The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Essay Questions

Analyze the character of Norma Many Horses.

Alexie first introduces Norma Many Horses in the story "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona". She plays a very minor role in that story, only appearing briefly to break up a fight between Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire when they are teenagers. However, she becomes a more central character in "Somebody Kept Saying Powwow" and "The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor". Alexie showcases two sides to Norma's personality. On one hand, she is a maternal figure who commands great respect among the tribe, and is a major force in celebrating and sharing Spokane culture. However, the stories also acknowledge her impetuous side – in "Tumor", she impulsively abandons her husband Jimmy and has an affair; in "Powwow," Junior Polatkin describes her long history of sexual affairs before she got married. In both of these stories, the plots are driven by Norma's impulsive behavior (she rejects both Junior and Jimmy based on spur-of-the-moment decisions) and her eventual return to her senses. Over the course of the collection, she demonstrates that even people of strong character can make mistakes, and the true test of their character is whether they are able to make amends.

How does Victor grow and change over the course of the collection?

Victor is portrayed as an innocent child in "Indian Education" and "Every Little Hurricane", but already he is a witness to problems on the reservation like poverty and alcohol-related diseases. As he grows older, he experiences many of these problems firsthand before eventually quitting alcohol and moving toward an uncertain future. He is an ideal vehicle for Alexie to explore life on the reservation because he survives many dark experiences, including alcoholism and problematic relationships with white people, but he gradually becomes more mature over the course of the collection and realizes that he must find solace in creativity and imagination rather than drinking and unhealthy relationships. His relationship with Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a testament to this change. Even though they do not become close after their trip to Phoenix in "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona", the young men are able to put their differences aside for a higher purpose: honoring themselves and their community.

How are Spokane people who live on the reservation different from those who have left it, according to Alexie? How does this difference tie into the collection’s themes?

Alexie suggests that while many Spokane aspire to move off the reservation, life in the outside world can be even harsher. Most of the urban Spokane he portrays are worn down by a life of loneliness and marginalization. Examples of these characters include Jimmy Shit Pants, Samuel Builds-the-Fire, and the narrator of "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven". Alexie explores this difference most explicitly in "Distances", in which the Urbans are weakened by the apocalypse that kills all white people. The implication is that urban Indians have compromised their identity by moving off the reservation. However, Alexie generally does not depict this choice as a betrayal, but rather a gesture of hope. Characters like John-John and Junior Polatkin leave the reservation (or aspire to) because they believe it will help them achieve greater success in life than is possible at home. Leaving or staying on the reservation are both complicated choices.

Alexie refers to Crazy Horse and the battle of Wounded Knee several times in this collection. Why are these references significant?

Alexie depicts Crazy Horse as the epitome of the traditional Indigenous hero. Crazy Horse's heroic fighting in the Battle of Little Bighorn is a well-known part of American history, and he is a symbol of not just heroism and conventional masculinity, but also of rebellion against white hegemony. Throughout the collection, Alexie's characters struggle to live up to Crazy Horse's legacy. In "Crazy Horse Dreams", Victor becomes frustrated when he feels that One-Braid is disappointed because he is not like Crazy Horse. Junior Polatkin has a similar moment when, after being featured in the reservation newspaper for his basketball triumphs, an anonymous source describes him as "Crazy Horse for just a second" (206). By depicting male characters who feel they cannot compare to Crazy Horse, Alexie raises the question of if and how the values that Crazy Horse represents are still relevant, and whether modern Indigenous men need new heroes.

How do you interpret Thomas Builds-the-Fire's stories?

Thomas is a vehicle for Alexie to explore unconventional styles of storytelling. He also injects Spokane history from the past into stories that are, for the most part, very focused on modern life. Although the dominant mode of writing in this collection is clear, concise realism, many of Thomas's stories use more lyrical language. They feature experimentation with chronology and syntax that draws on Alexie's background as a poet. Thomas's stories often take place in a historical setting, be it vague (like the pony-stealing vision in "A Drug Called Tradition") or specific (like the story of Qualchan, a real historical figure). This allows Alexie to explore how the abuse of the Spokane in previous generations influences the lives of his characters in the present day.

In “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore”, Victor and Adrian watch Julius Windmaker’s basketball skills deteriorate. What does Alexie achieve by telling the story from Victor’s perspective rather than Julius’s?

By narrating "The Only Traffic Signal..." from Victor's perspective, Alexie allows us to understand Julius's choices in the context of reservation culture. Victor himself was once a talented basketball player who lost his abilities. Victor and Adrian's commentary reveals that Julius is the latest in a long line of failed athletes, an observation that makes Julius's failures all the more poignant. Narrating from Victor's perspective also allows Alexie to end the story hopefully - it is unlikely that Julius would be able to adopt the same hopeful attitude toward Lucy so soon after his own failure.

Explain the ending of “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”. What is the significance of the section in which Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire drive through Nevada?

The end of "This Is What It Means..." features a reconciliation between Victor and Thomas, who realize that they have more in common than they previously realized. Throughout the story, Victor's flashbacks have emphasized his shared history with Thomas, and he comes to appreciate Thomas's open-minded personality when they spend time together on the trip. The jackrabbit incident in Nevada helps to explain why Thomas also feels closer to Victor. Alexie portrays Victor as a flawed person who sometimes does more harm than he intends. Consider, for example, his beating of Thomas when they were teens and his treatment of Jimmy Shit Pants in "Amusements". Thomas, on the other hand, is relatively peaceful. His accidental killing of a jackrabbit in Nevada demonstrates that even gentle people can unintentionally hurt others, and that everyone makes mistakes. This helps explain why Thomas is willing to forgive Victor for his poor treatment of him in youth.

“Jesus Christ’s Half-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation” takes place between 1966 and 1974. Why do you think that Alexie set it in this time period?

The Vietnam War offers "Jesus Christ's Half-Brother..." a potent political backdrop. The war was a particularly fraught time for many Indigenous people. The 1960s were a hotbed of Indigenous nationalism and activism, and like many young people in general, some Native Americans resented being forced to fight in a war they did not support - and with the added indignity of being conscripted into the military of a government that had oppressed their people for centuries and continued to do so. Seymour feels that he has more in common with the Vietnamese than he does with white Americans, as they are both victims of the United States' imperialistic policies. By setting the story during a historical turning point, Alexie suggests that James may offer a way for the Spokane to transcend the difficult time period. The story's historical setting may also be determined by the fact that James is born in the same year as Alexie himself, 1966. This setting lends both a political and personal context to the story.

What is the role of humor in “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor”?

In "The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor", Jimmy Many Horses describes how humor has helped him cope with many difficult feelings and situations. Jimmy and his wife, Norma use jokes to defuse a tense moment when a racist police officer tries to extort them, and young Jimmy brings a moment of levity to his grandmother's funeral with a well-timed joke. However, Alexie also shows that there are situations in which humor only makes things worse. Although Jimmy confronts his fear of death using humor, this technique unsettles those around him, and many perceive him as insensitive because of it. He alienates people when he makes fun of a recent car crash in which ten Indigenous people were killed, and Norma leaves him when he refuses to stop joking about his terminal cancer. Through Jimmy's experiences, Alexie demonstrates that humor and sensitivity together can help people overcome many obstacles, but it can also be a defense mechanism that communicates a sense of powerlessness.

Analyze Alexie’s depiction of race relations in “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.”

The title's reference to white American pop culture characters implicates white mainstream media. Tonto is a racist caricature that Alexie shows is injurious to Native Americans on a psychological level, as stereotypes can be destructive to one's consciousness. No longer a helpful sidekick, Tonto fights with the Lone Ranger after death - and so too must Indigenous people battle against preconceived notions. The collection's title story addresses race relations more explicitly than much of Alexie's other fiction. In this story, the narrator attempts to make a life for himself off the reservation. He encounters many problems, including being racially profiled at a 7-11 and an inability to get along with his white girlfriend. When he returns to the reservation, he continues to have tense encounters with white people; the humiliation of losing a game of basketball to the white BIA chief's son drives forces him to realize that he must get a job. These interactions are each unique, but together they establish a shadow of fear and distrust that, according to Alexie, his tribe and other Indigenous people must overcome if they are to forge meaningful relationships with white people.