Students
Teachers & SchoolsStudents
Teachers & SchoolsHome
(Click the themes infographic to download.)
Sherman Alexie dedicates The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to his two hometowns: Wellpinit and Reardan. Like Alexie, Arnold Spirit, Jr. has two hometowns as well. There is his family's home on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and then there's his place at the white high school in Reardan. Though he should be at home in both places, sometimes Arnold feels like a complete stranger. In the end, Arnold stops thinking of home so much as a specific place, and instead learns to be at home among many different people. As Rowdy tells him, he is a "nomad" (30.182). (For more, see our section on "Setting.")
Sometimes you have to leave your home to find yourself.
Home is not only the place where you were born, it can also mean the place where you belong. A person can have many different homes.