The Lone Ranger & Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
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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 that sad fact and try to endure the grind of daily life with a realistic frame of mind. There is no center to the story, just as there is no center to the life of the protagonist. The reader can view this coincidence as a deliberate effect on the part of the writer, or simply a kind of laissez-faire style which matches the passive character of the protagonist. In either case, the result is a story and a man and a life which are far more depressing than hopeful. Whether or not that is the impact the author intends, for this reader that is precisely the impact that occurred. As the story ends:
. . .
y money and basketball shoes (Alexie 23).
We are immediately in the world of the common man, the man with little money, little ambition, and not as much education as perhaps he wanted or could have absorbed (although the narrator identifies himself as a "former college student"). At this point early in the story, the narrator/protagonist could be any age or any ethnic background. He is everyman in the late 20th century whose life seems to have little obvious meaning and whose loneliness prevails to such a degree that he is driven to go to an all-night convenience store for a little live human companionship.
Alexie clearly aims to honor such a man with the attention of his writing, and at the same time he refuses to glamorize him with false touches. The reader might not be interested in such a man or his life, but Alexie makes no excuses for focusing his story on him. He deserves to be portrayed, and to be portrayed as he is, honestly, without adornment, without unrealistic hope, for his life is as worthwhile as a man's who has wealth and happiness and accomplishment.
The world of the narrator is a world of overriding distrust among human beings, whether they are customers and cashiers in a convenience store, or partners in
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2680
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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