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Summary Of The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven

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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

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Imagination is the act of forming new ideas, images, or concepts of external objects not present to what is currently happening. In the novel, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie includes a series of short stories that use numerous literary device to express a variety of things. In the story “Imagining The Reservation”, Alexie uses setting to express the fact that both imagination, and the expression of creativity are what give Native Americans the ability to overcome the incredible devastation that they face. Setting is the literary device most frequently used in the novel, particularly in this short story. It is evident even in the title that the reservation is supposed to be a focal point of the story.

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The author in “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” experiences several instances of racism when he approaches people of a different color. When the author walks into a 7-11 store late at night for a creamsicle the store clerk looks him over carefully in case he has to tell the police what he looked like. This is because he is nervous of what the author might do since he is a colored male, which is racist to think that since he is colored he is more dangerous than someone who is not. Another incident is when he is out driving one night and the police are called because of the white neighborhood he was in. The police officer asked him why he was in this particular neighborhood, then told him that he does not belong there since he is

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In the book The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven by Sherman Alexie an important part I found in the book so far is Victor’s father. This is important is because he was mentioned quite a lot from what I have read so far in the book. Victor and his dad didn’t quite have a great relationship when Victor was young. His dad would always be drinking or arguing with someone. In the text it says, “Victor watched his father take a drink of vodka on a completely empty stomach.”

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The novel Reservation Blues, written by Sherman Alexie reveals different struggles encountered by the Native Americans on the Spokane Indian Reservation through the use of history, traditions, and values. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, a pureblood Indian, forms a band with his childhood acquaintances Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin called Coyote Springs. Alexie uses a variety of scenes and personal encounters between characters and their dialogue to portray the meaning of tribal identity throughout the novel. A cultures goal is to prove their identity and be superior to one another; The American culture has achieved dominance through white hegemony while the Spokane American Indian tribe is in a battle of oppression struggling to preserve their tribal identity. Spokane Native Americans are very passionate about their tribal identities yet are envious of the power that the white hegemony holds against them, leading them to their depression.

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They are trying to save their lives.” Although Sherman Alexie’s success seems as if it has only opened up doors for himself it did not, it opened up doors for other Indian kids that are still on the reservation. When Sherman Alexie wrote his books and poems the kids on the reservation read them. They gave them hope, he gave them a reason to fight for their lives the way he did. Those kids too started to write their own short stories and found the same joy in learning that Sherman Alexie did.

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Being a writer of many different styles, Sherman Alexie started off as a poet before writing novels and short stories. His poetic manner continues in the story “Indian Education”. He has a wide array of dry statements mixed with metaphors and statements that are not meant to be taken literally. The trend for each years is that he starts off dry and literal and ends poetic and metaphorical. His description of his interactions with the “white girl” in seventh grade is a great example.

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He states, “We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food.” The tribes were banished from society and put on a small reservation with little to nothing. People in the tribe were taught that they couldn’t be smart, couldn’t get an education, couldn’t want to learn. Alexie’s dad proved to Sherman that he could do all that. He states, “I fought with my classmates on a daily bases.

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Despite the negative stereotype of American Indians, the objections and disapproval of fellow Natives, and the criticism of others, Sherman Alexie went on to become a successful writer that has inspired many. Alexie overcame many obstacles that would have deterred him from his goal, but he was able to remain steadfast and continue on in his pursuit of writing. As a result, he has published many literary works that include several short stories, poems, and a variety of novels. He allows his culture to seep into his writing, and continues to inspire young American Indians who also desire the path of knowledge.

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