Identity and Fluidity: Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian

In what follows, L.M. shares her thoughts on Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian.


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The novel The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, is a witty account of Arnold Spirit’s breaching of the cultural barriers between the Spokane Indian reservation and the mainstream American society. As Junior decides to attend high school at Reardan, an all-white school outside of the reservation, he steps out of the indigenous cultural sphere and goes beyond the limits of reservation life. Being exposed to the white society, Arnold is forced to negotiate his way between two different cultures. This constant shift between cultures unsettles Arnold’s sense of self-identity, which oscillates between tribal values or loyalty to the reservation and his desire to fit into the mainstream white society. However, through his struggles associated with the dichotomy between these cultures, Arnold’s split selves reconcile and ultimately reach an agreement as he realizes and accepts the
fluidity of his identity.  At the beginning of the novel, Sherman Alexie builds up a narrative in which
Arnold strongly identifies with the Spokane Indian tribal group. As Arnold describes the
problems faced by the Spokane Indians, he states that “we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those changes. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are” (13). By using the subject “we,” Arnold equates and groups himself with the rest of the Spokane Indians on the reservation. As he reveals to the audience his sense of inclusion, it is obvious to see that Arnold is referring to himself as one of the “reservation Indians,” which suggests that he certainly identifies with this group of people.

Arnold’s strong identification with the Spokane Indian group manifests into a sense of segregation from the whites. By using the subject “we reservation Indians,” Arnold has categorized himself as a “reservation Indian” (13). This categorization serves as a mechanism of separation, for it groups together certain individuals within a larger society; in this case, the Spokane Indians are assembled into a single, stand-alone entity within the larger American society. In other words, this system of classification forms an artificial sphere that separates the Spokane Indians from the mainstream white society by bestowing on them a sense of sovereignty and exclusivity. As Arnold self-identifies as a part of this independent group of people, he has stepped into the artificial sphere and pulled away from the society that surrounds it – the white community outside of the reservation. Indeed, this line of division is illustrated through Arnold’s worry that “[his] fellow tribal members are going to torture [him]”
for going to Reardan, for breaking away from a place where his identity belongs to and entering a separate world.  Arnold’s sense of belonging in the Spokane Indian community becomes more
apparent as he attempts to defend the Spokane culture against the constant prejudices of his white classmates. When a “gang of giants strutted over to” Arnold at lunchtime, the leader, Roger the Giant, takes one step too far by telling a joke in which he compares Indians to the offspring of “niggers” and “buffalo[s]” (65). Having been exposed to ridicule and humiliation, Arnold acts out of indignation and “punched Roger in the face” (65). The significance of Arnold’s action lies in the fact that
Arnold “wasn’t just defending [himself]. [He] was defending Indians” as well (65). Because Roger’s joke about Indians in general evokes in Arnold the feeling of being “kicked […] in the face,” Arnold has taken the joke personally, which implies that he considers himself as a part of the “Indians” (65).

Arnold’s decision to attend school at Reardan – a community that embodies everything “opposite of the rez”, and thereby everything “opposite of [Arnold]” – marks the beginning of his struggle to maintain his Indian identity (56). On his very first day of class, Arnold’s introduction of himself as Junior was only met with the laughter of his classmates. Surprised by the “laughing” class, Arnold “had no idea that Junior was a weird name,” for “it’s a common name on [his] rez” (60). The difference between the perspectives on the name “Junior” symbolizes the demarcation between the Spokane Indian and Anglo cultures. Because “every other Indian calls [him] Junior,” the name “Junior” becomes an embodiment of Arnold’s Indian identity, an identity he is pulled away from when the teacher calls him by his “name name […] ‘Arnold Spirit’” (60). Arnold admits to the audience that his name is both “Junior and Arnold,” which evokes in him the feeling of having “two different people inside of one body” (61). Here, Arnold reveals for the first time his conflicting identities. From this point on, there is a strongly depicted dichotomy between his struggle to preserve his Indian-self and his struggle to fit into the dominant Anglo culture at Reardan. This dichotomy is clearly visualized in the drawing on page 57, where he constructs a comparison between Indians and whites by splitting a drawing of a boy
into two halves.  It is certainly possible to look at this drawing as an amalgam of Arnold and any
one of the “white guys” at Reardan (56). Or perhaps, one could view it as a picture of the narrator himself, split into Arnold and Junior, his white self and Indian self  respectively. The significance of the illustration lies in the fact that each half is exactly the opposite of the other, which represents the distinctive contrast between the two cultural identities. This binary polarization between the two in turn suggests their incompatibility, and the internal conflict that Arnold is attempting to resolve.
Later on in the novel, however, this cultural demarcation of Arnold’s Indian and white identities is blurred. When the Reardan basketball team claims victory in a game against the Welpinit Redskins, Arnold “whooped” as he celebrates their victory. As he excitedly claims that they, the Reardans, “had defeated the enemy,” Arnold shares the victorious joy with the white players on the team. He has completely subsumed his identity into the Anglo culture of Reardan, for he now recognizes himself as a
part of the white team. Though Arnold has developed a sense of belonging towards the whites in Reardan, he has not neglected the part of him that is defined by the Spokane Indian culture. He now realizes that not only is he a “Spokane Indian,” he also “belonged to the tribe of American immigrants. And to the tribe of basketball players” (217). Instead of denying his Indian culture, Arnold opens up to new experiences that foster an additional set of identities. Rather than shifting his identity from the reservation to the white community at Reardan, Arnold now personifies both cultures as he accepts the fluidity of his identities.

As Sherman Alexie plays with the dichotomy between cultures, he unsettles the artificial line that divides the indigenous groups from the rest of the American society by combining the two cultures into a single representation, which guides the audience to a deeper thinking of a cultural hybridization. During this process of hybridization, diverse identities become alloyed into one single entity, which undermines the mechanisms of separation created by a system of categories. The blurring of this line of cultural segregation in turn breaks down the traditional notion of having only one cultural identity, which calls for the need to redefine the boundaries between cultures. The underlying motive of the author then becomes clear: what he endeavors to illustrate through this cultural fusion is a possibility for the attainment of cosmopolitanism – an ideology that people from different social or cultural spheres all
belong to one community that is based on shared values and moralities.

L.M.