Essay| “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”

Essay| “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”

“Indians have a way of surviving. But it’s almost like Indians can easily survive the big stuff. Mass murder, loss of language and land rights. It’s the small things that hurt the most. The white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins.”

–Sherman Alexie, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”

Write a two-page response in which you discuss the following questions:

In his short story “Indian Education,” Alexie articulates his own struggles with cultural and racial identity that result from the rampant marginalization faced by Native American in the United States. How does Alexie depict the relationship between Native Americans and white Americans? What do you think is his view of the divide between Native American and white American society and culture?
Alexie makes interesting choices in the form and structure of his writing in “Indian Education.” He offers thirteen scenes of his own experiences growing up as a Native American student in grade school: one for each school grade and a postscript reunion. Why do you think he set these scenes up in separate sections and labeled them with headings, instead of, say, running the sections together and introducing each with a phrase like “During first grade” or “When I was in second grade”? What is the effect of Alexie’s narrative technique? What do you think is the significance of the form and structure choices that Alexie makes? How do these form and structure choices contribute to what Alexie is trying to get across to readers in his depiction of his grade school experience on the Spokane reservation?
Be sure to include specific examples (direct quotes, paraphrases) from Alexie’s text to illustrate your points, and cite these examples in MLA format.

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