The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Study Guide

Author - Sherman Alexie

About the Author
A National Book Award‐winning author, poet, and filmmaker, Sherman has been named one of
Grantaʹs Best Young American Novelists and has been lauded by The Boston Globe as ʺan im-
portant voice in American literature.ʺ He is one of the most well known and beloved literary
writers of his generation, with works such as The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
and Resevoir Blues and has received numerous awards and citations, including the PEN/Mala-
mud Award for Fiction and the Lila Wallace‐Readerʹs Digest Award.

Official Sherman Alexie Website

[Link]

Study Guide

Chapter 1 - The Black-Eye-of -the -Month Club

1. What was Junior born with?

2. List four physical problems Junior had because of his brain damage.

3. What happened to Junior when he went to the Indian Health service?

4. What did the white doctor believe about Indians?

5. What was "epic" according to Junior?

6. What did the Indian children nickname Junior?

7. What has Junior been branded?

8. Why is the chapter titled "The Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club."

9. Why does Junior draw?

10. React to this quote "I think the world is a series of broken dams and
floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats."

Chapter 2 -Why Chicken Means so much to Me

[Link] at the drawing on page 12. “How Do Internal and External Expecta-
tions Shape Our Lives?”

2. Why does Junior wish he were magical and could make the things he
draws become real?

3. Who is Junior's best friend?

[Link] “Why Chicken Means So Much to Me”, Junior draws a picture of who his
parents could have been(page 12) if someone had paid attention to their
dreams. Discuss why Junior feels they had to give up on their dreams. Cite
textual evidence.

5. Define the term self-fulfilling prophecy, to think about how that might tie
in with the text.

6. React to the following quotes.

a) "We Indians really should be better liars, considering how often we've
been lied to."

b) " Nobody paid attention to their dreams."

c) " A bullet only costs about two cents, and anybody can afford that."

Chapter 3- Revenge is My Middle Name

1. Who is Rowdy? Where is his war paint from?

2. What is a powwow?
3. What happens to Junior at the powwow with the Andruss brothers?

4. What does Rowdy do to the Andruss brothers?

5. What does Rowdy love?

6. What does Junior mean by "I draw his dreams"?

Chapter 4 - Because Geometry is not a Country Somewhere Near

France

1. Identify the following:

a) Mary runs Away
b) Mr. P
c) Mary Agnes

2. What is located "approximately one million miles north of Important and

two billion miles west of Happy"?

3. What hit Junior's heart "with the force of a nuclear bomb" and made his "
hopes and dreams float up in a mushroom cloud"?

Chapter 5 - Hope Against Hope

1. Why was Junior suspended from school?

2. According to Mr. P, why has Mr. P been unjust to Junior's people?

3. What did Junior's sister want to be?

4. According to Mr. P , what are the kids on the reservation being taught?

5. What does Mr. P tell Junior he must do?

6. Why does Mr. P call Junior a fighter?

7. What has Junior kept according to Mr. P.?

8. According to Mr. P, where will Junior find hope?

Chapter 6 - Go Means Go

1. According to Junior's parents who has the most hope?

2. What does Junior want to go?

3. Describe Reardon?

4. Why would the Indians on the rez be angry with Junior?

Chapter 7 - Rowdy Sings the Blues

1. What is Rowdy's reaction to Junior going to Reardon?

2. React to this quote ."We Indians were the worst of times and those Rear-
don kids were the best of times."

Chapter 8 - How to fight Monsters

1. When Junior's Dad takes him to school , why does his dad call him brave?

2. What does the picture on page 57 tring to do?

3. Who is Arnold Spirit?

4. Why is the fight Junior has with Roger the weirdest fight he has ever had?

Chapter 9 - Grandmother Gives Me Some Advice

1. What is Junior's and his Grandmother's talk about? What does his Grand-
mother conclude? Was she right?

2. React - "I might have impressed the king, but the quenn still hated me/"

Chapter 10 - Tears of a Clown

1. Why was Rowdy Junior's secret keeper?

Chapter 11 - Halloween

1. What made Junior feel almost honorable?

Chapter 12 - Slouching Toward Thanksgiving

1. What does Junior come to realize?

2. Who is Gordy?

3. Why are Junior's parents devastated yet Junior is proud of what has hap-
pened to his sister?

4. In this chapter, Junior says of his cartoons "I use them to understand the
world." He then continues on to say "My cartoons weren't just for giggles;
they were also good for poetry." Why does Junior draw? How does art help Ju-
nior? How is art like literature?

Chapter 13 - My Sister Sends Me an E-Mail

1. Where is Mary living?

Chapter 14 - Thanksgiving

1. What did Rowdy still respect?

Chapter 15 - Hunger Pains

1. What does Junior hear in the girls bathroom?

2. Why does Junior feel Penelope sounds like his father?

3. What is Penelope's disorder?

4. Why did Junior become popular in school?

5. Who is Earl?

6. Penelope shares her hopes and dreams with Junior. How are they similar?

Chapter 16 - Rowdy Gives Me Advice About Love

1. What was Rowdy's advise to Junior?

Chapter 17 - Dance,Dance,Dance

1. This chapter starts with Junior saying"I was half Indian in one place and
half white in the other." Discuss Junior's dual identities and how he navigat-
ing between two different tribes.

2. What does Junior say about lies? page 119 Read page 120 how does this
pertain to the chapter?
3. What is ironic about Junior's polyester suit?

4. What is Penelope's nickname?

5. According to Junior why was he shallow?

6. React to this quote."If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be
pretty amazing."

Chapter 18 - Don't Trust Your Computer

1. How does Rowdy respond to Junior's e-mail?

2. Why are the kids at Reardon repressed?

3. Why is Junior called an apple?

4. Gordy says "Well, life is a constant struggle between being an individual

and being a member of the community." What is your reaction ?
"Endless Search" by (American Indian poet) Alonzo Lopez
"Searching, forever searching.
Looking, but never finding.
Day and night, my eyes roam the world.
Searching, not knowing how to end.
This search for myself."
1Poems by Alonzo Lopez (From The Whispering Wind edited by Terry
Allen.)

5. Why were Gordy and Junior a "tribe of two?"

Chapter 19 - My sister Sends Me a Letter

1. What is Mary's paradoxical situation?

2. Why does Mary call her new home the most gorgeous place in the world?

Chapter 20 - Reindeer Games

1. Coach says to Junior"The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to

his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of
endeavor.""It's perfect for you. " How was this true in this chapter?"

Chapter 21 - And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

1. What does Junior's dad always do when the family doesn't have money?

2. What was a "beautiful and ugly thing"?

3. Why do you suppose Junior kisses his fathr on the cheek?

Chapter 22- Red Versus White

1. Why does Junior love his family?

2. Why does Junior call his Grandmother amazing?

Chapter 23 - Wake

1 .What did the Indians on the rez stop doing to Junior after his grandmother
dies?

2. junior says ' When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are
pretty much the same." How is this brought out in this chapter?

Chapter 24 - Valentine Heart

1. What happened to Eugene?

2. How does Junior's father and mother cope with death?

3. What happens in Mrs. Jeremy's class?

4. How does Junior cope with death?

Chapter 25 - In Like a Lion

1. Junior has become a good basketball player. What two reasons does he
give for this?

2. Reardon wins the game against Wellipit. What are Junior's father and Ju-
nior's reaction? Why?

Chapter 26 - Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About

Basketball

1. The title of the chapter may be considered an exaggeration, yet how is it

true?

Chapter 27 -Because Russian Guys Are Not Always Geniuses

1. How many funerals has Junior been to?

2. Why is the chapter entitled "Because Russian Guys Are Not Always Ge-
niuses"? Who is Tolstoy and what did he write that Junior disagrees with?

3. How did Junior's sister die?

4. What is a "grief shower"? page 208

5. What does the illustration on page 213 represent in this chapter?

6. Read the following poem by Native American Indian poet Esther G. Berlin.
How does it relate to the novel?

Chapter 28 - Remembering

1. What does Junior quote mean? "She went searching for her dreams, and
she didn't find them, but she made the attempt"

2. How is Junior making the "attempt"?

3. What does the picture on page 218 represent?

Chapter 29 - Talking About Turtles

1. Junior and Rowdy once climbed the biggest tree on the reservation. How
does this story relate to the novel?

2. Rowdy defines nomadic , how does it relate to Junior?

3. Rowdy and Junior play basketball but don't keep score. What is your reac-
tion at the end of the novel?

Poems by Sherman Alexie

SURVIVORMAN
by Sherman Alexie
JUNE 8, 2009
While others will easily surrender
To thirst, hunger, and extremes of weather.

In Utah, one man carried another

Man on his back like a conjoined brother

And crossed twenty-five miles of desert

To safety. Can you imagine the hurt?

Do you think you could be that good and strong?

Yes, yes, you think, but you’re probably wrong.

1
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alexie

Sherman Alexie

SCARLET

The barista’s acne is torrential—

A perfect storm. Whatever potential

She has for beauty has been obscured

By the open wounds that resemble burns.

And yet, as I look closer, I can see

This young woman is quite pretty

Behind her mask. Her eyes are turquoise,

Not some common blue, and her alto voice

Belongs onstage or in the studio.

She makes my coffee and I want to know

Why, in this new age of dermatology,

She suffers this morbid case of acne.

Has she seen the infomercials about creams

And soaps that will make any face clean?

Where doctors and rock stars share laughter

At photos that show the before and after,

And if you want the cure, call this number?

This scarred woman forces me to remember

That my skin was nearly as pocked and razed.

I once counted forty-four zits on my face,

But I was rez-poor and health care was shitty.

I didn’t live in a first world city,

So why does this woman look like this?

She’s uninsured and untreated, I guess,

Like so many others, but her poverty

Has brutally tattooed her. I’m sorry,

But there’s nothing comforting I can say

To a Hester painted with a different “A.”

But, hell, maybe this woman would just scorn

My pretentious allusion to Hawthorne.

She might be an everyday sort of brave,

And possess no want or need to be saved,

Examined, and pitied by the likes of me,

A poet who pays, over tips, and flees.

But then I pause at the door and look back

To see the woman use a fingernail to attack

Her skin. She digs and digs at what wounds her,

Seeking clarity, but nothing will soothe her.

Estranged from the tribe that gives no protection,

What happens to the soul that hates its reflection?

1 [Link]

"Endless Search" by (American Indian poet) Alonzo Lopez

"Searching, forever searching.

Looking, but never finding.
Day and night, my eyes roam the world.
Searching, not knowing how to end.
This search for myself."

1Poems by Alonzo Lopez (From The Whispering Wind edited by Terry

Allen.)