ALEXIE, SHERMAN. ("THE LONE RANGER & TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN").   Term Paper ID:28517 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Critiques short story about a contempoirary American Indian & book's pessimistic tone.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Critiques short story about a contempoirary American Indian & book's pessimistic tone. Paper Introduction: Sherman Alexie's short story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" takes a pessimistic perspective on the life of one American Indian character. From this story, it is likely that the author's overall outlook on the future of American Indians in the same situation is certainly far from optimistic, though there are some signs of hope, such as the narrator's year of sobriety. The straightforward, plain, prosaic style is expressive of the negative outlook on life which permeates the protagonist's character and his environment, as if the protagonist has no extra energy to try to express himself beyond his surface thoughts and feelings. There is little hope for any significant change for the better in this story, but only the sense that things will stay about the same, or sometimes a little better or a little worse, and all one can do is accept Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The fact may be that this is theimpression which the author intends. It is difficult for this reader to seewhat especially differentiates Alexie from other negativistic (or starklyrealistic) young writers of fiction, aside from the fact of his own ethnicbackground and that of his main characters. This story is neither as hopeful as some of Carver's later storiesnor as effectively humorous as Bukowski. . He deserves to beportrayed, and to be portrayed as he is, honestly, without adornment,without unrealistic hope, for his life is as worthwhile as a man's who haswealth and happiness and accomplishment. There is little hope for any significant change for the better inthis story, but only the sense that things will stay about the same, orsometimes a little better or a little worse, and all one can do is acceptthat sad fact and try to endure the grind of daily life with a realisticframe of mind. Again, thedistance between the narrator and another entity (in this case, the historyof his people) is a central issue. One has to wonder, howeverunfairly, if Alexie would have gained the notoriety he has were he not anAmerican-Indian. . Stories of this nature tend to be made up of short paragraphs, quick dialogue, absurd situations and, most notably, hyperbole delivered as calm observation. The protagonist in thisparticular story is haunted by dreams which combine the horrors of anti-American-Indian racism from the past and the more subtle form of that sameracism in the late 2 th century. When one person starts to look at another like a criminal, then the love is over. The American Indian might fight it, might rage against it, but,at least in this story, he will not emerge victorious against it. It may well be that thesarcasm which attends such references to the history of American Indiansallows him to keep a connection with that past without becoming toodepressed about the loss of that tradition in his own life. 1-8.----------------------- 12 I would forget where I was and get lost. Ineither case, the result is a story and a man and a life which are far moredepressing than hopeful. The reader discovers that race or ethnicity is a factor in the storywhen the narrator shifts from his observations about the 7-11 clerk to hismemories of the former girlfriend: "'I don't trust you,' she said to me.'You get too angry.' She was white and I lived with her in Seattle" (Alexie24). "Fistfight in Heaven." http://cctr.umkc.edu~rjlaroe/ Tontrevu.htmScott, Joanna. He iseveryman in the late 2 th century whose life seems to have little obviousmeaning and whose loneliness prevails to such a degree that he is driven togo to an all-night convenience store for a little live human companionship. . The Indians are helpless victims. The appeal of such a story is its surface honesty, its refusal towhitewash the depressing nature of a life of a poor man, an outcast, aminority, a man trapped by forces apparently beyond his control. Most importantly, the narrator distrusts life. . I knew the look. He looked me over so he could describe me to the police later. He expects nomore out of life than he expects out of the 7-11. The narrator is an American Indian, a man with no home in theexternal world of the white-dominated United States, and no home inside hisown head: "Sometimes, . I'ddrive for hours, searching for something familiar. I suspect they work better in performance than on the page (Scott 2). Charles Bukowski isanother such writer, with an unadorned style similar to Alexie's, but hiswork is marked by a fondness, even a love for the seamy side of life, and asense of humor about the absurdity of modern existence. This is hardly a new wayto look at modern life, whether one is an American-Indian or a white personor an African-American, male or female, young or old. The only dreamsthe narrator knows are "bad" dreams and he knows how they end, just as heknows that his waking dreams about a dramatically better life will end indisappointment. Neither is theauthor's lean and spare style unique but is rather commonplace among youngwriter's taking a negative, cynical, or harshly realistic perspectivetoward the generally tawdry lives of their down-and-out characters. The very factthat he is intelligent makes his situation that much more tragic, ofcourse. . No, I left her and don't blame her for anything. It's logical (Alexie 24). The "dreams" of which the narrator speaks of at the end of the storyare a crucial part of Alexie's fictional realm. It's logical" (Alexie 24). "Bold, Sexy Stories From Alexie." San Francisco Chronicle,May 21, 2 , 1-4.LaRoe, John. The world of the narrator is a world of overriding distrust amonghuman beings, whether they are customers and cashiers in a conveniencestore, or partners in an intimate relationship: I gave him a half-wave as I headed back to the freezer. . From the very beginning of thestory, the reader is informed by the style, the subject matter and thesetting that this is a story and a protagonist with low energy and lowexpectations: Too hot to sleep so I walked down to the Third Avenue 7-11 for a Creamsicle and the company of a graveyard-shift cashier. Certainly Alexie tries to bewitty, but his rather awkward efforts at humor did not work for thisreader, simply because they seemed forced and deliberately clever. May 21, 2 .http://search1.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/ fastweb?getdoc+book-rev+bookrev-cur+5 15+5+wAAA+alexie. These are victories over a world which does not care about him.In fact, his job involves service to others, so even though he is notreceiving much from the people around him, he is at least able and willingto give something to those people. He is more subdued than Bukowski and lessskilled and/or talented than Carver. Once the reader sees the limitations of the circumstances of theprotagonist's life, and the intentions of the author in portraying thatlife, then the story itself offers "nothing surprising or disappointing."The story and character are marked by lowered expectations at best, noexpectations at worst. He awakens the next morning,gets a job at a "high school exchange program," and continues with hissobriety. From this story, it is likely that the author's overall outlookon the future of American Indians in the same situation is certainly farfrom optimistic, though there are some signs of hope, such as thenarrator's year of sobriety. Whatever the title means, the story itself does not live up to thedrama, irony and volatility of the title. "American Revolutions." New York Times. Of course, there is much that the narrator does recognize, includinghis own responsibility for at least some of his depressing predicament inlife. At this point early in the story, thenarrator/protagonist could be any age or any ethnic background. So manystories, TV shows, and films, when depicting the seamier side of life,close with a "happy ending." Raymond Carver is one writer often associatedwith such a depressing and pessimistic outlook, but his later stories beganto show some hope for his often downtrodden characters. This distrust translates into separation between the variousindividuals and groups depicted in the story, as another source points outwith respect to the book of stories from which this story comes: Against a backdrop of alcohol, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the distances between Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, men and women, and mostly poetically between modern Indians and the traditions of the past ("Sherman Alexie" 4). The reader might not be interested in such a man or his life, butAlexie makes no excuses for focusing his story on him. I walked through that relationship with an executioner's hood. Sherman Alexie's short story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight inHeaven" takes a pessimistic perspective on the life of one American Indiancharacter. Joanna Scott writes of Alexie's short fiction that it might be called slam fiction: short works that seem designed, at least in part, for public performance. There's nothing surprising or disappointing in that. "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." 23-28.Foster, Ken. I worked graveyard for a Seattle 7-11 and got robbed once too often. He may mean in this story that smallvictories over depression, over hopelessness, over racism, over alienation,over alcoholism and indolence, are possible and important in the survivalof individual human beings whose people have been historical victims of afar more powerful force of destruction and genocide. His stories have the quick pace of scripts. There is no center to the story, just as there is no center to thelife of the protagonist. The story is full of references to "traditions of the past," althoughin most cases those references are tinged with sarcasm, as when he refersto "war paint and sharp arrows," symbolically imagining himself in cruelverbal fights with his girlfriend (Alexie 25). Whether or not that is the impact the authorintends, for this reader that is precisely the impact that occurred. Could he mean that his own idea of Heaven (or that ofhis protagonist) would be a full, violent exposure of the hatred and/orinjustice between the whites and American Indians? On the page, however, it seems as if the author means tominimize the energyof the story and the character in accord with the depressed nature of thecharacter's life and environment. Seems like I'd spent mywhole life that way, looking for anything I recognized" (Alexie 24). The title is obviously meant to be ironic.The Lone Ranger and Tonto are allies, one white and dominant, one AmericanIndian and subordinate. The message is clear: this is a whiteman's world, in the late 2 th century, just as it was in the 18th and 19thcenturies. Still, the statement of the narrator's girlfriend, that "I want tochange the world" (Alexie 28), placed as it is at almost the very end ofthe story, certainly suggests that the characters are still consideringthat larger victories are possible, or at least desirable. The narrator himself seems to discount the possibility of achievingany such larger victories, of changing the world, when he says "I know howall my dreams end anyway." The story is, then, an expression of small hopesin "language that lacks intonation," perhaps because a more expressiveintonation and style would suggest more energy, passion and hope than thenarrator and the other characters actually possess. In other words, all his waking dreams for a better life have endedbadly, with disappointment, just as his actual dreams at night end withsuch horrors as the head of a dead American Indian being used as sport bywhites. I know how all my dreams end anyway (Alexie 28). Alexie's title, however, has them as battlingenemies--and in Heaven--equals in battle against one another as they hadnot been as allies. she was a kindergarten teacher and I continually insulted her for that (Alexie 25). The soldiers arrive, randomly kill and terrorize the people on the reservation and gather up the survivors. The story portrays the grittiness of life and the helplessness of theprotagonist to change himself or his surroundings. You don't fit the profile of theneighborhood.'" The narrator says, "I wanted to tell him that I didn'treally fit the profile of the country but I knew it would just get me intotrouble'" (Alexie 24). The story focuses on this distrust and never truly finds anymeaningful trust against which to balance it. To get away from her and their painful relationship, he drivesaimlessly around the city, sometimes becoming lost. But don't get me wrong. The last time the bastard locked me in the cooler. Or, more appropriately, with war paint and sharp arrows. On the other hand, Foster, writing of Alexie's reference to anothercharacter in another story, quotes the author: "He was a white man, andtherefore he could dream" (Foster 3). One of my old girlfriends said I started to look at her that way, too. Perhaps these small victories are all that most individuals in suchsituations can realistically hope for, and that the "language that lacksintonation" of which Scott writes is the language which best fits thosesmall victories and small hopes. In fact, he likelyexpects much more from the 7-11 than out of life. Considerthis passage for example: "When one person starts to look at another like acriminal, then the love is over. The flatness ofthe first sentence is meant to be ironic, but the "It's logical" shows theauthor's heavy hand, having to comment on a line that loses its irony inthe process. That's how it happened. Were he stupid, or without self-awareness, his situation would bedeplorable, but it is even more terrible precisely because he does havesuch self-knowledge, such intelligence, and such dreams which have beenthwarted. 1-3."Sherman Alexie." http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/home/ gfloren/alexie.htm. He drifts through life until he isbeaten in a basketball game by a white man. (Scott 2). "Good" dreams are beyond the realm of thecharacter, as representative of the modern American-Indian. The reader can view this coincidence as adeliberate effect on the part of the writer, or simply a kind of laissez-faire style which matches the passive character of the protagonist. The narrator's self-knowledge and the presence of such phrases as"more appropriately" make clear that he is not a stupid man. As thestory ends: It may take hours, even years, for me to sleep again. Nobody trusts anybody else.American Indians and whites distrust one another; family members distrustone another; lovers distrust one another' customers and cashiers distrustone another. Alexie clearly aims to honor such a man with the attention of hiswriting, and at the same time he refuses to glamorize him with falsetouches. Scott writes of another Alexie story: The narrator, a young Indian boy, dreams that soldiers come to devour his people. I know that game. 'You're making people nervous. He even took my money and basketball shoes (Alexie 23). Oddly, the title--"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"--seems to promise energy, action, and a dramatic telling of an excitingstory, promises not forthcoming. She left me not long after that. The narrator is not entirely helpless, but his life is controlled bythe past, which is beyond his control. . Works CitedAlexie, Sherman. Alexie does not have the stylistic grace of Carver, nor the wildlydark playfulness of Bukowski. The dream comes true. He has become sodisillusioned by life, reduced to such a hopeless state about rising out ofhis depressed circumstances, that he distrusts life itself. . For example, he owns up to his part in the failure of therelationship: She knew exactly what to say to cause me the most pain. He is stopped by thepolice: "'Well, you should be more careful where you drive,' the officersaid. We are immediately in the world of the common man, the man withlittle money, little ambition, and not as much education as perhaps hewanted or could have absorbed (although the narrator identifies himself asa "former college student"). The straightforward, plain, prosaic style isexpressive of the negative outlook on life which permeates theprotagonist's character and his environment, as if the protagonist has noextra energy to try to express himself beyond his surface thoughts andfeelings. Such a fondnessand/or humor is absent from Alexie's story. From the very beginning of the story, this reader also has the sensethat the story as a story is missing something dramatic or meaningful,something that the author might provide through a live reading in which hecan appear to supply such drama or significance in the energy of hispersonality. Scott, however, focuses on the major problem that this reader hadwith this story: "the dramatic situations and desires are expressed inlanguage that lacks intonation" (Scott 3). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.