The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian

  Entertaining, hilarious, interesting; three adjectives I think describe this memoir very well. So far while reading this memoir I have caught onto many techniques and tricks the author uses to keep the reader/s hooked. From the very beginning of the memoir the author attempts to grab the reader’s attention; “I was born with water on the brain.” This was the very first line in the book. When the reader reads this they immediately begin to wonder...What does he mean by that?!. At least that’s what I thought, and you know what I did when I read that first line that struck a slight sense of curiosity through my veins? I continued to read. Not only did this first line hook me to the book, but it also gave me a peek of how the memoir was going to be written. As I continued to read I came to notice that very first line laid out one of the the main techniques the author was going to be using throughout the memoir, humor.

  Throughout the memoir the author has been using humor as his main technique to keep the reader hooked to his story. This technique not only keeps the reader hooked but also helps the personality of the main character (him) come through. By using humor the author portrays himself as a very funny and playful/energetic person. This also helps the reader be able to understand the character better because we’re able to see how he thinks and sees things; he uses his humor to make things not seem as bad as they are or as bad as how other people might see them. “I looked like a capital L walking down the road. And my skull was enormous. Epic. My head was so big that little Indian skulls orbited around it.” This quote was from the section in the memoir where the author describes himself-if you hadn’t noticed. He could have chosen any other way to describe himself. For example, he could have chosen to make the reader feel bad for him because he wasn’t the most attractive person. But instead he uses humor to describe himself which takes away from the serious mood that this section could have pertained. Therefore, (if the reader hadn’t already) the reader would be able to infer that the author’s personality is very goofy and obviously not so serious.