The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a book with interesting interconnected short stories with recurring characters throughout the book. The book was first published in 1993 and reissued in 2003 and is written by the American author Sherman Alexie.
The book is about the life of the indigenous people of America and describes the life of the native Americans’ preservations in the US. Specifically, it describes the life of the native American people in the preservation of Spokane in Washington and hence develops upon this main idea to reach an illustration of how the life of native Americans is. The title “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” has a symbolic reference because The Lone Ranger refers to the white man who teamed up with Tonto, the native American man, in a fictional battle to fight evil in the American west. Yet, this is an interesting title as it reflects upon a deep and unrealistic image of how reality is.
The short stories in the book, despite focusing on different ideas, have several general themes that can be generalized over the whole book. However, from the very beginning of the book in the short story “Every Little Hurricane”, the short stories reflect upon the personal relationships and the complexity of those relationships in the local community of Spokane. “Every Little Hurricane” features a fight between Victor’s uncles, the protagonist of the book, which gets him to think about the harsh circumstances and the hardship that people in Spokane have to get through. Moreover, Victor’s thoughts reflect upon the complexity in the relationships among indigenious people of Spokane such as his feelings toward his alcoholic parents and how poverty shaped his life since he was a child.
“Victor imagined that he held an empty box beneath his father’s eyes and collected the tears, helt that box until it was full. Victor would wrap it in Sunday comics and give it to his mother” (p. 32).
This quote reflects not only the complexity of the relationship and the complexity of Victor’s thoughts, but even it illustrates an image of familial love despite the poverty and hardship that Victor as a child went through.
Furthermore, those circumstances that Victor went through, and generally, that apply to everyone in the community of Spokane, have formed people’s life and their relationships with each other. That is, being a member of the native community of Spokane has formed those people’s lives and consequently, their relationships with each other. One relevant chapter that describes this matter is ”This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”. Victor needs money to travel to Phoenix, Arizona to bring his dead father’s body but Victor was short on money and the tribal council offered him 100$. Thomas Builds-the-Fire offered to give Victor the needed amount of money under one condition which is to travel with Victor. This situation and hardship of Victor were not specifically for him only but rather a general phenomenon in the whole community. In other words, being a member of the preservation included being poor, and generally, being in harsh circumstances all the time. That, to an extent, influenced how the relations among community members looked as nobody could offer help to anyone as everyone needed help.
Another aspect that is quite interesting to reflect upon in this context is the violence that characterized many aspects of life in this community of Spokane. Violence is, to an extent, a daily phenomenon in this community. It is illustrated in almost every chapter of this book. For example, the teenager Victor beats Thomas Builds-the-Fire or the verbal aggression in Victor’s relationship with his white girlfriend are just examples of how violence is a structural issue in the life of the native American communities, and specifically, Spokane. In simpler words, the author illustrates violence as belonging to and characterizing all relations of native Americans of Spokane, and wherever they are there will be an act of violence.
Finally, this is an interesting book with interconnected stories that describe the life of the native Americans in the tribal community of Spokane. However, those ideas that reflect upon the theme and belong to the experiences of native people are to be generalized to all tribal communities of indigenous people in the US. Yet, relationships among community members and hardships are important aspects of the book but the central idea of the book still is delivering the experiences of native people in the US and how their life is.