The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2007

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Chapters 19-21

Chapters 22-24

Chapters 25-27

Chapters 28-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 25-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 25 Summary: “In Like a Lion”

Junior becomes a freshman starter on the varsity basketball team. Still, he is a “yucker,” and vomits from nerves before every game. After their loss to Wellpinit, the Reardan team wins 12 in a row. Meanwhile, Rowdy leads the Wellpinit team to a 13-0 record. People compare White Reardan players to former White players, but no one compares Junior to anyone because he’s still an outsider. He wonders if anyone will be compared to him someday.

Before the Reardan/Wellpinit rematch at Reardan, a local news crew interviews Junior. After a few false starts, Junior tells the news crew that Rowdy used to be his best friend and says on camera that he has something to prove to Reardan, Wellpinit, and himself. He wants to win more desperately than he has ever wanted anything. The stakes are extremely high: “we were all boys desperate to become men, and this game would be a huge moment in our transition” (187).

Before the game, Coach says the Wellpinit is more talented, but Reardan has a secret weapon: Arnold Spirit, who will start and guard Rowdy. Junior’s unsure, but Coach says he can do it; “the four hugest words in the world when they’re put together” (189). The statement reminds him of Eugene.

Both Junior’s dad and mom attend the game, as does Penelope. When the Wellpinit players arrive, the crowd boos. Junior and Rowdy face off, and right away, Rowdy gets the opportunity to dunk, but Junior jumps higher than he ever has before, snatches the ball, and sinks a three-pointer. The plays set the tone for the game, and Reardan defeats Wellpinit by 40 points.

While his team is celebrating, Junior notices his dad looking at the Wellpinit team. Junior realizes that Reardan is Goliath, and the Wellpinit Team is David. The White kids are well off without life-threatening problems, while none of the Wellpinit players is going to college. He realizes Rowdy’s dad will probably beat him for losing, and Junior feels intense shame for wanting to beat them. He runs to the bathroom, throws up, and cries. The Reardan team loses in the state playoffs at the buzzer, which Junior feels is karmic. Everyone cries in the locker room, “the only time men and boys get to cry without getting punched in the face” (196).

Chapter 26 Summary: “Rowdy and I Have a Long and Serious Discussion About Basketball”

A few days after basketball season ends, Junior emails Rowdy apologizing for beating Wellpinit. Rowdy calls Junior a homophobic slur. Junior says that might be true, but he still beat Rowdy. Rowdy writes back “ha-ha.” Junior says even though it was homophobic, the exchange was also friendly, and it was the first time Rowdy had talked to Junior since leaving the reservation, which makes him happy.

Chapter 27 Summary: “Because Russian Guys Are Not Always Geniuses”

Junior says that the biggest difference between Indians and White people is the number of funerals they attend. Junior is 14 and has already been to 42, and the vast majority of the deaths are alcohol related. He contradicts Tolstoy, who says, “every unhappy families is unhappy in its own way,” by asserting that Indians are all unhappy because of alcohol.

The guidance teacher, Miss Warren, pulls Junior out of chemistry class. She starts to cry and hugs Junior, who becomes physically aroused. Miss Warren then tells him that Junior’s sister Mary died, and Junior becomes ashamed of his arousal. Miss Warren won’t tell Junior how Mary died, just that Junior needs to talk to his father.

Junior waits for his father outside in the snow, and he imagines his father getting into a car crash on the icy roads. He’s so relieved when his father appears that he laughs. When Junior stops laughing, his dad tells him that Mary and her husband had a party, someone left a hotplate on, and the trailer burned down with Mary and her husband inside. Mary was too drunk to wake up.

Junior starts to laugh again and spits up a small piece of cantaloupe, which is strange because he hates cantaloupe, but Mary loved it. Junior keeps laughing until he finally falls asleep from exhaustion. He has strange dreams, and when he wakes, he and his father reminisce about a time Junior nearly died from a wasp sting. His dad tells Junior he loves him, and Junior says the same, though they rarely say that to one another. Inside their home, Junior’s Mom holds Junior, slaps him, and makes him promise never to drink.

They bury Mary a few days later, and Junior runs away crying from the graveyard. He runs into Rowdy in the woods, who’s also crying. Junior reaches out to touch him on the shoulder and Rowdy takes a swing at him, but misses. Junior laughs, and Rowdy tells him Mary is dead because Junior left the reservation for Reardan. Rowdy tells Junior he hates him and runs away.

Junior returns to school the next day because he knows that everyone on the reservation will be at his house drinking. All the White kids and teachers greet him sympathetically, including Penelope, who weeps. Junior doesn’t know what to say.

Chapters 25-27 Analysis

Having lost once before to Wellpinit, and having lost many times to Rowdy, Junior views himself as the underdog when the teams meet again in “In Like a Lion.” Even Coach positions Reardan as such, saying the team lacks talent, but has “bigger hearts” than the Wellpinit players (187). Junior notes that the game feels like a test of manhood for him and fellow Reardan players, the ultimate coming-of-age moment. The rush of the victory, however, is quickly tempered by Junior’s realization that the Wellpinit players and the Reardan players occupy very different positions in the world due to race, class, culture, and socioeconomic status. The Wellpinit players will lose every “game” on or off the court, and Junior just helped ensure another loss for them. Interestingly, the coming-of-age moment here comes not from winning, but from Junior’s epiphanic understanding of the extremely different social contexts in which the Reardan players and Wellpinit plays live and what it means about their respective available life opportunities.

Rowdy and Junior’s friendship revives through a short email exchange that employs hateful language. Understanding subtext is the key to understanding their exchange; when Junior apologizes for beating Rowdy in basketball, he’s not only apologizing for beating his team, but also for leaving the reservation and joining a new community. Rowdy and Junior’s homophobia here and casual use of a homophobic slur complicates the reader’s relationship toward both characters. On the one hand, the slur seems passed down directly from Rowdy’s father, suggesting that Rowdy is a product of his environment. Junior acknowledges the homophobia, but he still repeats the slur again at the end of the chapter, and the acknowledgement does not excuse his using it, much like Mr. P’s apologies to Junior do not excuse his racism. One way of interpreting these events is to say that Junior is young and human, and as such, is flawed, with both “beautiful” and “ugly” qualities.

Mary’s death is the third alcohol-related death in the book, and it hits Junior and his family especially hard. Junior’s hysterical laughter when he learns of Mary’s death can be interpreted as a sign of grief, much like the laughter at Grandmother Spirit’s funeral. Junior’s surprising discovery of cantaloupe in his mouth raises questions: was he tasting the cantaloupe because his sister Mary loved it? Or is there something more inexplicable, perhaps magical, occurring, a cosmic connection between the two siblings (similar to the story of Stupid Horse in the future chapter, “Remembering”)?

Mary has been living a parallel life to Junior in many ways, having left the Spokane Indian community and beginning to work on her writing. Junior has the benefit of being several years younger and the good luck of Mr. P encouraging him to the leave the reservation at the right time. In another version of events, Junior and Mary’s positions might have been switched, with Junior winding up dead at a young age. Junior’s memories of his own close call with death suggests again how tenuous life is and how lucky Junior is to have lived.

The three alcohol-related deaths cause Junior to reflect more thoughtfully on the pervasive nature of alcoholism on Indian reservations. Junior again uses literature to understand his circumstances, this time Leo Tolstoy, the “Russian Guy” of the chapter title. Junior critiques Tolstoy, citing alcoholism as the essential reason why Indian families are unhappy. Historically, alcoholism occurs at a much higher rate in American Indians than in any other minority population, and it is largely understood as related to poverty, mental illness, and historical trauma. As with any person who suffers from addiction, to suggest they simply “just stop” is to fail to understand the depth of the problem, both in terms of its historical context and addiction’s hold over an individual.