Dorothy Allison’s Bastard out of Carolina is about a sexually and physically abused child named Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatwright growing up as a bastard child in South Carolina in the 1950s and 60s. On the other hand, Sherman Alexie’s novel, the Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, is about a teen named Arnold “Junior” Spirit who grew up on a Native American reservation, which he ultimately left to attend an all-white school called Reardan. Although at first glance, both novels seem very dissimilar to one another. However, both Allison and Alexie’s novels employ many themes common in sociology. This paper aims to analyze the similarities and differences between Alexie and Allison’s novels concerning gender roles, stereotypes, disparity, social stigmas,…show more content… Junior could never break free from the Indian persona that he was supposed to have. Junior was expected to be taller, stronger, and have better than looks than he actually did. There were also the stereotypes of possessing aggressive behavior and being an alcoholic that Junior had to face while living on the reservation. Junior could not fit into the dominant male Indian role that he was expected to in his culture. Junior’s friend Rowdy exemplified the dominant male that Junior was not; Rowdy was loud, strong, and violent. Since Junior was so different than what was expected he was often bullied, especially by his fellow Native Americans. Bone was also considered different. Bone had trouble conforming to the role of the typical woman stereotype that her family, and her culture had. Bone was a white American, so as a female she was generally expected to be pretty, proper, quiet, and submissive. Bone was not carry herself in this expected manner because of the family that she was raised in. Bone’s family saw women differently from society’s norms. The family’s women were considered so different that they termed their women, “Boatwright women.” The Boatwright’s expected their women to