Mary Sprit is the sister of Arnold, the main character in "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," written by Sherman Alexie. People who had never left the Indian reservation or achieved their goals surrounded Mary, a character that had lost hope; scared and shy of pursuing her dreams of becoming a romantic novelist. Because of the society she lived in, Mary had a lack of confidence and imagination. The courageous actions of her brother Arnold motivated Mary to start living a better life full of hope. Getting married and running away to live in Montana with her husband Mary finally felt at home and happy. Mary illustrates a perfect model of hope, change and courage.
Mary had a dream of becoming a writer, but with the loss of her identity after finishing high school Mary wasn't interested in pursuing anything. Shy, random and secretive according to Arnold "Mary is the smartest and strongest person I know who ever spent 23 hours a day alone in the basement. As we find out from Mr. P, her professor, "Mary was a bright and shining star and than she faded year after year until you could barley see her anymore"." She gave up on her dreams of becoming a romance novelist thinking that people aren't going to support her and that they are going to say that its silly, regardless of her being an amazing writer. Mary reveres the characters in romance novels and wishes to portray a life like theirs, but she doesn't have the inspiration and the will to make a change in her life.
Mary is unpredictable. In the Spirit family she is knows as Mary Runs Away because she goes away without telling anyone. Audacious and strong Mary decided to elope and move to Montana with her new husband to begin a new life. Her parents were devastated, they felt like failures "My mother and father had lost two kids to the outside world so says Arnold. The reason for her sudden change and decision was her little brother.
