The Importence of Characters

Have you ever wondered if there is anyone out there that has a more imperfect life than you? Well, there is, and his name is Arnold Spirit. He goes from the school in his home town, to an all white school in a rich town. In the book, The Absolute Diary of a Part Time Indian, Arnold has a horrible life. He was born with too much brain juice in his head, which makes him have commas once in a while, and he lives in a horrible Indian tribe. I guess it’s not horrible, but no one treats him good. They all disrespected him, which is never good. His old best friend, Rowdy, probably treated him the worst. At one point he showed him his butt! And his grandma, who he loved with all his heart, died at the worst time. Also, his dad’s best friend that gave him rides to school every day, died of drugs. All these characters had a good reason for what happened to them, and they were all important to the story.


The author always had some surprise attack thing going on. She would have a character be all mean to Arnold, and then the next minute they were best friends! It’s just so confusing. When it goes from one thing to another, it’s hard to keep track. Also, there were too many characters. There were like, twenty or more. But, one of them, was basically in charge of the school, and was a bully to Arnold. Then the next day, BOOM! Best friends! What’s up with that? And this girl that Arnold really liked didn’t like him. But then, she started liking him. It’s just weird how everything went great at the rich school while in Arnold’s home town everything went bad. It never worked out both ways. But it did fit into the story, and the author probably did that to give it a twist. And it made it better, so I guess its okay. But, I bet I’m not the only person that gets annoyed with stories where nothing good happens, just a bunch of awful things in a row, and everything goes wrong.


Every character is different in this story, and they all have a reason to be in it.They all have different reasons to be there. Arnold’s friends are there so they can bully him, talk behind his back, or to just be a good friend so he’s not some loner that spends his Saturdays playing video games in a basement all by himself. His teachers are there so they can teach him lessons in life, and just basic lessons in school. Some are mean, some are nice and some give him marvelous advice. All the people around him are there to treat him bad, and disrespect him. But in some parts in the story, it switches up a bit. Everything is backwards. That’s why you never know what to expect.


Have you ever wondered if certain characters in a story would make a difference if they weren’t there? Well, it really would. Every character makes a difference, because they all either make life difficult for the main character, or make it better. I think there were numerous lessons for the story, and I think each character taught a different one. Arnold’s would be to never give up your dreams. Keep fighting, no matter how hard it can be. Rowdy’s would be push your way through life, even if you have to physically, and mentally hurt someone. And there are many others. See, if Rowdy wasn’t there, he would have never had been mean to Arnold by hurting him, he would have never met any new friends, and everything would just be different. That’s why every character is important to the story. One diminutive detail can change everything.