Junior's (Arnold Spirit Jr.'s) first crush in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was an older Native American girl named Dawn, a talented powwow dancer with long braids, whom he adored when he was twelve but who didn't reciprocate his feelings, leading him to think he only fell for unattainable girls.
Junior runs outside away from her, into the snow. As he waits, he becomes terrified that his dad will get into a car crash and die too on his way to the school. He is so relieved to see his father arrive that he begins laughing hysterically and can't stop until they reach the reservation border.
At a certain point in the story, Junior begins to fit into his new community at Reardan. He makes a new friend named Gordon, bonds with his coach, and finds a girlfriend. Even the boy who had insulted him with racist remarks on the first day has become one of his friends.
He wanted to beat Rowdy. Why did Junior cry after beating Wellpinit? Junior was ashamed of winning.
While Mr. P comments that he thinks that breaking an old man's nose is “almost unforgivable,” he does forgive Junior. Then he confesses that, as a young teacher, his job was to “kill the Indian to save the child”—or, in other words, to beat Indian culture out of the students.
He said Junior threw the book in his face because he refused to give up on the inside. How did Mr. P change Junior's view of his sister? He said that she used to be a writer.
What does Junior identify as the WORST thing about being poor? He realizes the absolutely worst thing is not having enough money to take their dog to the vet. His dog is his only dependable family member.
Junior gets his first taste of belonging at Reardan. Notably, this happens not by acting like his peers, but by being unapologetically himself. After Junior punches Roger for telling a racist joke, Roger isn't angry like Junior expects—instead, Roger suddenly turns friendly and respectful.
Mary: Junior's older sister. Nicknamed “Mary Runs Away,” she is intelligent but lacks opportunity. She moves to Montana after high school and tragically dies in a trailer fire.
He explains to Gordy that people on the reservation call Junior an “apple”—red on the outside, but white on the inside. To them, he's a traitor.
Roger Character Analysis
A star basketball and football player and a popular senior at Reardan High School. Junior calls him “Roger the Giant.” When Junior first arrives in Reardan, Roger calls him “Chief” and tells him a racist joke, for which Junior punches him.
Plot Summary
Arnold “Junior” Spirit is a Native-American teen living on the Spokane reservation as his family has for generations. Although Junior was born with hydrocephalus, which means that he was born with excess cerebrospinal fluid, and other health problems, he is intelligent and artistic.
Arnold Spirit Jr (known as Junior) is a 14-year-old Native American living on the Spokane Indian Reservation.
After his decision to attend Reardan, Junior feels he is not fully Native American when he is on the Spokane Reservation. Yet, when he is at Reardan, Junior is all too aware that he is not white. This is reflected in many of Junior's cartoons, which show the stark divide between life on and off the reservation.
Saying that Roger told her he lent Junior some money, Penelope asks Junior outright if he is poor, and Junior confesses the truth. He expects that Penelope will abandon him immediately, but instead, she kisses him on the cheek and promises that she and Roger won't tell anyone and will be his friends.
How did Junior spend his Christmas? Junior spent Christmas at home without his dad, who was off on a drinking binge. What does his dad get him as a Christmas gift? $5 bill.
She also doesn't drink, since she believes alcohol would dull her experience of the world. She is “powwow-famous,” beloved by everyone who knows her, and after she dies about two thousand people, Indian and white, come to her funeral. Her last act is to ask her family to forgive Gerald, the drunk driver who killed her.
Yes, Queen Elizabeth I(I) likely regretted the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, on a personal level, feeling conflicted about ordering the death of a fellow monarch and cousin, though she was driven by political necessity to eliminate the threat Mary posed to her throne. She showed signs of remorse, like blaming her ministers for acting too quickly after signing the death warrant, but ultimately felt it was a necessary, albeit painful, act to secure her reign.
Summary: Reindeer Games. Junior's dad tells Junior how he met Junior's mom. Junior's mom is eight years older than Junior's dad, and, when they were children, she lifted Junior's dad up to get a drink from a drinking fountain.
Rowdy, at least according to Junior, is Junior's best friend. But Rowdy seldom expresses his emotions in words, and, whenever Junior tries to tell Rowdy how much he means to him, Rowdy usually responds with a homophobic slur.
Junior also realizes that the white students have different rules than those he grew up with, evident when he reacts to an insult from the school's star athlete, Roger, by punching him in the face, as would be expected of him on the reservation.
Once, when Rowdy was sleeping over, Junior confessed his love for Dawn. At first, Rowdy pretended not to hear, but when Junior insisted that he respond, Rowdy said that Junior was being stupid because Dawn didn't care about him. This made Junior cry—he has always cried easily, which is the “opposite of warrior.”
He calls himself “just a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation.” How does Junior cope with his life? He draws cartoons of everyone he knows, thinking this might be his ticket to becoming rich and famous someday and escaping the rez.
Junior's dog. Junior sees Oscar as “the only living thing that I could depend on” and “a better person than any human I had ever known.” When Oscar gets sick early in the novel, Junior's Dad has to kill him because there is not enough money to take him to the vet.
Mary encloses a photo of her “gorgeous new place,” an aluminum trailer that Junior, who reproduces it in cartoon form, thinks “looks like a TV dinner tray.”