Arnold tries out and makes the varsity basketball team.
Junior almost didn't try out for the basketball team at Rearden, but his dad convinced him to. His dad told him, "You have to dream big to get big." Junior went in thinking that he was going to get cut, but he never gave up or took a break. He went hard and he made the varsity team as a freshman. His coach said that he was the best shooter who'd ever played for him. -
Arnold's team loses against Wellpinit.
As Arnold and his team walk into the Wellpinit gym, every indian turns their back on Junior except for Rowdy. Rowdy looked like he wanted to kill him. When Junior gets subbed into the game, someone from the crowd throws a quarter at his forehead and it draws blood. Instead of going to get stitches, he makes the EMT stitch him up. He finally gets in the game and steals the ball to go for a layup. Before he knows it Rowdy jumps up and elbows him in the head knocking him unconscious. His team lost. -
Arnold loses his grandmother and Eugene.
Not long after Christmas, Junior's grandmother was hit by a drunk driver and died in emergency surgery. Junior loved his grandmother and she always was there for him. This loss was devastating to him. In February, his dad's friend Eugene is shot in the face by his friend Bobby. Bobby was too drunk to even know what he had done. At this point Junior is enduring so much loss, and he feels angry with God. -
Arnold's basketball team beats Wellpinit.
Arnold's team had done really well since the first time they played Wellpinit. Their record was 12 wins and 1 loss. This time the game would take place at Rearden. Coach gave Junior a pep talk and had him guard Rowdy. Junior played an amazing game and his team won by 40 points. He finally felt as though he had defeated the enemy. As he looked over at the Wellpinit team, he also thought about how he knew that several of them might not have even had enough money to eat breakfast that day. -
Arnold loses his sister and makes up with Rowdy.
Arnold's sister died too. She had a party in her trailer, and her and her husband were drunk and passed out in the back bedroom. Somebody was trying to cook and they left the hot plate on. It caught fire when the curtain blew in the wind and the trailer burned down quick. His sister was too drunk to even wake up. Junior has now lost another person due to alcohol. As he's working through this, he runs into Rowdy. Eventually they make up, and they go back to being friends again.
