Rhetorical Analysis Of The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven

Author Sherman Alexie has had numerous accounts of being judged. Some have been less apparent but still comparatively so. From the tone of his essay those situations have made him a little distrusting, over critical and sort of a pessimist. In the essay, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” he gives us a first person narrative, of the conscious weight he carries.

Sherman Alexie is a Native American man born on an Indian reservation, has earned a BA at Washington University, and has written and published multiple books, novels and poetries. Alexie gives us a setting in Seattle, Washington, where he lives his current life. In this Rhetorical Analysis I will outline some of the Rhetorical techniques used by Sherman Alexie, in the

He uses Pathos to explain the state his was in when he wrote this essay. Ethos, recalling to his past as a relation to the cashier. Kairos, as he refers back to when he himself was a cashier. He writes, “Too hot to sleep, so I walked down to the Third Avenue convenience store for a Cream-sicle, and the company of a graveyard-shift cashier. I know that game. I worked graveyard for a Seattle 7-11 and got robbed once too often” (53). His past employment makes him able to relate to the cashier and knows that the cashier will judge him, given that he has had a job as a graveyard shift cashier and was robbed multiple times. As soon as he gets to the store he feels he is immediately judged by the cashier stating, “I gave him a half-wave as I headed back to the freezer. He looked me over so he could describe me to the police later. I knew the look”

He states in his text, “I was special, a former college student, a smart kid. I was one of those Indians that was supposed to make it, to rise above the rest of the reservation”. This presents credibility, tells the reader that he is educated and is not the person people expect him to be. The figurative language he uses suggests he doesn’t believe he did well. “I was supposed to rise above the rest” (57). He has characterized himself as a failure without right out saying this. You can pick up on this from his tone of