Previous
Grandmother Spirit
Junior’s “translucent semi-girlfriend,” a beautiful and popular freshman at Reardan High School. Roger, a big-brother figure to her, calls her Penultimate. Penelope is the first Reardan student to speak to Junior, but generally ignores him until he discovers she is bulimic (a disorder that reminds him of his father’s alcoholism) and she ends up crying on his shoulder, beginning their “friends with potential” relationship. Like Junior, Penelope has big dreams and wants to leave the place where she came from, although some of her dreams are so grandiose that Junior finds them a little silly. With blond hair, pale skin, and an all-white volleyball uniform, Penelope embodies both the hope and the unattainability that Junior associates with the color white.
Penelope Quotes in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian quotes below are all either spoken by Penelope or refer to Penelope. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8 Quotes
“My name is Junior,” I said. “And my name is Arnold. I’m Junior and Arnold. I’m both.”
I felt like two different people inside of one body.
No, I felt like a magician slicing myself in half, with Junior living on the north side of the Spokane River and Arnold living on the south.
Related Characters:
Junior (Arnold Spirit, Jr.) (speaker), Penelope
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
60
Explanation and Analysis:
When Junior gets to the high school Reardan, filled mostly with white students, he begins to experience a phenomenon that feels like splitting himself in half. He feels like he has to be a different person around white people than he is around Indians, and he feels like his true self doesn't fit quite right in either world.The difficulty with his name is emblematic of this feeling. The Indians in his community have always called him Junior, but his official name is Arnold, and the white students want to call him Arnold. Junior has to explain that both names are his – both are equally true – but it doesn't seem that anyone else can see everything about him that these two names encompass.
This shows the ways in which stereotypes and social norms constrict Junior's ability to be himself, and it also shows the tangible differences between his background and the backgrounds of the white students. While the white students are suspicious of his two names, Junior is delighted that white students can have names like "Penelope," which is a name that he would never find on the rez.
Chapter 11 Quotes
“Hey buddy,” I would have said. “How do I make a beautiful white girl fall in love with me?”
“Well, buddy,” he would have said. “The first thing you have to do is change the way you look, the way you talk, and the way you walk. And then she’ll think you’re her fricking Prince Charming.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes
There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Diary of a Part-Time Indian LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Penelope Character Timeline in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The timeline below shows where the character Penelope appears in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 8 - How to Fight Monsters
...front office. He arrives late to his homeroom class, where a beautiful blond girl named Penelope asks his name and laughs at him when he tells her it’s Junior, even though...
(full context)
When the teacher calls Junior by his full name, Arnold Spirit, Penelope asks accusingly why he told her his name was Junior, the Indian nickname that Junior...
(full context)
Penelope also says Junior has a funny accent, which makes him afraid to talk for his...
(full context)
Chapter 9 - Grandmother Gives Me Some Advice
Junior’s relief and happiness at having earned Roger’s respect gives him the courage to greet Penelope when he sees her a moment later. However, she snubs him and then calls him...
(full context)
Chapter 11 – Halloween
On Halloween, Junior and Penelope both arrive at school dressed as homeless people—an easy costume for Junior, he notes, since...
(full context)
At school, Junior tells a shocked and concerned Penelope what happened. She sympathizes (even touching his bruises, to Junior’s amazement) and promises to put...
(full context)
Still, Junior and Penelope don’t say much to each other. Junior wishes he could ask Rowdy for advice about...
(full context)
Chapter 15 - Hunger Pains
The vomiter turns out to be Penelope, who comes out of the bathroom clearly trying to hide what she’s done by chewing...
(full context)
Junior reflects that Penelope’s purging and his dad’s drinking are both forms of addiction—that everyone has pain, and that...
(full context)
Junior finds all of this sexy, including Penelope’s ego and her cinnamon-vomit breath. He understands for the first time why love and lust...
(full context)
Over the next few weeks, Junior and Penelope become “the hot item at Reardan High School—not exactly a romantic couple [but] more like...
(full context)
Besides this, talking with Penelope makes Junior realize that they have more important things in common. At first, Junior makes...
(full context)
However, Junior admires Penelope’s more specific dream of going to Stanford to study architecture: her desire “to build something...
(full context)
While Junior points out to Penelope that she won’t get to travel very far if she doesn’t eat enough, he doesn’t...
(full context)
Chapter 16 - Rowdy Gives Me Advice About Love
One day while watching Penelope at a volleyball game, Junior marvels at how beautiful she is with her pale skin...
(full context)
Chapter 17 - Dance, Dance, Dance
In December, Junior takes Penelope to the Winter Formal, which is complicated for him because he’s been trying to keep...
(full context)
...when Roger invites them along with his friends to drive into Spokane for pancakes, which Penelope is eager to do. Junior doesn’t have money to pay for pancakes, but he can’t...
(full context)
...he’s lost his wallet. Without hesitation, Roger gives Junior forty dollars to cover his and Penelope’s food.
(full context)
...and so Roger drops him off there and waits in the car while Junior and Penelope get out to say goodbye. Saying that Roger told her he lent Junior some money,...
(full context)
Under Penelope’s persistent questions, Junior also admits that his dad isn’t picking him up. Refusing to let...
(full context)
Chapter 22 - Red Versus White
Junior thinks the best thing about Reardan is Penelope—as well as Gordy, maybe—and the best thing about Wellpinit was his grandmother. He thinks his...
(full context)
Chapter 24 - Valentine Heart
Junior begins his next chapter with the following sentence: “A few days after I gave Penelope a homemade Valentine (and she said she forgot it was Valentine’s Day), my dad’s best...
(full context)
Chapter 27 - Because Russian Guys Are Not Always Geniuses
Instead, Junior goes to school, where his white friends, including Penelope, offer their concern and sympathy. He is surprised, and touched, to find that he matters...
(full context)
Chapter 29 - Talking About Turtles
Junior spends the first part of summer reading comics and missing his white friends—Penelope, whom he’s written three love letters although she hasn’t written one in return yet; Gordy,...
(full context)
