Each book and each character shows a different way to cope with hardships. In the Outsiders, Ponyboy just
wanted to forget. He wanted to forget all the deaths, and all the grieving. Here, in The Absolutely True Diary
of a Part-Time Indian, Junior did something similar after Mary’s death, and kept the truth away for as long as
possible. As it says on page 201 " ‘Arnold, I'm sorry,’ she said. ‘But I just got a phone call from your mother.
It's your sister. She's passed away.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. I knew what she meant, but I wanted her to
say something else. Anything else. ‘Your sister is gone,’ Miss. Warren said. ‘I know she's gone,’ I said. ‘She
lives in Montana now.’ I knew I was being an idiot. But I figured if I kept being an idiot, if I didn't actually
accept the truth, the truth would become false." This shows that Junior just doesn't want to handle the truth.
He can't handle the truth. He's been through so many hardships that another death is just stretching his limits.
He believes that if he pushes the truth away, it will truly be distant and gone. He just wants to do anything and
everything to make the hard, bitter reality go away. He just wants to stall. He wants to spend as much time as
he can pushing it away.
As it says on page 206 " ‘My sister is dead,’ I said. ‘Yes.’ ‘I was hoping I dreamed that,’ I said." This shows that Junior wishes that the reality that he’s living in wasn't his reality. He wishes that it were all fake, or distant and far away. He wishes it were all a dream. Or more accurately, a nightmare. At first when Junior's grandma died he didn't really know how to react. Then, when Eugene died, he started to make more cartoons. Now that a third loved one (Mary) has died, he wishes that it weren't true. In reality, Junior is just a kid trying to navigate his way through a world full of sadness, miseries, and disparities, and he is doing the best that he can to cope.
- Do you think that Junior also uses laughter as a way to cope with his pain? Why or why not?
- How do you think Junior’s sadness increased from one family death to the other? How did they each affect him?
- Do you think that Mary’s death was the hardest for Junior to fully grasp? Why or why not?
I think that Arnold uses laughter to handle with his sadness because although something may not be funny, laughing may make him feel better. When he was laughing at Mary’s drunk death, he was laughing at death, taunting death in a way that says that he only got another one of the drunk Indians, and it was nothing special. Although he laughs to get over his grief, he also as we already know draws cartoons and lists things that he loves. What do you think that Arnold might do when his parents or Rowdy die, for these are much more important people?
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