Ke-mo sah-bee

Journal Eight Sherman Alexie uses many interesting features to make the interconnected short stories in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven more thought-provoking and charismatic. Such features include a blend of reality and fantasy, humor and seriousness, and truth and memory. Throughout the book we get many stories that are fantastical versions of the harsh realities of life as a Native American. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a book that tells uncensored truths of an oppressed and suffering community with a comical twist of fictional experiences. Alexie writing serves as a poetic, humorous, and entertaining description of the hardships and actualities of Native Americans. Although the stories being told are surreal enough to not be literal truth, the messages behind the stories hold a truth of existing hardships. One of the main character in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is Victor Joseph, a young Native American who is living on a reservation. Though most of the stories focus on Victor or other male characters, I found one of the more interesting chapters to be one that centered around a female. The chapter entitled “The Fun House” centers around a woman on the reservation, Victor’s Aunt Nezzy. This chapter has fascinating imagery, one of the most interesting being Nezzy’s swim in the creek. Water is often times is a symbol of rebirth or cleansing, and I think that representation holds true in this story. After an…

“The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fisfight in Heaven” is a short story out of a book that is also titled “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie. This series of short stories was released in 1993 and is still known today as one of his best pieces of work. Alexie is a Native American writer, poet, and filmmaker who generally targets his work toward young adults. Alexie has faced many issues in his life including…

There are many similarities and differences between Krebs in Soldiers Home and Sammy in A&P. Both characters are dealing with conformist societies centered on major military conflicts. Both characters are young men but Krebs unlike Sammy has experienced the world which has caused him to become isolated. They both take notice of girls but Sammy unlike Krebs begins to analyze the differences between Queenie’s life and his own life. I would argue that Sammy and Krebs have more similarities than…

The character Thomas Builds-the-Fire in the book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven tells many different stories of the hardships each Indian on the reservation deals with, and of the how the people on the reservation can handle these hardships. The stories he uses in this book are mostly fictional, but they tell stories in a different way than how your mind actually puts it. He adds a little more magic in his stories to make them sound believable. It is through Thomas’ stories that…

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Indian Killer are centered on the lives of Native Americans. Whether on or off the reservation, these characters face many challenges. However, no challenge is as great as their struggle for an identity in modern America. This is made apparent in each character’s actions, the stereotypes that are forced upon them, and the author’s use of symbolism. First, each character in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Indian Killer deal with…

Although the narrator himself does not explicitly admit that he is depressed, readers can look at the text as a whole to see that the narrator’s drinking and unemployment for months are signs of being defeated. When arriving home from the convenience store, the narrator focuses his attention on the negative events happening in the newspaper one after the other, but near the very end there is a small bit of positivity from a spelling bee that gives the narrator some hope in good (405). Alexie…

In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie shows how many young Native Americans struggle to find their personal identity in relation White America and their own disappearing culture. Young Native American’s are given a choice between a dominant culture that ridicules and stereotypes them, and their rapidly disappearing culture that they cannot relate to. The struggle between these two cultures leaves them confused and unsure with themselves. When young Native American’s…