My coming of Age novel is, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This book is about a boy named Arnold who transfers to a who lives with a poor family in a reservation. Arnold was born with many medical conditions which cause him to have an over sized head, and because of that, he gets bullied even more. He goes to a school named Reardan in the reservation. But one day, his teacher told him that going to Wellinpit, a small school full of white people (he was Indian) that was 22 miles away from where he lived, would help him and that he would have a bright future if he goes there. Arnold decides to go there, but the entire Rez turned against him, even his best friend Rowdy. The Rez thought he was being a traitor by going to a white school, Arnold had to go through many ups and downs in his life at Wellinpit. I think that Arnold became more confident of himself when going to Reardan by, punching Roger in the face, Meeting Penelope, and joining the basketball team.
Arnold became more confident of himself by Punching Roger in the face. It was his first few days at Wellinpit, and a gang of big jocks came and ganged up on Arnold, they made racist remarks about Arnold which really made him mad. " 'Did you know that Indians are living proof that n*gg**s f**k buffalo?' I felt that Roger has kicked me in the face. That was the most racist thing I heard in my life. Roger and his friends were laughing like crazy. I hated them. And I knew I had to do something big.I couldn't let them get away with that sh**. I wasn't just defending myself. I was defending Indians, black people, and buffalo. So I punched Roger in the face. He wasn't laughing when he landed on his ass" This is when Arnold says I'm not taking any more of these racist jokes I'm not letting people make fun of me, and I have to put an end to that. Roger never fought back, Roger became nice to Arnold after that, Arnold basically made a statement that said "If anyone makes fun of me again, the same thing is gonna happen to you."
Another reason Arnold became more confident of himself, is by meeting Penelope. Penelope was a girl Arnold had an immediate crush on. But Penelope was different from all the other anorexic volleyball stars, she didn't care that Arnold was poor, if any other one of the anorexics found out their boyfriend was poor, they would immediately dump them, but Penelope cared more about personality than rich/poor. "I figured she was going to march right out of my life right then, but she didn't. Instead she kissed me. On the cheek" Arnold never had a girlfriend in his life and the first one was a gorgeous,caring one. Penelope went out with Arnold when he helped her when she was puking in the bathroom and got all messy. "'Hey Penelope' I say 'Don't give up'" After that Penelope told Arnold how everyone thinks she's having a good life and all, but she's not, but after that Arnold and Penelope were very close.
And lastly Arnold became more confident of himself by making the basketball team. Arnold made the varsity team, while thinking he would make junior varsity at the highest. Arnold was called, "their secret weapon" because he was a very good shooter. I think that got Arnold to meet new people by playing basketball. When you're growing up you always have a way to go through life, do something when you're bored, for Arnold it's playing basketball.
I think that in the end, good things happened especially Arnold regaining his friendship with Rowdy, now, not only does Arnold have all these friends from Wellinpit, he has his best friend back, Arnold made a good decision going to Wellinpit, having better education, meeting more people, and becoming more confident of himself. I think that beating Arnold up all those times was just not right, but now Arnold is doing better then anyone on the rez.
