(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

The Lone Ranger and Tonto

            
             The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven.
            
            
             Although Alexie resonates some reoccurring ideas throughout his stories, each idea is illustrated in a number of unique and different ways. Through these different ways of communicating with his reader, Alexie is able to effectively communicate his feelings and emotions.
             Each idea or theme is illustrated in a number of unique assertions. The assertion "it's the small things that hurt the most"(pg. 49) illustrates one way one Alexie's themes are played out. When Victor argues that "Indian's can easily survive the big stuff" (pg.49) with the previous assertion he illustrates the hardships Native Americans have had to endure over the past hundreds of years. According to Victor, these hardships include loss of land rights, language, and mass murder but are ultimately underscored by the smaller yet equally hurtful Washington Redskins and Tonto. In the story "Indian Education" Alexie illustrates Victor's hurt throughout his school years. Victor is faced with the oppressing issues of racism and discrimination in society. In each school year Alexie plays out his ideas by stating a conflict Victor has faced over the past years. In these short stories each conflict is part of an overlying theme. The previous assertion "It's the small things that hurt the most" is clearer as one progress through Victor's childhood. The larger conflicts Victor faced in his childhood like death, despair, and poverty are further underscored by other "small things". An example of this is in the eleventh grade Victor misses his free throws; ultimately losing the championship game for his high school. The next day the local paper published the headline "Indians Lose Again". Victor asserts "Go ahead and tell me none of this is supposed to hurt me very much"(pg.179).
             "Color complicated even the smallest events" (pg.87) is another assertion that illustrates another one of Alexie's underlying themes.


Essays Related to The Lone Ranger and Tonto

1. Review of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by S

... thing is that, because of the indigenous subject matter, the harsh reality of the reservation, Alexie gets the reader's immediate attention and an automatic approval. But his obvious talent does not need that. The value of the collection lies in its irony, wit and a poetry. What is also successfully done in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, is confronting the past Indian tradition with today's life on the reservation. In "Every Little Hurricane ... "- the first story-we meet Victor (one of the main characters in the book) as a little boy, going through a terrible time during...

  • Word Count: 868
  • Approx Pages: 3

2. Compare/Contrast movie "smoke signal" with the book "Th

... for Victor, who is tall and silent and has never much liked the skinny, talkative Thomas. But he has no choice. And as the movie settles into the rhythms of a road picture, the two characters talk, and the dialogue becomes the heart of the movie. ``Smoke Signals'' was written by Sherman Alexie, based on his book ``The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.'' He has a good ear for speech, and he allows his characters to refer ... to the real world, to TV and pop culture and the movies. (The reserved Victor, impatient with Thomas ... ...

  • Word Count: 2547
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: High School

3. The theme of Alcoholism in Sherman Alexie

... alcoholic past was returning, she kept telling herself she would not drink it. But her temptation and sadness are just too much, and though she never drinks it in the story, it is implied that she will. In another of Alexie's short stories which is also in The Lone Ranger and Tonto, "The Only Traffic Signal On The Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore", alcoholism is shown as devastating to to ... the Native American people. The story centers around a boy named Julius. Julius is very talented at basketball. Everyone thinks that he will be the best ballplayer the reservation has ever see...

  • Word Count: 1246
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Compare/Contrast movie "smoke signal" with the book "Th

... for Victor, who is tall and silent and has never much liked the skinny, talkative Thomas. But he has no choice. And as the movie settles into the rhythms of a road picture, the two characters talk, and the dialogue becomes the heart of the movie. ``Smoke Signals'' was written by Sherman Alexie, based on his book ``The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.'' He has a good ear for speech, and he allows his characters to refer ... to the real world, to TV and pop culture and the movies. (The reserved Victor, impatient with Thomas ... ...

  • Word Count: 2533
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: High School

5. lone ranger

... preserve many aspects of Chinese culture even further, and truly defining the children of Chinatown, and others in similar situations, as Chinese-Americans. Geographic location can both inhibit and expand the depth of ethnic identity. In the book that I chose to read, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie, this was the chief determinant of ethnicity. In this novel, the main character spends much of his life on ... an Indian Reservation. The Reservation facilitates only Indians, and each inhabitant of the Reservation seems to know what the others are thinking....

  • Word Count: 652
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Al

Racial or ethnic identity could play a major role in one's life. They both represent one's cultural existence. It is that ethnic and racial identity that sometimes shapes people's lives. Some of the cultural barriers and difficulties are represented in the story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" by Sherman Alexie. Alexie's story describes a young Native American male whose ethnic identity became a center of his life. As an Indian ... he was raised on a reservation but often traveled, and lived in a major city; Seattle. The young man's constant journey between the two different ...

  • Word Count: 907
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Lone Ranger Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

... In the novel, The Lone Ranger Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (LRT), Sherman Alexie not only depicted the struggles of the Native American Indians on a Spokane Indian Reservation, but he also tried to weave in their harsh past and unpredictable future. All Native Americans have been treated with cruelty ever since Columbus sat foot on their soil. The so-called, "United States of America," has always been the Native ... centuries: mass killing of the Native Americans. How Americans treated the Native Americans is no different from how the discriminating and egocentric Adolph Hitler treated th...

  • Word Count: 2237
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Biography of Sherman Alexie

... Hendrix, and the Lone Ranger, to accentuate the complexities of his humble characters. According to Leslie Ullman "He weaves a curiously soft-blended tapestry of humor, humility, pride and metaphysical provocation out of hard realities the tin-shack lives, the alcohol dreams, the bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self-destructive courage of his characters." (Ruby, M. 2011). I believe Ullman's comment is right on point. All of the stories in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in ... Heaven challenge the reader intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Alexie seems to have a t...

  • Word Count: 1573
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Common Ground

... , The Lone Ranger. The show is about a masked cowboy who fights crime with his Indian sidekick named Tonto. Tonto was seen as an ignorant, poor person labeled "the Indian." A reference about the television show is made in Smoke Signals when Thomas and Victor save a woman's life, and her friend was thanking them. While thanking the two men she says, "You two are like the Lone Ranger and Tonto". Thomas then replies, "No, it is more like Tonto and Tonto ... ". This dialogue exemplifies the breaking of stereotypes because two ... ...

  • Word Count: 931
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question