Junior seems to put some stock in this clichĂŠ. He often encourages others to see the world in a positive light, but the âIn Like a Lionâ chapter also shows how Juniorâs changes in perspective, in addition to allowing him to accomplish things he had previously thought impossible (like blocking Rowdyâs dunk) also come with a momentary blindness. Junior forgets that, for most of his life, Reardan has been the enemy, the favorite, the team with all the resources, advantages, and encouragement, and that Wellpinit is the underdog, the team that always loses. After Reardanâs victory, then, Junior experiences a second change in perspective, one that fills him with pain and guilt. In this way Juniorâs basketball victory comes to feel like a personal, moral defeat. In addition to âmind over matter,â Junior believes in karma. He thinks that Reardan was upset early in the playoffs for having ruined Wellpinitâs season. In the end, Juniorâs somewhat simplified outlook on these complex situations can be seen as a necessary shortcut, a method he uses to avoid getting too bogged down by the irresolvable difficulties of life.
Junior treats many of his interactions with Rowdy with a healthy dose of irony. He describes their email discussion as âlong and serious,â for example, when it is short and full of surface-level and offensive insults. Juniorâs struggle to navigate his rocky friendship with Rowdy leads him into some moral inconsistencies. He speaks out against homophobia in many places in the novel, including when he condemns the homophobic insults of Rowdyâs father on Thanksgiving, but Junior also participates in homophobia by reciprocating Rowdyâs hateful language. Here, Junior attempts to relate to Rowdy and re-establish their friendship by deflecting Rowdyâs own misplaced homophobia, but he also entices Rowdyâs response. Despite the exchange of insults, Junior and Rowdyâs conversation, though brief, can be seen as very serious. The whole future of their friendship depends upon it. Beneath the surface jibes, much more is being said. Junior is appealing to Rowdy to start healing their friendship, and Rowdy, finally, acknowledges that he is ready to begin that process.
The âRussian guyâ Junior refers to in the title of the âBecause Russian Guys Are Not Always Geniusesâ chapter of the novel is Leo Tolstoy, the author of the famous realist novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. The first sentence of the latter is, âHappy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.â In disagreeing with Tolstoy, Junior reveals that his early maturity is not just the result of dealing with many deaths at such a young age, he is also reading advanced books. Though Junior has often mentioned the individual problems caused by alcoholâJuniorâs Dadâs absence, Eugene and Juniorâs grandmotherâs deathsâfor the first time, Junior addresses the problem of alcoholism in the Spokane community in general. Alcoholism is a totalizing force. It makes all the members of the families on the Spokane reservation unhappy, and it makes them all unhappy in roughly the same way. Juniorâs precocityâhis early maturityâmake him, in many ways, better equipped to deal with the news of his sisterâs death even than the school guidance counselor, Miss Warren.
One of the techniques that make The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian so emotionally affecting is incongruityâtwo events with very different emotional registers often occur at the same time in the story. Readers learn of Eugeneâs violent death outside of a 7-Eleven, for example, in the same breath that they learn that Junior has given a handmade Valentineâs card to Penelope. Then as Junior learns of Maryâs death, here, Miss Warrenâs hug gives him an erection. Juniorâs shock and grief to hear of his sisterâs unexpected death, the third major death to affect him and his family in a short period of time, sends him into a fit of hysterical laugher. Juniorâs laughter, too, seems incongruous with the news. But, as Junior has said, when it comes to death, laughter is really the same thing as tears. Junior cantaloupe-tasting vomit, and sudden dream of the last time he ate cantaloupe could be seen as an unconscious processing of his extreme emotion. It can also be read as an almost mystical experience, an experience that harkens back to the magic that was an integral part of American Indian culture in bygone days. Junior, however, opts not to interpret the strange experience.