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The Daily Insight

What does Arnold Spirit look like

Author

Olivia Owen

Published Mar 20, 2026

Arnold has an enormous skull, huge hands and feet but in contrast to that his body is very skinny. He says he looks like an “vegetable”. On his head he wears thick, black und ugly glasses. Additionally, his eyes are lopsided.

How does Arnold Spirit change?

Instead of being hopeless, dumb, and weird; he is confident, intelligent, and popular. These positive changes are a result of confidence and encouragement in Junior from others.

How old is Arnold spirit?

Arnold Spirit Jr (known as Junior) is a 14-year-old Native American living on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

How does Arnold Spirit come to understand his own identity by the end of the novel?

By the end, he realizes that his identity is really composed of allegiances to many tribes—“the tribe of basketball players … the tribe of cartoonists … and the tribe of boys who really missed their best friends,” to name a few—and that the fact of belonging to so many different communities, even the community of …

What does Arnold Spirit do for fun?

Junior keeps up his hope by drawing cartoons, which to him represent both a chance to leave the reservation and a potential for universal understanding. He also loves playing basketball, discovering he has unexpected talent when he joins the Reardan team and receives the support of his coach and teammates.

Who beats up junior at the powwow?

ROWDY KNOCKS JUNIOR UNCONCSIOUS.

What is Junior's real name?

Grant takes roll and calls “Arnold Spirit”—Junior’s real name. Penelope is confused. Junior explains his name is both Junior and Arnold.

What happened to Junior's grandmother?

Then Junior talks more about his Grandmother. Junior says her greatest gift is tolerance. … But, Junior continues, his grandmother was just struck and killed by a drunk driver on her way home from a powwow. Her last words were “Forgive him.” Junior concludes that she meant the man who hit her.

Why is Arnold called an apple?

The apple is symbolic of Arnold because the inside of an apple is covered and hidden, and in order to find out the inside of that apple you need to cut through the protection (Red skin) and get to the hidden self (the white part) which is who you truly are.

What tribes does Arnold belong to?

Arnold Is A “Part-Time” Indian. Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger. I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other.

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How did Junior's dad and mom first meet?

Summary: Reindeer Games. Junior’s dad tells Junior how he met Junior’s mom. Junior’s mom is eight years older than Junior’s dad, and, when they were children, she lifted Junior’s dad up to get a drink from a drinking fountain. … Then Coach has the kids play full-court one-on-one.

How does junior and Gordy become friends?

Gordy is the smartest kid at Reardan. Junior decides to make friends with Gordy after Gordy defends one of Junior’s answers in class against an (incorrect) teacher. Gordy is intellectually gifted but, sometimes, socially tactless.

What gift did he say he gave his two sons?

Although his childhood permanently scarred him, it also gave him a gift — it provided him with rich source material for his writing career. He found solace in boyhood in the escapism of the James Bond films, he says. He explains that his two sons watch these films with the same tremendous enjoyment he did at their age.

Who is Agnes Adams Part-Time Indian?

Agnes Adams Spirit from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is Arnold’s mother, when he daughter dies she holds Arnold for hours.

Why does Arnold Spirit draw cartoons?

He draws because he thinks it might give him a chance to become rich and famous, and he wants to be rich and famous so he can leave the rez one day.

Why does Mr Dodge get mad at Junior?

I get angry when Junior contradicts me about science; he tells me I am teaching about petrified wood incorrectly. I am shot at the beginning of the story because I am in pain and the family can’t afford to take me to the vet.

What does Arnold's father give him for Christmas?

What does his dad get him as a Christmas gift? $5 bill. You just studied 31 terms!

What confuses Junior after his fight with Roger?

What confuses Junior after his fight with Roger? Junior discovers that unlike the reservation, Reardan doesn’t have any rules regarding fighting.

How does Penelope and Junior's friendship develop?

Penelope and Junior’s friendship develops when he finds out that she’s a bullhemic, and he tells her to not give up, and she vents to him. How are Penelope and Junior using each other? Penelope uses Junior to get a little smudged, so that she doesn’t seem like the “perfect” girl, and Junior uses her to become popular.

Who protects junior Arnold from bullies?

The main character Arnold only has one friend: Rowdy. Everyone else at his school makes fun of him and beats him up, but not Rowdy. Rowdy protects Arnold and they have a very strong friendship. They both like to read comics.

Why does rowdy cut off the andruss brothers braids?

After Rowdy finds the beaten-up Junior, the two boys hide out near where the Andruss brothers are camping, and when they are passed out Rowdy gets revenge by shaving their eyebrows and cutting off their braids—a great insult and injury to an Indian man.

What does Mr P confess to Junior?

Junior is suspended from school for hitting Mr. P with the book. One day, during Junior’s suspension, Mr. … P confesses to Junior that, when he was a younger teacher, he beat many Indian school children, and he apologizes to Junior.

How does poverty affect junior?

Poverty has contributed to Junior not pursuing his dreams, him not having many chances or choices, and him having a poor education. However, Junior lives in poverty, he still manages to overcome the odds. In the beginning of the book, Junior describes his life on the Spokane reservation.

Why does junior refer to himself a part-time Indian?

Junior calls himself a part-time Indian because he does not feel fully white or fully Indian. He is rejected by people on the reservation for his choice to go to the all-white school, and he is rejected by his white classmates at school because of his Indigenous identity.

What does junior ask Gordy Why does he ask this?

Then, at school the next day, Junior asks Gordy for advice. Gordy says he needs to do some research first. Gordy finds an article about how there was a lot of news coverage about a white girl named Cynthia who disappeared in Mexico and no news coverage of the hundred of disappeared Mexican girls in the same area.

How did Junior feel about Eugene's death?

Eugene’s death is the second major loss in a very short time in Junior’s life. After it, Junior feels himself supported by the Reardan community. Gordy consoles him with literature, helping Junior to see that his loneliness and grief have been a part of the human experience for thousands of years.

What is Junior's grieving ceremony?

To make it through the many deaths and changes in his life, Junior makes a “grieving ceremony” out of writing lists of all the things that give him joy, as well as drawing the things that make him angry, over and over. Again Junior chooses creative, forward-looking ways of dealing with his pain.

What did Grandma spirit never do?

Chapter 22 Quotes And plenty of drunken Indians have killed other drunken Indians. But my grandmother had never drunk alcohol in her life. Not one drop. That’s the rarest kind of Indian in the world.

What is Junior's personality?

Still, for the most part, Junior is sincere, compassionate, resilient, and persistent. When he recognizes them, he is honest about his faults with himself and readers. Throughout the novel, Junior struggles with a sense of double-consciousness or internal contradiction.

What makes Junior mothers cry?

At home, Junior’s mother is crying. … Junior’s mother says he was actually kind of ugly. Junior tells us that the Montana Indians are so tough that the white people are afraid of them. Junior feels a little inspired because he realizes his sister hasn’t given up; she’s actually following her dream.

What does Arnold learn about poverty?

When it comes to being poor, Arnold doesn’t try to make lemons out of lemonade. He does nothing to justify poverty; that is, he doesn’t say that it makes him a stronger or better person. Instead, Arnold views poverty as something incredibly difficult to overcome, a condition that simply reinforces itself.