Book Club Response

               In "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, there's a lot of violence. Violence that has led to parents fighting against this book being in middle schools. This has caused many middle schools to ban the book. I think that the violence in this book wasn't extreme. Even if it was it shows an important message. It teaches readers about how bad racism is, and how it affects the people you say stuff to. Although this book has violence, it still has an important message.


          One example of violence in the book is when Junior told his best friend Rowdy that he was switching schools, "I was the kind of idiot that got punched hard in the face by his best friend. Bang! Rowdy punched me." This is violence because he is getting punched in the face. Although it don't teach a good message it only shows what some kids actually do. Nothing was unrealistic, and I still don't think that's violent enough for someone to want to ban the book. Even though he got punched in the face their wasn't any details or anything to give you a very violent image in your head.


         Another example of violence is when Junior had felt that Roger (kid from his new school, Rearden) was making fun of him and Indians he says, "So I punched Roger in the face...he wasn't laughing when his nose bled like red fireworks." Although this doesn't show a good message he only did it to protect him and Indians. He could've handled it other ways but he still had a reason for what he did. He didn't just try to get in any random fight. He also thought they, they would follow the fighting rules of the Rez. Although there was more violence in that quote it still wasn't that descriptive to put a very violent image in your head.


        One last example of violence is, when Junior was upset about getting an old book he said, "I wanted to hit something with that ancient book. But I didn't want to hit someone, and I certainly didn't plan on breaking the nose of a mafioso math teacher." That shows violence because he threw a book and hit someone. He didn't even mean to hit someone. That teaches kids a lesson that you shouldn't throw something no matter what you want to throw it at because it might hit something else. Although that was violence, once again it wasn't very violent.


       In conclusion, although this book shows some violence it's not in every single part of the book. Wherever there was violence it wasn't detailed. Yes, there was violence in this book but there wasn't enough for middle schools to ban it or want to ban it.