Comparing The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fist Fight In Heaven

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Native American Identity in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven


Native Americans experienced five hundred years of violent subjugation under European imperialism, and as a result, many Native American reservations have since struggled to maintain communal composure and identity. Five hundred years of cultural trauma and oppression has ravaged many Native American reservations into sites of cultural paralysis, where a moment of hope is inevitably followed by failure and drinking in a seemingly inescapable cycle. Published by Native American author Sherman Alexie in 1993, more than twenty years after the American Indian Movement, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven depicts the struggled lives within the Spokane Native …show more content…

Alexie portrays the Spokane Indian Reservation as a disaster zone, describing its inhabitants as “eternal survivors” repeatedly throughout his short stories. The reservations are plagued by mourning and oppression, and in turn, alcoholism and poverty. In Alexie’s stories, characters become so infatuated with the potent effects of alcohol that they justify their inebriation, creating false realities to excuse their responsibilities and problems, claiming, “one more beer could save the world. One more beer and every chair would be comfortable. One more beer and the light bulb in the bathroom would never burn out. One more beer and he would love her forever. One more beer and he would sign any treaty for her.” (Alexie 88). Alexie often presents readers with hope and promise, only to have readers watch it slowly fall apart with the influence of alcohol. In the chapter, “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore”, Alexie writes about the hope for Julias Windmaker, a young Native American basketball star who has the chance to have a talented basketball career outside of the impoverished reservation. Julius was very talented, and the protagonist, Victor, even considered him to be “the best ballpayer on the reservation these days, maybe the best ever” (Alexie 46). However, Julias’s prowess would be short lived due to his eventual exposure to alcohol. A year after his exposure to alcohol, Victor notices that Julias “wasn’t the ballplayer we all remembered or expected. He missed shots, traveled, threw dumb passes that we all knew were dumb passes.” (Alexie 51). In the meteoric decline of Julias, Alexie reminds readers that this was a common, depressing sight for Native Americans at the reservation; to witness a hopeful young star succumb to the ailments of alcoholism. For the crowd, most “basketball games felt like a funeral and wake all rolled up together” (Alexie 51), with

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