The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a book written by Sherman Alexie depicting many stories regarding life on the Spokane Indian Reservation. These stories tell of many serious problems the modern Native Americans are faced with today. Problems like poverty, racism, limited education opportunities, and alcoholism just to name a few. The book incorporates many different characters, including Victor Joseph, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, and Norma Many-Horses. These characters along with many other characters show what life was and still is like on some Indian Reservations. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven was also turned into a film called Smoke Signals in 1998 showing primarily the story in the book titled “This is what It …show more content…
Sherman Alexie uses a combination of reality and fiction in order to show the reader what he thinks the lives of people on the Spokane Indian Reservation was like. In regards to what differentiates the fiction from the non-fiction of the stories you could look at present day Native American Reservations. Some reservations are still plagued with alcoholism, and poverty of the past. While the characters and stories are just vessels to deliver the message and show what Sherman Alexie portrayed the reservation live to be. The reaction and impact that this has on the reader is the same as the age-old use of story telling. The story is a vessel in witch the message is delivered to the reader.
In regards to the book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and the film Smoke Signals and how they complement and enhance my personal understanding of the book. I would say that the film defiantly helped in my perceptive of the book. Although the film only shows and portrays one of the stories “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” it does portray some of the important ideas and meaning of the