The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven By Alexie Direct Techniques

In, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Alexie uses multiple techniques to demonstrate a typical American Indian life. In the chapter, Family Portrait, there are many techniques used to depict how American Indians contemplate over what is expected of them as minorities. As a result of reflecting on the past, rich family history is revealed . In Family Portrait, Alexie uses television to explain various events of his life that depict his family history. Alexie manages to show multiple techniques in this short story such as using evidence to contradict the identities of American Indian life. Alexie uses symbolism to portray the struggle that Native Americans are confined to regarding the clash between their indigenous culture and

In a scene of the story Alexie illustrates his father shunning the sunlight from his eyes as if he was avoiding it. “The cold came by accident, the sun by design... My father shields his eyes and makes his face a shadow” (Alexie, 196) In this quote, Alexie is saying that his father would hide from the sunlight. The sunlight represents the stereotypical society, as in which the cold represents the real Native American. His father is avoiding the sunlight because he does not want to be apart of what society wants him to be. Another scene in the story shows Alexie keeping the sunlight. “Maybe I wanted to stand, stretch my legs, raise my arms above my head, open my mouth wide, and fill my lungs. Breathe, breathe. Maybe my hair is so black it collects all the available light.” (Alexie, 196) In this quote Alexie is saying that he wants to be free and be what society wants him to be. He is absorbing all of the American ideas by portraying that he is being American Indian. He is contradicting himself by saying that his family avoids a stereotypical society when he is accepting it

As Alexie writes the chapter he purposely leaves a gap between his writing to represent his true identity being enclosed in the middle of his alternative identity. In the center of the gap he mentions his indigenous family, although the outside part of the gap he goes back to writing about how society makes them a family. “My sister told me she could recognize me by the smell of my clothes. She said she could close her eyes and pick me out of a crowd by just the smell of my shirt. I knew she meant to say I love you.” (Alexie, 195) In this quote, Alexie is demonstrating what to him is a true Native American. He shows that his true identity of being American Indian is trapped around American society and their beliefs of what an American Indian is. Alexie also demonstrates confliction of American Indians throughout the story by the structure it is layout. In the chapter, Alexie illustrates the television twice throughout the story to convey his feelings about American society and his American Indian life. He uses the television as an example of his incompatible identity in the beginning and end of the chapter. When he mentions the television at the end of the chapter he says, “There is a girl on top of the world. She is telling us her story. That is the story by which we measure the beggining of all of our lives. She is why we hold each other tight; she is why our