"The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven", Sherman Alexie

Résumé du document

In The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie paints through twenty two short stories a dark picture of Native Americans' today's situation in the United States of America. Published in 1993 by The Atlantic Monthly Press, this book describes the current conditions of livings in the Native Americans' reservations.

On the one hand, I found this book interesting because of Sherman Alexie's particular form of narration and his description of Native Americans' society. But on the other hand, some aspects of the book disappointed me. Indeed, I disagree with Sherman Alexie on the absence of hope and I found that some characters were not enough elaborated.

What I specially enjoyed in The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in Heaven is the particular kind of narration. Firstly, the chronology is shattered, since stories are told in a non chronologic way both inside the short stories and from a short story to another. Indeed, there are many flashbacks in most short stories. Those flashbacks are for instance describing scenes from Victor's childhood, like in "This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona". Between the short stories, there also are is not any chronological continuity.

Extraits

[...] The main character is Victor, and Sherman Alexie portrays him as a child, a teenager, a young adult. The other characters are Victor's relatives and other young people from his reservation, such as Thomas Build-the-Fire. Sherman Alexie could have written only one long story about them, but to my mind, this idea of many short stories is much wealthier. Indeed, it creates a surprise for the reader, who discovers progressively the links between the short stories. For my part, I did not understand from the beginning that the characters were the same in each story. [...]

[...] To my mind, Sherman Alexie's book is too fatalistic. Native Americans have still the possibility to evolve on social and economical terms. Yet I agree on the fact that this evolution is surely very difficult. Then, Sherman Alexie is right to show the real conditions of living in a reservation, since it can increase public awareness of this social issue. This could maybe make it easier for the Native Americans to integrate into the American society. Moreover, I think some characters of this book are not analyze enough deeply. [...]

[...] What I specially enjoyed in The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in Heaven is the particular kind of narration. Firstly, the chronology is shattered, since stories are told in a non chronologic way both inside the short stories and from a short story to another. Indeed, there are many flashbacks in most short stories. Those flashbacks are for instance describing scenes from Victor's childhood, like in “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona”. Between the short stories, there also are is not any chronological continuity. [...]

[...] To finish with, I would suggest not to read the entire book, but at least several short stories. Even if I find the narrative construction of this book brilliant, I think it quickly runs out of steam, insofar as the stories are repeating the same themes. Reading a few stories from Sherman Alexie's work can however give a genuine idea of Native Americans' current situation in the USA. Bibliography : Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in Heaven, Harper Perennial, 1994. [...]

[...] Sherman Alexie gives a specific idea of Native Americans' social position in the USA, which is certainly the position of most minorities. Thanks to this book, I could learn a lot about Native Americans in the USA. What disappointed me in Sherman Alexie's book is mostly the absence of any hope. The themes of the short stories are always the same themes, since Sherman Alexie describes only the poverty, the alcoholism, the despair and the violence. The tone of the book is then very dark and depressive. [...]