This study will discuss race and ethnicity, specifically issues related to Native Americans, in two works by Native American writers, Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Louise Erdrich's Tracks. While both works of fiction fully accept the negative consequences of bias and bigotry exercised against Native Americans, Alexie's stories are far more dark and blunt, while Erdrich's novel is far more subtle and nuanced.
The title story in Alexie's collection of stories takes a deeply pessimistic perspective on the life of Native American characters. All of the stories, and especially the title story, are pessimistic, even cynical, though if one looks hard enough there are some signs of hope, such as the narrator's year of sobriety. However, that sobriety does not address the racism faced by Native Americans, but rather seems to say that if Native Americans are to overcome race-based disadvantages and survive, it will be on an individual basis.
The main character in the title story is stopped by the police: "'Well, you should be more careful where you drive,' the officer said. 'You're making people nervous. You don't fit the profile of the neighborhood.'" The narrator says, "I wanted to tell him that I didn't really fit the profile of the country but I knew it would just get me into trouble'" (Alexie 24). The irony is clear: it was the country of the Native Americans, and now they do not even "fit the profile" of that country.
Primarily because of the impact of bigotry against Native Americans which has created a world of disappointment and disadvantage, the narrator ends his account on a hopeless note, despite his hard-won sobriety: "It may take hours, even years, for me to sleep again. There's nothing surprising or disappointing in that. I know how all my dreams end anyway" (Alexie 28).
All his dreams for a better life have ended badly, just as his actual dreams at night end with such horro...