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Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
The book is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel. Following in the footsteps of other bildungsromans like Charles Dickens's David Copperfield and J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, the novel is narrated by its protagonist. Also like these other books, the plot is somewhat episodic and is driven primarily by the development of the protagonist's identity in a challenging world.
Many bildungsroman protagonists are orphaned, estranged from, or otherwise neglected by their parents so that they have to make their own decisions and form their own opinions. Junior lives with his parents, and they do their best to care for him. Due to their own experiences with trauma, poverty, and addiction, however, they rely on Junior to be more self-sufficient than most 14-year-olds. For example, his father disappears for days or weeks at a time. His mother sometimes relies on Junior to stay home and take care of her during these periods, when her worries overtake her. When Junior decides to go to school in Reardan, he accepts that sometimes he will have to hitchhike or even walk the 22 miles between home and school. In many ways, his decision at the start of the novel to leave the reservation constitutes striking out on his own.
Not all bildungsromans are aimed at young readers, even though they usually feature young characters. David Copperfield, for instance, is narrated by an adult David Copperfield (a fictionalized version of the author) looking back on his life. Sherman Alexie's semi-autobiographical bildungsroman is squarely situated as young adult literature. It tackles the events of the author's youth from the point of view of an actual teenager whose perspective resonates with teen readers. Formatted as a diary complete with quickly-drawn cartoons, the novel captures the experience of growing up as it is happening, detailing trauma and triumph alongside one another.
In this sense, the book also overlaps with the genre of confessional literature. Confessional literature includes early Christian writing like St. Augustine's Confessions but became especially popular after World War II, when poets like Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell began writing deeply personal poetry that disclosed otherwise private details about their lives and feelings. Alexie, also a poet, uses the diary format (albeit fictionalized) to confess details about how it felt to grow up and leave the Spokane Indian Reservation.
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