“The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fist Fight In Heaven” delivers an entertaining, emotional perspective on the Spokane Tribe and the struggles all Native Americans face. This book is a sterling resource to everyone, not just anthropologists, students, and educators, because Native Americans still suffer from conflicts that everyone should be aware of, like poverty and humiliation. In reviewing this book, the author brings a narrative writing style consisting of multiple short stories that focus on daily lives of Native Americans, along with some descriptive writing style. The author, Sherman Alexie, is a brilliant source to write stories about the Spokane Tribe because he grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation. Being an Native American himself
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There are key points Sherman gets across to his audience other than the two main themes. One key point recurring in almost all of the short stories in this book is the heavy drinking in which most Native Americans are involved. The second key point brings to attention is if one is a Native American, they are stuck and can never fulfill their dreams. For instance, in the one short story in the book titled “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven”, it’s quoted, “I know how all my dreams end anyways” (190, Alexie 2005). Native Americans are placed on reservations to live the rest of their lives away from society and when they get out, white authority figures and white people treat them unfairly in general. The last key point Sherman addresses is what it means to be a true Native American. It’s pointed out in this book that true Native American’s express their love loudly and talk about it; they respect their women, and they offer a helping hand when …show more content…
His stories are sad, but what makes them beautiful is that they are taken from the truth, because when he incorporates his own experiences into these stories even though he mentions in the introduction that he is more an out caster looking at the lives of others it allowed him to express his stories in an emotional sensitive way. Another strength along with his narrative writing style is he brings some descriptive writing style in that allows for the audience to be able to see the characters and places in these stories in detail that is done very well. On the flip side there are some weaknesses too. The main one is Sherman use of referring Native Americans as Indians throughout these short stories. In my Anthropology 379 Native American Cultures class it’s taught that most Naïve Americans don’t appreciate being called Indian because that’s the name the white man gave them. It starts to tie in to some racial aspects here because some Native Americans don’t mind being called Indian, because that’s what they are use to being called, but Native Americans are Native to this American so it’s more respectful to use the term Native American, but most prefer their Nations
There are key points Sherman gets across to his audience other than the two main themes. One key point recurring in almost all of the short stories in this book is the heavy drinking in which most Native Americans are involved. The second key point brings to attention is if one is a Native American, they are stuck and can never fulfill their dreams. For instance, in the one short story in the book titled “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven”, it’s quoted, “I know how all my dreams end anyways” (190, Alexie 2005). Native Americans are placed on reservations to live the rest of their lives away from society and when they get out, white authority figures and white people treat them unfairly in general. The last key point Sherman addresses is what it means to be a true Native American. It’s pointed out in this book that true Native American’s express their love loudly and talk about it; they respect their women, and they offer a helping hand when …show more content…
His stories are sad, but what makes them beautiful is that they are taken from the truth, because when he incorporates his own experiences into these stories even though he mentions in the introduction that he is more an out caster looking at the lives of others it allowed him to express his stories in an emotional sensitive way. Another strength along with his narrative writing style is he brings some descriptive writing style in that allows for the audience to be able to see the characters and places in these stories in detail that is done very well. On the flip side there are some weaknesses too. The main one is Sherman use of referring Native Americans as Indians throughout these short stories. In my Anthropology 379 Native American Cultures class it’s taught that most Naïve Americans don’t appreciate being called Indian because that’s the name the white man gave them. It starts to tie in to some racial aspects here because some Native Americans don’t mind being called Indian, because that’s what they are use to being called, but Native Americans are Native to this American so it’s more respectful to use the term Native American, but most prefer their Nations