Novel Pen Pal Letter

September 3, 2010


Dear Junior,

My name is Jessica C., but, like you, I have a nickname: Jessie. This summer I read the entire Harry Potter series which I absolutely loved! I then went to Hershey Park with my friend Megan. I also went to the beach with my other friend Meg. I live very far away from where you live in Iowa.

I enjoyed reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, because I thought it was very realistic. I admired the way you handled the hardships that you had to endure. Everyone struggles to fit in, it but you had the hardest of challenges when most everyone on your reservation hated you because you were going to school off the reservation. To make matters worse, at the beginning of school in Reardan, the students there didn’t like you either! I admired the way that you tried to make friends with people that were not extremely friendly such as Penelope and Gordy. I felt that your ambition and perseverance is what allowed you to become friends with them.

Sherman Alexie made you seem desperate at some points in your story, which I think is a very accurate description of every teenager in some point in their teenage years. You seemed desperate when you kept trying to fix your friendship with Rowdy by giving him drawings of you and him and calling his home. Rowdy responded to you by calling you profane names and punching you. He even had his dad lie and say he wasn't home when you went to visit him. You wanted Rowdy to be your friend again no matter what he did to you, and I think that every person would respond the same way.

It is quite simple to see how alcohol negatively affected your life. Family friend, Eugene, your grandmother, brother-in-law, and sister were all killed within a year due to their own alcohol consumption or of someone else’s. In fact you even think “ … I knew five or ten or fifteen more Spokanes would die during the next year, and that most of them would die because of booze.” You made me think that drinking was more than just something adults do and that it is something that can hurt people. I have always known that drunk driving was wrong, but when Eugene was killed by Bobby for the last sip of wine, I realized that alcohol is deadly even when its consumer isn’t behind the wheel. I think that people would realize how bad alcohol is, if they portrayed the dangers in a different form then drunk driving. If more people could see that alcohol could take away your money, hope, feelings, and health, they would take this issue more seriously.

My grandmother died last year and that was hard enough, so I don’t understand how you could have possibly dealt with all your losses. I hope your burden gets lighter, and that with time, your pain will ease. Lastly, thank you for your inspiring bravery to give yourself what you deserve despite what anyone says.

Fondly,
Jessica C.