The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Last updated
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.jpg
First edition
Author Sherman Alexie
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Short stories
PublisherPerennial/Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication date
1993
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages240 pp
ISBN 978-0-06-097624-8
OCLC 30437035

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a 1993 collection of interconnected short stories by Sherman Alexie. The characters and stories in the book, particularly "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona", provided the basis of Alexie's screenplay for the film Smoke Signals . [1] [2] [3]

Contents

The collection was originally released in 1993; it was reissued in 2003, with two new stories, by Grove Atlantic Press.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, published in 1993 by Atlantic Monthly Press, was Sherman Alexie's breakthrough book. Composed of twenty-two interconnected stories with recurring characters, the work is often described by critics as a short-story collection, though some argue that it has novel-like features similar to Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine. The book's central characters, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, are two young Native-American men living on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and the stories describe their relationships, desires, and histories with family members and others who live on the reservation. Alexie fuses surreal imagery, flashbacks, dream sequences, diary entries, and extended poetic passages with his storytelling to create tales that resemble prose poems more than conventional narratives.

The book's title is derived from one of the collection's stories, which details the experience of a Native American who leaves the reservation to live in Seattle with his white girlfriend and then moves back. The Lone Ranger and Tonto are symbols for white and Native-American identity, respectively. The names are taken from a popular radio show which first aired in 1933, later leading to a series of books and then a television show in the 1950s in which a white man, the Lone Ranger, teams up with an Indian, Tonto, to battle evil in the old west. Alexie, who claims the title came to him from a dream, studs his stories with other references to popular culture to underscore the ways in which representations of Native Americans have played a part in constructing the image they, and others, now have of them. The book's popularity, in part, stems from James R. Kincaid's effusive praise of Alexie's collection of poetry and stories, The Business of Fancydancing (1992), in The New York Times Book Review . With Kincaid's review, Alexie, who had published with small presses, was thrust into the national spotlight. He deftly depicts the struggles of Native Americans to live in a world that remains hostile to their very survival, and he does so in an honest and artful manner. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven earned a PEN-Hemingway nomination for best first book of fiction.

Stories

"Every Little Hurricane"
Victor remembers the hardships of his childhood in the Spokane Reservation, particularly on his ninth year's New Year's Eve party at his parents' home.
"A Drug Called Tradition"
Victor remembers the drug-influenced bouts he and his friends had shared in their wild youths, and the romantic dreams about the Indians' "good old past", but soberly realizes that the dreams of either the past or the future are not what life is about.
"Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock"
Victor reminisces about the few good memories he had of his father before he deserted his family.
"Crazy Horse Dreams"
Victor fails to meet a woman's image of the ideal Indian hero.
"The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn't Flash Red Anymore"
Victor and Adrian discuss the rise and fall of their reservation basketball heroes and the dreams that they carried for their tribemates.
"Amusements"
Victor remembers a trip to the carnival with his friends Sadie and Dirty Joe, and their attempts to indulge in white man's pleasures and thus to cast aside their Indian identity.
"This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona"
After Victor's father has died, Victor travels to Phoenix to collect his father's remains with the help of Thomas Builds-the-Fire. During their journey, Victor learns to his immense surprise that he and Thomas, as different as they are, have actually a lot more in common than he could have imagined.
"The Fun House"
A woman, frustrated by her husband and son, swims in a creek near her house and remembers meeting her husband and the birth of her son.
"All I Wanted to Do Was Dance"
Victor recounts several memories on the reservation.
"The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire"
Because of his tendency to tell uncomfortable truths about the doings of the local Bureau of Indian Affairs and corrupt tribesmen, Thomas is brought before a court, where his compulsive story-telling earn him both a ridiculous verdict and the audience he has long sought.
"Distances"
An outlook on what the Indians would behave like if the white man had been eradicated from their ancient lands by some cataclysm and they would return to their traditions of old.
"Jesus Christ's Half-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation"
The narrator gives account, year by year, of raising Rosemary MorningDove and Frank Many Horses' son James.
"A Train Is an Order of Occurrence Designed to Lead to Some Result"
Samuel Builds-the-Fire, Thomas's grandfather, loses his job on his birthday, reminisces about his storytelling past, and finally, consumed by despair, lays his head in the path of an oncoming train.
"A Good Story"
A story within a story. The narrator, Junior, tells a story to his mother about a man named Uncle Moses telling a story to a young boy named Arnold.
"The First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbecue"
Gives account of several different events taking place on The First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbecue.
"Imagining the Reservation"
A collection of reflections on the importance of imagination for Indian survival.
"The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor"
James Many Horses learns he is dying of cancer and reflects on the history of his marriage to his wife, Norma, who at first does not understand his humorous attitude in the face of his looming demise.
"Indian Education"
Grade by grade Victor remembers his education.
"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"
Caught up in his daily frustration, the unnamed first-person narrator remembers the part of his life when he was living with a white woman and living a life outside the reservation and his Indian self.
"Family Portrait"
Narrator, Junior, discusses several themes of portraits, perspective and memory. What we say versus what we mean. How perspective shapes memory and significance.
"Somebody Kept Saying Powwow"
An ode to Norma. Narrated by Junior.
"Witnesses, Secret and Not"
The narrator and his father travel to Spokane to give an interview with a detective about a lost friend.
"Flight"
(added in 2003 reissue)
"Junior Polatkin's Wild West Show"
(added in 2003 reissue)

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lone Ranger</span> Fictional character

The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Silverheels</span> Canadian Mohawk actor and athlete (1912–1980)

Jay Silverheels was an Indigenous Canadian actor and athlete. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the Native American companion of the Lone Ranger in the American Western television series The Lone Ranger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherman Alexie</span> Native American author and filmmaker

Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coeur d'Alene people</span> Federally recognized Native American tribe in northern Idaho, United States

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe are a Native American tribe and one of five federally recognized tribes in the state of Idaho.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonto</span> Fictional Native American hero

Tonto is a fictional character; he is the Native American companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Tonto has appeared in radio and television series and other presentations of the characters' adventures righting wrongs in 19th-century western United States.

<i>The Legend of the Lone Ranger</i> 1981 film

The Legend of the Lone Ranger is a 1981 American Western adventure film directed by William A. Fraker and starring Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse and Christopher Lloyd. It is based on the story of The Lone Ranger, a Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker.

<i>Smoke Signals</i> (film) 1998 film by Chris Eyre

Smoke Signals is a 1998 coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Chris Eyre from a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, based on Alexie's short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993). The film won several awards and accolades, and was well received at numerous film festivals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Welch (writer)</span> Native American writer and poet

James Phillip Welch Jr., who grew up within the Blackfeet and A'aninin cultures of his parents, was a Native American novelist and poet, considered a founding author of the Native American Renaissance. His novel Fools Crow (1986) received several national literary awards, and his debut novel Winter in the Blood (1974) was adapted as a film by the same name, released in 2013.

<i>The Business of Fancydancing</i> 2002 American film

The Business of Fancydancing is a 2002 film written and directed by Sherman Alexie. It is loosely based on his 1992 book of the same name, a collection of stories and poems.

<i>Winter in the Blood</i> Novel by James Welch

Winter in the Blood is the debut novel of James Welch. It was published by Harper and Row's Native American Publishing Program in 1974. Set on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in north-central Montana during the late 1960s, Winter in the Blood follows a nameless Blackfeet and Gros Ventre (A'aninin) man's episodic journey to piece together his fragmented identity. Welch received praise from such luminaries as Pulitzer Prize-winning Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich, celebrated American novelist Reynolds Price, and Coeur d'Alene author Sherman Alexie. Alexie later produced the film adaptation of the novel, which was released in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chief Thundercloud</span> American actor (1899–1955)

Victor Daniels, known professionally as Chief Thundercloud, was an American character actor in Westerns. He is noted for being the first actor to play the role of Tonto, the Lone Ranger's Native-American companion, on the screen.

<i>Ten Little Indians</i> (short story collection) 2004 short story collection by Sherman Alexie

Ten Little Indians is a 2004 short story collection by Sherman Alexie. The collection contains nine stories all of which focus on the Spokane tribe of Native Americans in Washington state.

<i>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian</i> 2007 novel by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a first-person narrative novel by Sherman Alexie, from the perspective of a Native American teenager, Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior," a 14-year-old promising cartoonist. The book is about Junior's life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his decision to go to a nearly all-white public high school away from the reservation. The graphic novel includes 65 comic illustrations that help further the plot.

<i>Reservation Blues</i> 1995 novel by Sherman Alexie

Reservation Blues is a 1995 novel by American writer Sherman Alexie, a member of the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene tribes.

<i>Indian Killer</i>

Indian Killer is a novel written by Sherman Alexie, featuring a serial killer in the city of Seattle, Washington, who scalps white men. Because of this technique, he is called the "Indian Killer" and rising fear provokes anti-Native American violence and racial hostility.

<i>Green Grass, Running Water</i> 1993 novel by Thomas King

Green Grass, Running Water is a 1993 novel by Thomas King, a writer of Cherokee and Greek/German-American descent, and United States and Canadian dual citizenship. He was born and grew up in the United States, and has lived in Canada since 1980. The novel is set in a contemporary First Nations Blackfoot community in Alberta, Canada. It gained attention due to its unique use of structure, narrative, and the fusion of oral and written literary traditions. The novel is rife with humor and satire, particularly regarding Judeo-Christian beliefs as well as Western government and society. Green Grass, Running Water was a finalist for the 1993 Governor General's Award in Fiction.

<i>The Lone Ranger</i> (TV series) American Western TV series

The Lone Ranger is an American Western drama television series that aired on the ABC Television network from 1949 to 1957, with Clayton Moore in the starring role. Jay Silverheels, a member of the Mohawk Aboriginal people in Canada, played The Lone Ranger's Indian companion Tonto.

The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (NWCA) is an organization of writers who identify as being Native American, First Nations, or of Native American ancestry.

Wellpinit is an unincorporated community in Stevens County, Washington, United States. Wellpinit has a post office with ZIP code 99040. It is the setting of the young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The population of the ZIP Code Tabulation Area for 99040 was 930 at the 2000 census.

<i>The Lone Ranger</i> (2013 film) American Western film

The Lone Ranger is a 2013 American Western action film directed by Gore Verbinski and written by Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. Based on the title character of the same name, the film stars Johnny Depp as Tonto, the narrator of the events and Armie Hammer as John Reid, the Lone Ranger. The story tells through Tonto's memories of the duo's earliest efforts to subdue local villainy and bring justice to the American Old West. William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, Ruth Wilson, James Badge Dale, Tom Wilkinson, Helena Bonham Carter and Curtis Cregan are featured in supporting roles. This was the first theatrical film featuring the Lone Ranger and Tonto characters since William A. Fraker's 1981 film, The Legend of the Lone Ranger.

References

  1. "Stories from the reservation". ICFI. November 20, 1998. Archived from the original on 2006-12-14. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  2. "Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie". Cineaste. Fall 1998. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  3. Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Grove Press: New York, 2005.