Sherman Alexie’s short stories have the point of view from the white man’s Indian, who narrates stories that have negative stereotypes and assumptions about American Indians. However, Sherman Alexie’s collection of short stories persuades the reader to unlearn these prescribed stereotypes about Native culture. Alexie challenges the Western discourse by offering new insights about life the reservation and by rejecting the image of victimized American Indian. Kathleen Carroll in “Ceremonial Tradition as Form and Theme in Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” argues that, “The rhetorical mixing of language that imbues the present with a past for which whites harbor guilt reminds readers that modern Indian identity has …show more content…
At the beginning of the chapter, Victor reminds Adrian that, “Hey, we don’t drink no more, remember? How about a Diet Pepsi?” (Alexie 44). Instead of two intoxicated Indian men sitting on the porch commenting on tribe members passing by, they are sober. Adrian comments on how Julius Windmaker looks promising as a rising basketball star and Victor replies that he must not be drinking, at least yet (Alexie 45). Sherman Alexie includes Victor and Adrian’s discussion to show how some tribe members refuse to embody stereotypes that the white man culture expects from American Indians. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven offers characters that are an example of victimized Indians to demand a revised meaning of cultural identity for the …show more content…
Scholars criticize Sherman Alexie’s fiction because it shows the harmful stereotypes that the culture is desperately attempting to get rid of. There are several main characters in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven that are persistently intoxicated, broke and not living a generally happy life on the reservation. In “Writing Ourselves: The Reclamation and Preservation of Native American Identity in Literature,” Richard Mace insists that, “Alexie shows them drunk, falling down and drowning in a puddle left by a tire track and drunk with soiled pants laying down on train tracks waiting to die” (234). These typical images of American Indians declare little respect and offend many current Indians, but Alexie is emphasizing how something needs to change. Alexie’s decision to include the pitiful image of the American Indian reveals how the culture is still willing to put a fight even though they have been defeated repeatedly in history. I believe that Alexie includes these negative descriptions in the short stories to produce a positive
Analysis of Sherman Alexie's 'The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven' and 'Smoke Signals' Sherman Alexie based on some short stories included in his book, 'The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,' wrote the screenplay for the movie 'Smoke Signals.' Both the movie and the book portray problems that Indians had to deal with, and how they dealt with it. The book is far more complex than the movie, showing a wider variation of characters facing different situations. In the movie
Heritage as an Idea of Oneself in Bless Me Ultima and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Traveling through humanity is a never-ending story. Traveling through ethnicity is an ever changing journey. Is race or culture a matter of color? Is it a way of life; or a decision an individual makes? Is it an idea one has of themselves? In the novels, Bless Me Ultima (Anaya 1972) and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (Alexie 1993), two different minority characters, Tony and Victor
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven A Major Works Data Sheet By Daniel Shiels General Information Title: Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1993. Web. Author: Sherman Alexie Biographical Information about the Author: Sherman Alexie is a poet, an author, and filmmaker who was born October 7th, 1966 on the Native American Spokane Reservation, which is where he pull most of his stories from. He currently resides in Seattle, Washington
Most of the time, unless you live or grew up on an Indian reservation, you would not be able to get a glimpse at that life. However, Sherman Alexie gave the public an opportunity to see what life was like for those from reservations in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Taking place from the 1960-1980’s, the book allowed readers to understand many of the struggles that Native Americans went through. The book, made up of short stories, also puts the audience on the same level
his work, Native American author Sherman Alexie writes about both alcoholism and Native American life, within and outside of the reservation. In “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock”, part of the larger collection of short stories entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, the narrator maps his troubled relationship with his father and his father’s alcoholism, while Alexie explores the modern Native American