THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVENBREAKDOWN, CHAPTERS 1-6

BACKGROUND

• Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington, on the Spokane Indian Reservation

• Critics have noted that the pain and anger of the stories is balanced by his keen sense of humor and satiric wit

• Readers will notice recurring characters, including:

• Victor Joseph, who often appears as the narrator

• Lester FallsApart, the pompous tribal police chief

• David WalsAlong

• Junior Polatkin

• Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the storyteller to whom no one listens

• These characters also appear in Alexie’s first novel, Reservation Blues (1995), so the effect is of a community

STORY BACKGROUND

• Alexie’s writings are similar to the fiction of William Faulkner.

• One reviewer has suggested that The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is almost a novel, despite the fact that Alexie rarely relies on plot development in the stories and does not flesh out his characters

• Stories come close to poetry, just as Alexie’s poems verge on fiction

• The stories range in length from less than three to about twenty pages, and some of the best, like “The First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbecue,” leap from moment to moment, from one-liner to quickly narrated episode, much like a poem

AT ITS CORE…

• Stories of anger, pain, and satire show a current history of life on the reservation, mimicking the structure of traditional Native American stories

• Often haunted by the mythic figure of Crazy Horse and tinged with fantasy

• Why is Crazy Horse significant? FIND OUT.

• Alexie offers hope for survival and reconciliation.

OVERVIEW OF THE NOVEL

• Loosely connected collection of twenty-two short stories

• Describes incidents from the lives of various contemporary reservation Native Americans; stories capture the daily struggles and the occasional victories of the kinds of people Sherman Alexie knows

• Harshly realistic and yet deeply poetic, these stories offer insight into Native American life in America and into the perplexities of the human condition

• The title came to Alexie in a dream. In an interview with Tomson Highway of Aboriginal Voices (January-March, 1997), Alexie stated that the fistfight between the Lone Ranger and Tonto reveals the theme of Native American-White relationships,the "antagonistic relationship between indigenous people and the colonial people."

• Although clearly critical of the whites, these stories use both humor and deeply felt sorrow and love to avoid self-pity

“EVERY LITTLE HURRICANE” NEW CHARACTERS

• Victor

• The main character of several stories; he is nine years old in this opening tale

• Adolph and Arnold

• Victor’s uncles, whose drunken fight during a New Year’s Eve party provides a focal point for the story

• Victor’s father and mother

• The protagonist’s parents, who remain unnamed in this story

“EVERY LITTLE HURRICANE” BREAKDOWN• This first story introduces Victor, his parents, and his uncles, Arnold and Adolph,

who are quarreling during a New Year's Eve party when Victor is nine-years-old, in 1976

• The weather forecast is for a hurricane, and the narrator surveys the bizarre behavior of many of the Indians on the reservation, many of them drunk and angry, recalling some wrong that had been done to them

• The story also contains a flashback to when Victor was five years old and his parents could not afford to buy him anything for Christmas

• Alexie introduces the themes he will develop throughout the book such as the relationship between the real and the imaginary, reservation poverty, and the idea of memory as an index of social and individual identity

• Victor is a fictionalized version of Alexie, as the author has admitted

ANALYSIS• Metaphor of the hurricane and its destruction

• He suggests that the turmoil caused by the hurricane is a product of long-standing disturbances in tribal life that have become habitual, and thus almost normal, on the Reservation.

• Significance of the witnessing • They have become silent “witnesses,” accustomed to watching and not

intervening in violence, because this power has been denied them so often in the past; according to Alexie, “[t]hey were all witnesses and nothing more.”

• In contrast to passive witness, we have Alexie’s alternative— the storyteller • Storyteller is determined to record the history of his life and tribe, even if it is

mostly one of turmoil and suffering; he introduces a theme that will be repeated throughout the book: the potential of storytelling to respond to, and perhaps even resolve, the challenges facing contemporary Native Americans.

• Alcoholism most serious threat in story

QUESTIONS

• What does a hurricane represent in this story?

• What are the hurricanes in Victor’s life that he remembers?

• Why does the hurricane hit on January 1, 1976?

• How are his parents’ relationship and his own unsettled life a reflection of the larger storm/hurricane that has affected the life of Indians on the reservation?

“A DRUG CALLED TRADITION” NEW CHARACTERS

• Thomas Builds-the-Fire

• A key character in the collection who stands apart from his peers for his wisdom and his talent as a storyteller

• Junior

• a wild teenager who plays the role of Victor’s sidekick in this story

“A DRUG CALLED TRADITION” BREAKDOWN

• Thomas Builds-the-Fire is hosting the "second-largest party in reservation history." (see first story for largest)

• Thomas, Junior, and Victor take a ride to Benjamin Lake, where they ingest an unspecified drug and proceed to have visions during which they earn their adult Indian names by stealing horses

• Events from the past frequently bleed into the present during this story, illustrating Victor's claim that "Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is a skeleton walking one step in front of you."

ANALYSIS• Alexie explores American Indian identity, the primary theme from the first story,

by merging events from both the past and the present into a single storyline • Narration is dream-like and visionary • Interruptions to the plot can make it difficult to follow the action; however, a

rhythm and pattern do emerge as the story progresses: • Shifts in time and place are essential to identifying and understanding the

central problem of this tale • Three visions unfold, a contrast is created between different attempts by

young American Indian men “to be hero[es] and earn . . . [their] names.” In the past, the transition to adulthood included stealing horses, dancing, and singing

• In the present, however, manhood is earned mostly by partying—the men must invent experiences that test their endurance and strength; in the absence of the old feats, they take drugs and drink alcohol in order to gain the status otherwise denied them

ANALYSIS• Native American culture and identity seems to be in danger of

extinction • Suggestion that naming might solve problems facing American

Indians is more comic than serious • The naming ritual is just one of many experiences important to

Native American identity • Alexie pokes fun at this fact with Victor’s claim that the drug-

induced hallucinations will “be very . . . Indian. Spiritual shit, you know?”

• Tradition is a drug that the boys must learn to use on their own • This story demonstrates that Victor, Thomas, and Junior each must

create a vision that draws on old knowledge, such as the coming-of-age ritual, but adapts it to new circumstances, such as drug and alcohol abuse on the Reservation

QUESTIONS

• This seems to be a story about taking drugs.. or is it?

• What is tradition and why is it called a “drug”?

• What does Thomas mean when he tells Junior and Victor “not to slow dance with our skeletons”?

• At the end of the story, who is Big Mom and why is a little drum identified as her pager?

• Why does Victor keep near him Big Mom’s drum?

“BECAUSE MY FATHER ALWAYS SAID HE WAS THE ONLY INDIAN WHO SAW JIMI HENDRIX PLAY ‘THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER’ AT WOODSTOCK” NEW CHARACTERS

• Norma Many Horses

• A neighbor who breaks up a childhood fight between Victor and Thomas in these stories and appears in later tales opposite Jimmy and Junior

“BECAUSE MY FATHER ALWAYS SAID HE WAS THE ONLY INDIAN WHO SAW JIMI HENDRIX PLAY ‘THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER’ AT WOODSTOCK” BREAKDOWN

• Victor recounts memories of his father coming home drunk during the 1960s and listening to Jimi Hendrix play "The Star Spangled Banner"

• As a child, Victor would share in his father's drunken ritual, putting the song on the stereo as he walked in the house, and then curling up and sleeping at his feet after he passed out

• Jimi Hendrix, part Cherokee Indian, was a Seattle-born rock and roll star who gained fame for his masterful guitar playing

• He died in 1970 at 27, choking on his own vomit while being taken to the hospital, purportedly due to drug abuse

• Victor recounts that his father's love of Hendrix played a role in the breakup of his parents' marriage, as did his alcoholism and desire to be alone

ANALYSIS• Childhood Memories

• He attests to the presence of both affection and conflict driven by a cycle of drinking, fighting, and lovemaking in his family home

• Victor, an only child, is literally the product of this cycle, “a goofy reservation mixed drink.”

• Music and Abandonment

• most of the moments of connection and understanding between Victor, his father, and his mother are linked to music, especially Jimi Hendrix songs

• Victor’s father leaves one day on a symbol of freedom and adventure, a motorcycle—the abandoned mother and son are left to their own devices and the disapproval of the Reservation

• Victor accordingly becomes a symbol of assimilation for his friends and neighbors, another sign that Native Americans are adopting bad white habits, like abandonment

QUESTIONS

• How does Victor’s father cope with the reality of his life?

• What does Hendrix and Hendrix’s rendition of the national anthem represent?

• Why do Victor’s mother and father split?

• What does Victor tell us about Indian marriages and their break-ups?

• How is Victor affected by his father’s behavior?

• What is Victor’s emotional state at the end of the story?

“CRAZY HORSE DREAMS” NEW CHARACTERS

• An unnamed girl at a powwow

• She seduces Victor

“CRAZY HORSE DREAMS” BREAKDOWN• Victor relates an experience he had with a woman at a

powwow

• He draws on the image of Crazy Horse, a famous Sioux warrior, to show how contemporary Indian men cannot measure up to the ideal of Crazy Horse

• The woman Victor meets at a fry bread stand and seduces him; she wants him to be something he is not

• "His hands were small. Somehow she was still waiting for Crazy Horse."

ANALYSIS• Difficulty with Believing in American Indian Heroes

• The figure of Crazy Horse provides the key reference for “Crazy Horse Dreams”

• Crazy Horse was a famous Sioux Chief who led his tribe to victory over General Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876

• He was eventually captured and executed by the United States Army.

• He remains a key figure in Native American culture and an important symbol in this book—the name of Crazy Horse is often invoked to stand for the quintessential Indian war hero; he is the perfect, fearless warrior

ANALYSIS• Competition

• They seem to be competing with one another rather than engaging in a seduction

• Their banter finally seems to form a bond of shared experience between them

• Suspicion

• Girl desires a better life than Victor can provide

• Bus rides into the city would not be fitting for this suburban girl in the expensive ribbon shirt, who is accustomed to a life of “freeway exits and cable television”

• The story ends with Victor’s departure, a silent admission that he cannot be her Crazy Horse

• This story suggests that Victor is unsure, even insecure, about his identity. The question still remains: How will his life measure up to the models surrounding him, in Native American or white culture?

QUESTIONS

• What does Crazy Horse represent in the story?

• Why can Victor not be Crazy Horse for this Indian Woman who seeks to sleep with her father, Crazy Horse?

• How do Victor and this Indian woman interact?

• What is the nature of their conversation?

“THE ONLY TRAFFIC SIGNAL ON THE RESERVATION DON'T FLASH RED ANYMORE” NEW CHARACTERS

• Adrian

• Victor’s new sidekick in this story, who is about his age and lives on the Reservation

• Julius Windmaker

• The new basketball star on the Reservation, who is fifteen years old

• Lucy

• The new prospect for basketball stardom; a mere third-grader

“THE ONLY TRAFFIC SIGNAL ON THE RESERVATION DON'T FLASH RED ANYMORE” BREAKDOWN

• Victor and Adrian, reformed alcoholics, sit on their front porch, drink Pepsi, and discuss basketball and the reservation's rising star, Julius Windmaker, who, like Victor and other rising stars before him, eventually succumbs to alcoholism

• The story ends with the two having a similar conversation about a talented young Indian girl named Lucy

• Adrian and Victor hope that she can develop her talents and not begin drinking

ANALYSIS

• New Generation of Heroes

• The emphasis in this story is on the status of heroes in his community

• Basketball on Spokane Indian Reservation has always supplied community heroes, even before “James Naismith supposedly invented” the sport

• He clearly intends to reclaim both the sport and its heroes from white dominance

• The challenges that face Native Americans and their cultural heroes, however, complicate this goal and even occasionally make it impossible to achieve.

• Rise and fall of Julius

• Yet the pair displays little surprise when Julius starts drinking and eventually fails;

• They simply redirect their attention to the next up-and-coming prospect, a third-grader named Lucy

ANALYSIS• Survival vs. Success

• It might be difficult to believe in heroes, for Indians are not accustomed to seeing themselves succeed, especially in dominant culture

• Instead, they are busy merely surviving not only the “big stuff,” but also the “small things that hurt . . . [like t]he white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins”

• Alexie suggests that these experiences of racism and oppression themselves bring hope for survival.

• Native American peoples and cultures have endured challenging circumstances against difficult odds

• Moreover, the tradition of storytelling itself reminds them of this fact; stories ensure that heroes, as well as the hope they inspire, are eternal

• Alexie writes: “A reservation hero is a hero forever. In fact, their status grows over the years as the stories are told and retold.”

• Hope vs. Heroes • Victor and Adrian cannot help believing in heroes, much like they cannot stop wishing

for a new traffic light • The final scene offers promise that this cycle will continue; the carefree tossing of the

coffee cup against a rising sun serves as a symbol of hope and happiness to come

QUESTIONS

• What are Adrian and Victor, the narrator, doing in life, in this story? Note the beginning and the end of the story.

• What does Julius Windmaker represent?

• What is the story of the rise and fall of Julius, which is, to a large degree, the same story of the rise and fall of all reservation basketball players?

• What does basketball represent?

“AMUSEMENTS” BREAKDOWN

• Sadie and Victor play a prank on an old drunk Indian called Dirty Joe, putting him on a carnival ride when he passes out

• A security guard chases Victor, who runs into the Fun House and sees his image distorted in "crazy mirrors."

ANALYSIS• Humiliation in the Native American Community

• Range from the racism of whites to the despair of American Indians

• Humiliation is inflicted from both outside and within the tribal community

• Motivation

• The friends dread the prospect of dragging Joe out of the midway and fear mocking—the solution that they devise, the decision to put Joe on the roller coaster, directs their fear and disgust back onto a member of their own community.

• The betrayal of the drunken man highlights the damage that racism has done to this tribe

• Alexie does not, however, excuse this decision; the pair might feel pressured to act inhumanely, but that fact does not decrease their culpability

• Finding such amusement at the expense of a helpless, even seemingly lifeless man is finally not that amusing

• Punishment

• As Victor runs through the fun house and sees his warped reflection in the mirrors, he realizes something in himself, and his culture, has been similarly “distorted” beyond recognition

• He is in danger of losing the “good part of . . . [his] past”

QUESTIONS

• What is the amusement referred to in this story’s title?

• How are Sadie, Victor, and the white carnival goers amused and who is later horrified as he recognizes his own complicity in the exploit of Indians?

• What does it mean that the story ends with Victor running from the security guard and try to escape in the crazy mirror amusement building?

• What does Victor have to say about the reflections of the mirrors?