Zachary Davis

November 16, 2015

English 10
Part Time Indian Essay
Grade: 90- AInside and Outside
In the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian By Sherman Alexie, Arnold
Spirit JR. is an Indian adolescent who is greatly affected by external factors, which
shape and form his internal traits as he goes through his life. Alcohol is an extremely
prominent external factor in Arnolds life on his reservation. People close to him in his
life are constantly being killed by alcohol. Despite all these deaths, Arnold is able to
keep an optimistic view on his life and his surroundings. Ultimately, external factors that
affect people are of greater importance than internal factors. This is because internal
factors are generated from what affects you in your life, like alcohol and like death;
those are the things that shape who you are on the inside.
In Arnolds life, he has lost his sister, his Grandmother, and his father's best
friend, who he thought of as a second father figure, all to alcohol. Evident of these
deaths, alcohol is a huge external factor and affect on his life. Inevitably, these deaths
happened in different ways and had different effects on Arnold's feelings and reactions.
Arnolds father throughout the entire book is a huge alcoholic. He attempts to explain to
Arnold that he is only an alcoholic when he is drunk (107) which scares Arnold. His
father is hardly ever able to drive him to school, or spend time with him because half the
time hes too drunk. More often than not, Arnold tries to ignore the fact that his father is

an alcoholic. This is Arnold holding his feelings inside to seem tough, which is the
opposite of the right thing to do. He has seen what alcohol does to people on the
reservations. You die over it, and that would leave Arnold and his family in even worse
conditions than they were with his father around. Arnolds sister died simply because
she was too drunk to stand up and exit her trailer which was ablaze. She died within the
fire and Arnold was the one left to hurt from her death. Arnolds grandmother, who was
one of the largest influences in his life, died to a drunk driver hitting her and killing her
when surgery was attempted on her in the hospital. He suffered the most in his family
because of how much she helped with intricate encounters throughout his life. Eugene,
his father's best friend was shot and killed over the last sip of a bottle of wine. Each of
these deaths clearly affected Arnold and sent into a deeper and deeper sadness and
realization of alcoholism. Surprisingly, through these deaths and situations, Arnold kept
an optimistic outlook on life. He had a naive hope for himself, which is what seemed to
have kept him going throughout the hardships.
Optimism is a difficult internal trait to hold even as a person who has had a
relatively easy life. Arnold, using his strong willed personality is able to keep it through
numerous hardships I cant even imagine. Arnold's ability to keep an optimistic view on
his life was one of his ways to survive the deaths, the alcohol, the loss of friends, the
changing of school, the racism, and finally the beatings. Although optimism is on the
inside of you has a person, I believe there were three occasions where positive thinking
was absolutely necessary for Arnold. The first, was when he began dating Penelope,
and realized she had bulimia. This was a point at which Arnold realized that the people
at his new all white perfect school had problems as well. He was going to be able to

help Penelope with her problem which would further him and her into their relationship.
The second, was when Roger paid for Arnold to eat at the pancake house. This moment
was so crucial to him. Arnold thought that he was going to lose Penelope and lose
Roger and the guys as friends simply because he was too poor to pay for himself.
Dude! Roger said. Man, dont sweat it. You should have said something earlier. I got
you covered. (126) At this moment, Arnold was reassured Roger was his friend, and
they werent going to judge him for being poor or for him not having enough money to
pay for himself and his girlfriend. The final and most important moment for Arnold was
getting Rowdy back as his friend. I would always love Rowdy. And I would miss him,
too. Just as I would miss my Big sister, Eugene, and My grandmother. (230) This was
Arnolds realization that Rowdy was accepting him for who he was, which was the single
most important thing Arnold heard throughout the story. He also, relates his optimism to
alcohol. All three of the people he mentioned were killed due to alcohol, and him being
able to look back and remember what happened will be important for him as he moves
along through his life.
As Ive grown up, its become more clear to me that I am a realistic person. Being
a realist, isnt always a sought after opinion or view when trying to think positively. A
very recent occasion where I would consider my realistic point of view would be
condemned is relating to the constitutionalizing of gay marriage in all states. Most
people would expect that automatically just because of this law people would get rid of
biases and abide by the law. Kim Davis, who was a clerk for Rowan County Kentucky,
denied a gay marriage proposal, and because of this she was arrested. I didnt expect
there to be much change in our society. People are going to continue to discriminate

against things they arent comfortable with. Ignorance in race is still a very prevalent
issue in our society and because of that, even though slavery was abolished years ago,
people continue to believe with what they were brought up with. Change takes years to
settle with and people cannot expect an entire country to change in a heartbeat. My
ability to be realistic about this topic, gives me almost a neutral outlook on topics of this
nature. This can be helpful when thinking about politics and how I could lean to either
side. This ability is one of the placeholders in my life and keeps me honest in how I live.
External and internal traits in a person are wound together tightly when thought
about in the greater scheme of things. The way you act is really based on your outside
influences, and is rawly shaped around how you are brought up. People may believe
you are born with everything and every personality trait, however I think this is far from
true. Because of this, I consider internal factors to be widely more important, and to be
shaped a specific way, is solely based on what outside influences are put on you from
the day you are born. This relates to me, because of my realism. As a white,
heterosexual, male, I feel as if I keep a realistic view, I will be able to avoid
uncomfortable confrontations and deal with situations in an understanding and
reasonable manner.