Ken Park Mr. Amuzzini English 10 Honors F November 13th 2024 Alexie Thesis paper Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven goes into the lives of Native Americans in today’s society. This book captures the complicated identity, history, and resilience of Native American/Indians/Indigenous People through various short stories. Alexie talks about the trauma within the Native Americans, starting back to the times of colonization. As Alexie’s characters endure these challenges, they use humor as a motif. For many characters, humor becomes a way of survival for the hardship they go through daily by giving them temporary relief from the pain and loss. However, humor is complicated as it also serves as a psychological barrier …show more content…
It is at this point that he states, "I laughed hard enough to make the whole world seem like a better place" (Alexie 47). This allows him to confront his trauma without his idea of resiliency being shattered. This, however, while allowing him that above-mentioned reprieve, does not resolve the deeper issues of Victor's trauma. It gives him control, but Alexie shows that, at the same time, a form of control in that respect is very temporary and sometimes prevents real emotional healing. While humor serves as a mechanism of survival, it can simultaneously be a psychological barrier to the real healing of the characters. The distraction allowed by the humor too often prevents the character from coming into contact with the depth of his pain and keeps him stuck in avoidance habits. Victor's sarcasm, while very protective, is exemplary of this block: the humor puts up a barrier between him and others and his psyche, limiting his possibility of healing. Still, its subtle avoidance-serializer represents characters that make light of such things as poverty, loss, and alcoholism, discussing how humor can be armor and cage