Letter to Arnold Spirt (character in Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian)

Dear Arnold,
You’re not very bright (even though you are the smartest kid in your school), and you annoy me. You always do the stupidest things, and you have the worst luck. Why does everything bad happen to you? It just doesn’t seem realistic. All the bad things that happen to you are just horrible. And they all happen in a row. It’s like you were meant to be treated bad by people. You’re a poor kid that lives in some Indian tribe and nobody likes you because you have some weird disease when you have to much brain juice in your noggin, and you basically have no real friends until you transfer to an all white school. You wanted to go there because you wanted to do something with your life. Which might happen, but I kind of doubt it. You’re too unlucky.


Once you get to the all white school, you made lots of friends, got smarter, and more athletic. But, your tribe ended up hating you because you can never go back once you leave your tribe. Since you went to a different school, everyone thought you kind of left them, or betrayed them, so they all were against you. But that’s your fault! No one else’s! Even though you wanted to do something with your life, you got to learn they probably will never forgive you. So deal with it. And even though your grandma and your sister and your dad’s best friend dies, you should still go to school. I’ve had family members die, and I went to school. Don’t be a wuss. You’re a big boy. I do feel bad that they died, but that’s just how life is.


But in the end, since you kind of fixed your anger issues, you became friends with your old best friend, that was really mean to you. He beat you up (well, after you went to the other school and “betrayed” him), called you names, sent a picture of his bare butt, he was just mean. So, I’m just giving you some advice here, but you should man up, and be less girly. You cry too much.Oh, and why do you have a diary? You’re a 14 year old guy. Get a life.

-Sincerely Brittany