The Effect Of Friendship In The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-time Indian

Friendship was conveyed in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in means of great importance and significance. Friendship is a very needed, very important aspect for Junior because of everything that is going on in his life. Some of these include health, poverty, bullying, loss, grief, racism, and many other themes portrayed throughout the book. Three main characters portray great lengths of friendship; Rowdy, Penelope, and Gordy. These friends come and go but the effect that they have is what counts, its what matters.

It shows the needs and wants of these characters. They help the psychological and moral growth of the main character, Junior. He learns the value of friendship and all the effects life can have on these relationships.

Junior’s one and only friend on the reservation was Rowdy. As we start the novel, Junior says “Rowdy and I are inseparable” (Alexie 24). They did anything and everything together. They both went to Wellpinit, played games, shared all their hopes and dreams, and just had fun with each other.

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Junior and Rowdy both had their issues. Junior was born with cerebral spinal fluid which is just the start of why Junior doesn’t love himself. He thinks of himself as very unproportionate and an outcast that gets made fun of. Thankfully, Rowdy was on his side and was prepared to fight anyone that gets in their way. On the other hand, Rowdy had some of his own problems including anger issues and a drunken father that affected the way that he acts.

They both loved each other despite their differences. They had another setback when Junior moved to Reardan, which was a huge rivalry school. Rowdy went off at him and later made an effort to avoid him. Towards the end of the book, there was a silver lining for them. Rowdy was done with being bored and fighting and Junior had made an effort to apologize and fix their friendship so he decided that he would come over and play basketball like how they had done before. To conclude the book, Junior says “I would always love Rowdy. And I would always miss him, too. Just as I would always love and miss my grandmother, my big sister, and Eugine” (Alexie 230). Junior is giving us a really good representation of his love and his friendship with Rowdy while also trying to move forward in life and use what he has been through to better himself. Rowdy and Junior end the book playing one-on-one with no score until it was too dark to continue. Basketball is a symbol for them because it's a kind of reunion of their friendship and that it will continue.

Meanwhile, during Junior's transition to Reardan, he fell head over heels for a beautiful girl named Penelope. Their relationship was a little more complicated than that of Rowdy and Juniors. The first time Junior saw Penelope, he had a major crush on her. Junior was thinking about her a lot. He said “I was suddenly that she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen up close. She was movie star pretty” (Alexie 61). She was beautiful with long blonde locks of hair and she was the first person to make an effort to talk to him. They weren’t close until Junior found out about her secret. Penelope is bulimic. Junior heard someone throwing up but didn’t know who was in the bathroom. He wanted to be there for whoever it was because it reminded him of his alcoholic father. This was a big turning point for their friendship because Junior wouldn’t judge her but he wanted to just show her some compassion. As they started to get to know each other, they talked about being dreamers. Penelope said “I hate this little town. It’s so small. Everything about it is small. The people here have small ideas. Small dreams” (Alexie 111). They both want to find a way out of Reardan and into the world. They wanted to be in a big world where they could make their dreams a reality. Junior’s dream was to loves to draw and become a cartoonist and Penelope loves architecture and wants to go to Stanford University. Junior needed someone like Penelope to talk to and to share their commonalities.

Gordy was another character at Reardan that was there for Junior but in a different way. Gordy is a book nerd, but he was a chill kind of book nerd and it worked for him. To sum it all up he was a chill genius book nerd. Gordy and Junior met when they were both in geology class with Mr. Dodge. They were talking about petrified wood and Junior said that petrified wood is not wood. Mr. Dodge responded and said “Where did you learn this fact? On the reservation?” (Alexie 85). He did this to mock Junior's past but little did he know that Gordy was there to his classmate saying, “Arnold is right about petrified wood. That what happens” (Alexie 86). Although later Gordy said that he only did it for science, this was a subtle sign that they would become closer. Gordy was a good influence on Junior. He helped him with books and anything else he wanted to know about. Gordy shares his love for education and learning. He compares the joy of learning to that of getting a boner. He says “You should approach each book -- you should approach life -- with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point” (Alexie 97). This is just one example of his ongoing love for learning. This is a different type of friendship but it helps push Junior to reach his full potential in school.

Rowdy, Penelope, and Gordy all share their ideas of compassion, hope, dreams, and support in their ways which all help Junior further himself and give him a greater idea of what friendship is. Rowdy is the tough loving, hardcore, more aggressive friend. Penelope is a sweet, beautiful girl with her little setbacks and issues. Gordy is the genius who is in love with any aspect of learning and growth. All of these people are very different from their personalities to their experiences but Junior feels the support of each of them at the exact time needed. They were destined to become friends. The friendship and the love they share did not come easily. They all had setbacks and problems in life but they overcame them with the help of each other. Friendship is not only the good times and highs that they experience together but it is also the hardships they face that make them last even longer.