Traumatic History and Its Devastating Impacts in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Abstract

The purpose of this academic paper is to explore historical aspects concerning the Native Americans and European settlers who migrated to an American continent where the Native Americans had been living for more than ten thousand years. It also explores their pain and grief as a result of European settler colonialism which led to reducing the native population by ninety percent from pre-colonial times. The paper analyzes the American Indians’ life in the Spokane Indian reservation which Sherman Alexie depicts in his young adult fiction The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This academic paper aims to point out how the traumatic history devastatingly affects the Spokanes’ life and how their despair significantly leads to Junior’s decision to search for a better chance in life.