The Lone Ranger

Bianca Hill Indigenous Identities HON 2973-007 Professor Amanda Minks 17 September 2015 Stereotyping Indians in Smoke Signals Sherman Alexie’s award winning book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of short stories in which he tells stories of Indians, mainly on the Spokane reservation. These stories are set in contemporary times, but the characters still struggle with the issues that have long affected Native peoples, like poverty, abandonment, and alcoholism. The…

for the audience to understand. Sherman Alexie helps his broad audience realize the difficult and complex struggles of Native Americans on the reservation by justifying each story with varying degrees of humor. Alexie accomplishes this in, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto FistFight in Heaven”, a collection of short stories displaying the struggles and difficulties of Native Americans on the reservation. By analyzing the different perspectives of the characters, the level of power they have, and how…

people can have similar experiences or pasts, what makes them unique is how they let what happened to them shape their beliefs and view of the world. In his short stories “The Drug Called Tradition” and “Crazy Horse Dreams” within the novel The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven, Alexie explores the idea of how a person's past influences them. Victor, the narrator in both short stories, is a Spokane Indian living on the Spokane reservation. Throughout the novel, readers are shown how…

In Sherman Alexie’s works “Smoke Signals” and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven and Flight, all demonstrate how a parents’ abandonment can cause a destructive aftermath on their child. The main characters in each story blame their fathers for all the tribulations that they had to go through in their lives. Only the truth of their fathers’ abandonment will allow them to accept their anger and grief and give them the capability to move on with their lives. In the story Flight, Zits’…

“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…

to the last bit of tribal culture they have left. Their culture, however, has been radically changed by the modern American culture. Sherman Alexie perfectly portrays this oppression and the plight of the Native American in Indian Killer and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Through the setting, plot structure, and characterization, Alexie uses both books to show the struggle that a modern Native American faces. “As a Native American… Sherman Alexie knows how difficult it is for…

I run at the black ranger, locking my blade with his. “Well well, finally getting your hands dirty, Darling? You always let the bodies drop before you take action don't you?” Dalton taunted, his smirk prominent in his voice regardless of the mask that hides it. I grit my teeth and spit out a response. “You're one to talk, your monsters are the only reason my team is down you demented piece of trash!” I break our swords away from each other and slash at the evil rangers shoulders. He…

Alexie is currently working on Fire with Fire and The Magic and Tragic Year of My Broken Thumb, sequels to The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Anonymous 35). Alexie lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Diane, who is of Hidatsa, Ho Chunk, and Pottawatomi descent, and two sons (Chadwyck-Healey 6; Cline…

While in the process of writing, authors often mirror themes in each of their publications. Sherman Alexie, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and co-producer of Smoke Signals, demonstrates this technique through the aforementioned works by introducing topics such as family relationships, identity crises, the power of friendships, alcoholism, and the inevitability of death in both storylines. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian reveals the story of a young…

Smoke Signals: The Importance of Story Telling Most of us are familiar with storytelling, being told stories throughout our lives. Story telling plays a huge role in Native American culture. Stories are told within households and communities to richen the relations and bonds between people. In Sherman Alexie’s film Smoke Signals, stories are used to show relationships between Suzy Song, Victor Builds-The-Fire, and Thomas Joseph which is illustrated in the stories shared between them. In the…